Qadaffi Forces Continue To Make Gains
The Washington Post reports:
RAS LANUF, LIBYA - Moammar Gaddafi's forces pushed farther eastward Saturday toward a strategic port city, pounding terrain with airstrikes and rockets and delivering a setback for Libya's rebels.
By Saturday night, the front line had been pushed back to the city of Brega, 77 miles east of Ras Lanuf, which only seven days ago was seized by rebel forces, who vowed to march on to the capital, Tripoli. The swift gains by Gaddafi's forces underscored their superior military capabilities against the ragtag rebel force, which lacks firepower, organization and training.
Gaddafi's forces appear to be systematically targeting each rebel-controlled city along the Mediterranean coast, pushing closer to Benghazi, where a provisional leadership to replace Gaddafi's regime has been established.
In Ras Lanuf, which fell to government forces Friday night, there were signs everywhere of the rebels' hasty retreat, including burned-out pickup trucks mounted with antiaircraft guns and ammunition boxes scattered along the road leading into the city.
A plume of dense black smoke from a burning storage tank at the nearby refinery, Libya's largest, hung over the city and drifted along the coastal highway for miles. Government officials said rebels had taken shelter in the refinery and sabotaged the tank as they fled, though that could not be independently confirmed.
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