Libyan rebels claim victory in Brega (VIDEO)

BENGHAZI, Libya — Rebels are claiming victory in the key oil town of Brega after the help of allied air strikes.

Gen. Amed Gitrani said rebels took the town late on Friday night. The rebel forces besieging the town were armed with longer-range rockets than in previous assaults.

“Air strikes are still the main factor to win the victory,” Gitrani said. He said the allies target Gaddafi’s tanks first, and then “everything else they can hit.”

Rebels had taken the eastern town of Brega last Saturday, with the help of allied air strikes, before losing the town on Wednesday to forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The rapidly shifting battle lines are nothing new in Libya, where there are no natural defenses to obstruct tank movements. One German general described the flat landscape as a “tactician’s paradise and a quartermaster’s hell,” according to the Library of Congress’s archives on the battles fought in Libya during WWII.

On Saturday, the Libyan government rejected the rebels' conditions for a nationwide ceasefire, calling the proposal "mad."

"They are asking us to withdraw from our own cities," government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told Al Jazeera. "If this is not mad then I don't know what this is. We will not leave our cities."

He said that troops loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi will remain where they are.

Forces loyal to Gaddafi have been battling rebels for weeks as each side tries to take control over the North African country.

The rebels had said they would agree to a ceasefire if troops loyal to Gaddafi pulled out of opposition-held towns and Gaddafi allowed peaceful demonstrations, Al Jazeera reports.

Fighting intensified Friday over Misurata and Az Zintan in the west.

Rebels said Gaddafi's forces bombarded Misurata, killing and maiming civilians, Reuters reports.

"They used tanks, rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds and other projectiles to hit the city today. It was random and very intense bombardment," Sami, a rebel spokesman, told Reuters. "We no longer recognize the place. The destruction cannot be described."

Gaddafi's government also accused Western leaders of killing civilians and committing crimes against humanity, Reuters reported.

"Some mad and criminal prime ministers and presidents of Europe are leading a crusade against an Arab Muslim nation," government spokesman Ibrahim said.

Al Jazeera reports that seven civilians were killed and 25 injured in what appeared to be a NATO-led strike on a pro-Gaddafi vehicle in the village of Argkuk, near Ajdabiya. Ammunition in the vehicle exploded. The incident led to a condemnation of the West by Ibrahim.

In a separate incident, a coalition plane enforcing a no-fly zone may have accidentally killed 10 Libyan rebels late Friday night, BBC reports.

The rebels were traveling from Ajdabiya to Brega when they fired into the air with an anti-aircraft gun, possibly in celebration. The coalition plane opened fire on the five vehicles in the convoy, destroying them.

Meanwhile, the United States said it will pull its jet fighters out of the international air campaign in Libya on Saturday, leaving NATO partners to take over air strike responsibilities as well as any effort to train Gaddafi's opposition.

Announcing the U.S. exit strategy to Congress, Defense Secretary Robert Gates also vowed that there would be no American troops on the ground in Libya "as long as I'm in this job," despite the fact that Gaddafi will "kill as many [people] as he must to crush the rebellion."

Gates and Joint Chiefs chairman Adm. Mike Mullen told the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday that the United States still did not have enough good information about who the opposition forces were.

"My view would be, if there is going to be that kind of [training] assistance to the opposition, there are plenty of sources for it other than the United States," Gates said.

— Hanna Ingber Win, Freya Petersen