Rebels suffer crippling defeats

BREGA, Libya — The rebels were in full retreat Wednesday as a parade of pickup trucks fled eastward from the oil town of Ras Lanuf, which forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi took the night before in a barrage of heavy shelling and rocket attacks.

The convoy of retreating militias, unarmed volunteers and random teens fled to the next trash-strewn gas station before another barrage pushed them back again. By mid-afternoon rockets struck Brega itself and the flight continued to the gates of Ajdabiya, a city the rebels had taken with the help of allied air strikes only three days before.

Losing Ras Lanuf and Brega, each now bombed-out and abandoned cities, is a huge blow to a revolutionary force that had expected only days ago to launch an offensive on Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirt and then move on to Tripoli.

The defeats gave new urgency to an ongoing debate among allies about whether or not to arm the rebel fighters, a move that would escalate their involvement beyond the NATO-led air strikes that had been taking place.

U.S. President Barack Obama said a negotiated settlement to end the conflict is still on the table if Gaddafi were to stand down, but supplying weapons to anti-government fighters could be an alternative route.

"I think it's fair to say that if we wanted to get weapons into Libya, we probably could," Obama told ABC News. "We're looking at all our options at this point."

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron echoed his comments, saying that arming the rebels was a legal extension of the U.N.-mandated action in Libya and would not violate an arms embargo.

"Our view is that this would not necessarily rule out the provision of assistance to those protecting civilians in certain circumstances," he told Britain's parliament. "So … we do not rule it out but we have not taken the decision to do so."

Rebel fighters, perhaps attempting to soften the blow of their setbacks, speculated about what new weapons Gaddafi was using and who the spies were that had surely infiltrated the rebel force.

The truth appears to be more obvious — the rebels use the one main east-to-west highway for all their supply lines and to launch their attacks, and while they were able to hurl missiles and heavy machine gun bullets back into Ras Lanuf last evening, the loyalist forces are easily able to overpower anything the rebels now have at their disposal.

“It’s a back and forth. They have heavy artillery, we hoped for air strikes,” said Adil Sanfaz, a grocer by trade and father of five children. “There was none today. [Gaddafi’s] showing his muscle.”

Planes were heard overhead around 11 a.m. Wednesday but the force that had arrived to try to retake Ras Lanuf was halted some 20 kilometers away by Gaddafi’s still-formidable firepower.

By late afternoon, families were seen fleeing Ajdabiya as well, heading back toward Benghazi, the rebel stronghold that had been under siege by Gaddafi’s forces before the air strikes began two weeks ago. Lines of cars, packed with clothes and young women, jammed the road out of town.

A first aid volunteer, Faraj Ali, 46, said at least two men were wounded in Ras Lanuf and two in Brega today. More casualties were avoided, she said, because Ras Lanuf is deserted. Families from Brega, who had just returned yesterday, also fled, crowding onto the chaotic highway.

At the gates of Ajdabiya, some eager young soldiers — frustrated by the lack of progress — argued about what to do next. Some wanted to rush back toward the front, despite their lack of weapons. An older man said the they should not go forward and waste their lives.

“I want to die!” one of the young men said. But he was held back.

The scene highlighted the growing tension and frustration among the rebel ranks, which are becoming more and more aware that they are going to need more than just air strikes from the international community if they are going defeat Gaddafi and push all the way to Tripoli.

The rebel army, really, is not an army at all. It is a collection of civilian volunteers who have little to no military training. A command structure is almost non-existent.

There are hundreds of teens on the front lines armed with nothing but sneakers, cigarettes and maybe a bed roll. One carried antiquated binoculars and an empty pistol holder. A 17-year-old named Madi said he was at the front lines just to hang out.

The older and better-armed fighters were using what appeared to be an old Libyan Army base as a staging point outside Ras Lanuf on Wendesay. One group of six men in a windshield-less Toyota strapped with a 106-mm cannon, ammunition and bags, stopped to coordinate with other similarly armed trucks.

Adil Alassi, a bearded man who acted as their commander, led the first truck. Alassi’s group was a random collection of ages and occupations, among them a fisherman, a photographer and a volunteer from Egypt.

The older rebels, like Salem, 42, dressed more militarily than some of the younger ones like Akram Swaib, 21, who resembled a fashion model. He said he began his revolutionary career throwing rocks at Gaddafi police in his hometown of Beda.

These various groups operate semi-independently, pouring their own gas from a commandeered gas station.

Members of these groups seem to come and go, but there is a core that always remains. One grizzled looking soldier, Khalid El-Jani, 42, said he fired back into Ras Lanuf at 1 a.m. last night and slept in Brega.

“There’s different groups, but always the same weapon,” referring to the four-barreled anti-aircraft gun that’s metal seat he was perched in.

No rebel commander will give any estimates on the number of forces they command and they probably don’t know. Another commander, Abdul Mana El Ruweity, 42, who said he has a master’s degree in marketing, has been in charge for all of 10 days.

There also appears to be a growing number of fighters coming who call themselves mujahedeen. Truckloads of men, many of them sporting long beards, said they had come to fight in the name of God.

“I don’t want to be famous, one 21-year-old from Derna said, “I do this for God.”

“I just want to pray,” said Asad Abidi, 33. “Gaddafi said we can’t pray.”

All the rebels can pray for now is for a new round of air strikes, and maybe some new weapons, to again stop Gaddafi’s advance toward Benghazi.