Remains of Gaddafi's force smoulders near Benghazi

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Remains of Gaddafi's force smoulders near Benghazi

By Mohammed Abbas | Reuters – Sun, 20 Mar, 2011 9:44 AM EDT

BENGHAZI-AJDABIYAH ROAD, Libya (Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi's wrecked tanks and

other army vehicles smouldered on a strategic road in east Libya on Sunday after

Western powers launched air strikes that galvanised embattled rebels.

Rebels who had been driven back to their stronghold of Benghazi by the Libyan

leader's air, sea and land offensive in the past two weeks were returning in 4x4

pick-ups to the town of Ajdabiyah, the hard fought over gateway to east Libya.

The road the rebels drove was a scene of devastation. This correspondent counted

at least 16 corpses, though the scale of the bombardment made identifying bodies

difficult.

" This is all France ... Today we came through and saw the road open, " said rebel

fighter Tahir Sassi, surveying one area where blackened vehicles lined the road

to Ajdabiyah, about 150 km (90 km) south of Benghazi. Lamp posts were broken in

two or bent double.

About 14 tanks, 20 armoured personnel carriers, two trucks with multiple rocket

launchers and dozens of pick-ups -- all destroyed -- were visible, indicating

the strength of the force sent to retake Benghazi from rebels.

One tank was a blackened wreck with its turret blown off. Another tank, a tank

transporter and armoured personnel carriers smouldered. A few hundred metres

(yards) ahead, munitions were still exploding as flames licked around vehicles

and stores.

Rebels had pleaded for military intervention as they were were pushed back and

after Gaddafi vowed " no mercy, no pity " as he advanced towards Benghazi where

the interim rebel National Libyan Council has its headquarters.

France led the calls for intervention and its planes were the first into Libyan

airspace to launch raids, before U.S. and British warships and submarines fired

Tomahawk missiles overnight against air defences.

About 70 km (45 miles) out of Benghazi, rebels faced small arms fire. Mortar

rounds launched by Gaddafi's forces to the south landed on either side of the

road. Rebels fired back.

'NO MORE RETREAT'

" Gaddafi is like a chicken and the coalition is plucking his feathers so he

can't fly. The revolutionaries will slit his neck, " said Fathi Bin Saud, a

52-year-old rebel carrying a rocket propelled grenade launcher and surveying the

wreckage.

" There is no more retreat, we are going forward from now on, " he said. " Not all

of this is the coalition. We did some of it as well. They encourage us. We were

fighting even before they came. This has raised our morale. "

Rebels, who have mainly relied on 4x4 pickups with machine guns, were heavily

outgunned by Gaddafi before the West acted.

They reached the town of Bin Jawad about 525 km (330 miles) east of Tripoli

before being driven back to Ajdabiyah, more than 700 km from the capital.

Battle debris on the road out of Benghazi showed Gaddafi's forces had nearly

breached the inner parts of the city.

Near Tarria village about 20 km south of Benghazi on the highway to Ajdabiyah,

locals said they had advanced up the road early on Saturday and were only beaten

back by the first foreign air strikes after fighting reached the suburbs.

Civilians and fighters clambered on the ruined tanks, taking photos and picking

through the pockets of the dead.

Mohamed Joma, who said he was a pharmacist, said the planes had struck about 4

am (0200 GMT) that morning.

" Look, the tanks were pointing to Benghazi. They wanted to go to Benghazi. They

did not escape, " he said.

Some of the bodies on the road were charred, others were already covered with

blankets. Some were beside vehicles and one lay inside a destroyed ambulance,

with no sign of those who would have attended him.

Flesh and blood was smeared on the ground at one spot, where there were bandages

scattered on the floor.

Gaddafi's forces about 20 km south of Benghazi appeared to have been taken by

surprise by one air strike on their camp.

Enough bedding and clothes for hundreds of men littered the area for 200 metres

on either side of the road, along with boots, body armour, cigarettes and

cassette tapes.

" Tell the West to destroy Gaddafi slowly, piece by piece by piece, the way he

did to us for 40 years, " said Jamal al-Majbouri, who owns a farm nearby.

(Additional reporting by Angus MacSwan; Writing by Edmund Blair in Cairo,

editing by Mike Peacock)