Libyan rebels told: Surrender or run away
Airstrikes and bombardments from warships, tanks and artillery were used as he tried for the first time to take back a city in the opposition’s heartland of eastern Libya.
Rebel fighters rushed to the front as mosques in Ajdabiya broadcast pleas for help to defend the city.
But the opposition was suffering from a lack of weapons.
“They don’t have the arms, but they have the will to fight,” said Lt Col Mohammed Saber, an army officer who defected to the uprising.
The assault on Ajdabiya came after Gaddafi’s forces took back the last rebel town west of Tripoli. With the victory in Zwara, a seaside town 30 miles from the Tunisian border, the regime has largely consolidated its control in the west, where only weeks earlier its rule seemed to be crumbling.
The only other opposition-held city in the western half was under a punishing blockade, its population running out of supplies.
The dramatic turn in Gaddafi’s fortunes has outpaced French and British efforts to build support for a no-fly zone, which seemed to fall apart yesterday in the face of German opposition and US reluctance.
Gaddafi said he expects victory, saying the rebels’ options are closing: “There are only two possibilities: Surrender or run away.”
Gaddafi said he was not like the Tunisian or Egyptian leaders, who fell after anti-government protests. “I’m very different from them. People are on my side and give me strength.”
Ajdabiya is a crucial gateway to the eastern half of the country, which the opposition has held since the uprising began on February 15. If Gaddafi’s troops are able to capture the city of 140,000 people, the way would be open from them to assault Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city and effectively the opposition’s capital, 225km away from Ajdabiya.
Ajdabiya is a key supply point for the rebels, with ammunition and weapons depots that they used in their previous advance west toward Tripoli, an advance that has now turned into a retreat. Until now, the Gaddafi offensive in the east has battled over two oil ports on the Mediterranean, and Ajdabiya is the first heavily populated city they have tried to retake.
Gaddafi’s forces reached the outskirts of Ajdabiya in the afternoon, pounding the city entrance with long-range missiles, tank fire and airstrikes.
Rebels had fortified the western entrance, expecting an attack there, but were surprised to find troops attacking a southern entrance at the same time.
In Paris, efforts for a no-fly zone stalled and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe suggested that events on the ground in Libya have already outpaced diplomatic efforts.
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