Friday 11 July 2014

Libya: rebels retreat from Ajdabiya in see-saw battle

The latest swing of the pendulum saw panicked rebel fighters fleeing their fleetingly-held gains in the west of Libya.

"Back to Benghazi!, defend Benghazi!" yelled one young man from the back of his pickup as it tried to force its way through a traffic jam at a squalid checkpoint strewn with rubbish.

Only five days earlier rebels had burst out of their eastern base of Benghazi following a storm of Nato air strikes that had left Col Muammar Gaddafi's tanks and armour as smoking wrecks.

That five-day Libyan rebel offensive ended yesterday in desperate flight as the rebels hour-by-hour deserted all their gains to fall back once again to their stronghold. The total reverse was the latest tilt of the see-saw: eastern rebels have twice approached Col Muammar Gaddafi's home town of Sirte and twice fled back. They are starved of weapons and unprotected by more attacks from British, French and American warplanes.

Fighters camping near the oil town of Ras Lanuf woke to the thunder of rockets and by midafternoon had fled 150 miles, barely halting, to the western gate of Ajdabiya. On Wednesday the road was thronged by a rabble of rebel militia and cars over laden with bedding and civilians, frantic to escape the path of rockets from Gaddafi loyalists.

The 80mph rout briefly came together at checkpoints along the highway, only to disperse once more at the sound of a rolling barrage moving along the road. Rockets, and some said tank fire, followed on the heels of the retreat contributing to the infectious fear which spread unstoppably through the rebel ranks.

Fear fomented rumour and conspiracy. The surprising pace of advance by loyalists was attributed to new weaponry, to flanking attacks and to naval barrages. Ten thousand Gaddafi loyalists were said to be on the march backed by a further ten thousand African mercenaries.

As they fled, many questioned why Nato warplanes were not firing on Col Gaddafi's advancing forces.

"Why are the coalition not helping us?" said 27-year-old Hassan Majberi in a flare of temper. "We were nearly in Sirte, but now we are getting ambushed and hit by rockets. If the coalition had helped, we could have taken Sirte and beyond by now." Without those attacks, the six-week long rebellion was now doomed, several rebel fighters argued.

"If there are no air strikes, all of these people will be dead," said one uniform wearing fighter called Winis Hamden el Abedi gesturing at his comrades lounging by the roadside. "The difference between the two sides is the quality of the weapons. Gaddafi has more advanced weapons, more guns and more soldiers. There's no way we can stop them on our own."

Mr el Abedi, 39, added: "If we had better weapons, maybe we could, because our morale is better than theirs."

But there was also an apparent lack of leadership, trained fighters and discipline among the rebellion. Soldiers who had defected from the army and those with army backgrounds, together comprising the rebels' most effective fighters, tried and failed to rally the young volunteers. They were too shaken by the suddenness of the counterattack.

Early on Wednesday, the rebel front line had stood at Ras Lanuf and at around 8am the first rockets landed, spreading terror through the inexperienced rebels. "They were landing almost on top of us, they must have had spies with telephones telling them where to shoot," said 23-year-old Munir Abdullah, still agitated several hours later.

Ras Lanuf's refinery had offered the rebels the possibility of funding their insurrection and cash-starved administration, but by midmorning it had been left to advancing Gaddafi loyalists.

The young untrained volunteers who make up the majority of the force paused on the edge of the town only to panic again as more rockets fell.

Even though the rockets had a range of up to 20 miles, the pace of their advance surprised the fighters and deepened their panic.

The next town of Brega was barely contested. The first rockets that fell renewed the rout.

Along the road to Ajdabiya several times the convoy tried to gather itself, only to turn tail with the thump of explosions on the horizon.

At the western gate of that town the more military-minded rebels finally managed to get a grip on their wild comrades.

Truck mounted anti-aircraft guns were formed up behind a sand berm, their barrels pointing eastward.

Inside the town, the residents were not waiting to see if the pendulum would once again swing back and were packing their cars for the drive to Benghazi.

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