Gaddafi forces push Libya rebels into eastern town

Four rebel fighters are killed as Gaddafi loyalists push battle eastward toward crucial rebel stronghold of Ajdabiyah.

By REUTERS

APRIL 10, 2011 13:23

AJDABIYAH, Libya, - Forces loyal to

Muammar Gaddafi killed four rebel fighters in a battle for

control of the strategic east Libyan town of Ajdabiyah, rebels

said on Sunday. A Reuters witness near Ajdabiyah's eastern gate heard

shooting and artillery fire and saw plumes of black smoke,

suggesting Gaddafi's forces had pushed towards the center of the

town that is a gateway to the rebel-held east.

A wounded fighter was hauled bleeding into an ambulance.

"There is resistance inside the city. Gaddafi forces are

fighting with rebels. They have a presence inside," said a rebel

at a checkpoint on Ajdabiyah's eastern fringes.

Insurgent Hassan Bosayna said eight Gaddafi fighters and

four rebels were killed in fighting on Saturday, with one of the

rebels shot in the forehead by a sniper.

Another rebel, Muftah, said: "There are Gaddafi forces

inside Ajdabiyah in sand-colored Land Cruisers and we know

there are Gaddafi snipers in civilian clothing in the city as

well."

Rebels were firing rockets from pick-up trucks into the

desert on the outskirts of the town in a possible attempt to

stop any flanking maneuver by Gaddafi loyalists.

One had clambered atop a telephone mast and was peering

towards the town through binoculars.

The mostly untrained rebels have tried to reorganize and

re-equip but were unable to hold their ground last week against

Gaddafi's better-armed forces in the oil terminal of Brega, west

of Ajdabiyah.

Ajdabiyah is the last major town on the Mediterranean

coastal road before the rebel stronghold of Benghazi to the

north and the major oil terminal of Tobruk further east.