Libya: Rebels regain control of key city

Libyan rebels have regained control of the eastern gateway city of Ajdabiya after international airstrikes on Muammar Gaddafi’s forces.

Saif Sadawi, a 20-year-old rebel fighter with an RPG in his hands, said the city’s eastern gate fell late on Friday and the western gate fell at dawn today after airstrikes on both those locations.

“All of Ajdabiya is free,” he said.

People are driving through streets, honking car horns in celebration in the city, which has been under siege for over a week.

Ajdabiya’s sudden fall to Gaddafi’s troops spurred the swift UN resolution authorising international action in Libya, and its return to rebel hands came after a week of airstrikes and missiles against the Libyan leader’s military.

On the road into the city today, at least eight blackened Gaddafi tanks lay on the ground.

The UN Security Council authorised the operation to protect Libyan civilians after Gaddafi launched attacks against anti-government protesters who demanded that he step down after 42 years in power.

The airstrikes have sapped the strength of Gaddafi’s forces, but rebel advances have also foundered, and the two sides have been at stalemate in key cities.

Earlier yesterday, British and French warplanes hit near Ajdabiya, destroying an artillery battery and armoured vehicles.

Ajdabiya, the gateway to the opposition’s eastern stronghold, and the western city of Misrata have especially suffered because the rebels lack the heavy weapons to lift Gaddafi’s siege.

Today, rebels in Ajdabiya hauled away a captured rocket launcher, adding to their limited firepower.

On Friday, the US commander in charge of the overall international mission, Army General Carter Ham, said, “We could easily destroy all the regime forces that are in Ajdabiya,” but the city itself would be destroyed in the process.

“We’d be killing the very people that we’re charged with protecting.”

Instead, the focus was on disrupting the communications and supply lines that allow Gaddafi’s forces to keep fighting in Ajdabiya and other urban areas like Misrata, Gen Ham said in a telephone interview from his US Africa Command headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany.

The turnaround in Ajdabiya is a boost for US President Barack Obama, who has faced complaints from lawmakers from both parties that he has not sought their input about the US role in the war or explained with enough clarity about the US goals and exit strategy. Mr Obama was expected to give a speech to the nation on Monday.

Despite the air strikes and today's turnaround in Ajdabiya, forces loyal to Gaddafi remain a real threat to civilians, according to Pentagon officials in the US, who are considering expanding the firepower and airborne surveillance systems in the military campaign.

Giving his weekly radio address after the rebels regained control of the city, President Barack Obama said: “Every day, the pressure on Gaddafi and his regime is increasing.”

In an email statement he added that control of the no-fly zone was being handed over “to our Nato allies and partners, including Arab partners like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates”.