Gaddafi’s jets drive rebels out of key town into desert

The United States, meanwhile, was sending its top diplomat to make contact with Gaddafi opponents in Paris, as it and other world powers considered trying to ground his air force with a no-fly zone.

Rebel officials in their stronghold of Benghazi said that Brega, the site of a major oil terminal, came under heavy shelling yesterday.

Libyan state television and a military spokesman said government troops had retaken the town, and several rebel fighters heeding orders to fall back under the heavy bombardment said the town slipped out of their control.

The loss of Brega is the latest in a series of setbacks for opposition forces who just a week ago held the entire eastern half of the country and were charging toward the capital, Tripoli.

Gaddafi’s troops have reversed many of those early gains, bearing down on the rebels with superior firepower from the air.

The rebels are fighting to oust Gaddafi from power after more than 41 years, inspired by protesters who toppled authoritarian rulers in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt. However, the Libyan uprising has already proved much more violent, and could be the start of a bloody civil war.

Gaddafi’s forces pushed the front line miles deeper into rebel territory on Saturday to just 25 miles outside Brega. Sunday’s state TV report declared the city has been “cleansed from armed gangs”.

While those military forces still loyal to him appeared to have seized back some momentum, Gaddafi is becoming more internationally isolated.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was set to leave yesterday for a trip to Europe and the Middle East to establish the Obama administration’s highest-level contacts with the Libyan opposition.

She plans to see foes of Gaddafi in Paris on Monday to assess their capabilities and intentions.

The Arab League has also shunned the Libyan leader and asked the UN Security Council Saturday to impose a no-fly zone.

In surprisingly aggressive language, the 22-member bloc said the Libyan government had “lost its sovereignty” and asked the United Nations to “shoulder its responsibility” and impose the restriction.

The rebels have called for a no-fly zone as well, saying they are no match for the regime’s largely Russian-equipped air force.

The US and many allies have expressed deep reservations about the effectiveness of a no-fly zone, and the possibility it could drag them into another messy conflict in the Muslim world.

Western diplomats have said Arab and African approval was necessary before the Security Council voted on imposing a no-fly zone, which would be imposed by Nato nations to protect civilians.

A military spokesman told reporters in the capital that Brega was under government control today.

Milad Hussein said rebels there and in other towns taken back in recent days were given the chance to surrender their weapons.

“If they did, they were left alone. If they didn’t, there was an exchange of fire,” he said.

Rebels said government forces conducted strikes on the town with aircraft, tanks and naval ships off the coast. One fighter who agreed to be identified only by a first name, Ahmad, said he was in Brega this morning and retreated when the shelling intensified.

“There was a military order to fall back,” he said, speaking by phone from the city of Ajdabiya, 50 miles to the east.

He said he heard later from other fighters that the government took control of the town.

With much of the fighting in the east taking place along a coastal highway bounded by strips of desert, there are few places for the rebels to take cover, forcing them to withdraw under fire before attempting to surge back.

A rebel soldier in charge of supplies, who insisted on speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, also said their forces were now concentrated three miles east of Brega in a seaside village. They hoped now to stop Gaddafi’s forces from advancing to the next significant city to the east, Ajdabiya, he said.

Control of Brega was crucial because their forces had been using fuel from the site, he said. He claimed a government rocket hit a hospital in the onslaught, forcing doctors to evacuate the wounded.

Also today, Gaddafi’s forces appeared to edge closer to Misrata, battling rebel fighters on the outskirts of Libya’s third-largest city, 125 miles south-east of Tripoli, residents reported.

Abdelfatih Ahmed of the rebel coalition in Misrata said a tank shell hit a residence for medical staff at the city hospital. He said some were killed and dozens were wounded, but he did not have precise figures.

AP 131844 MAR 11