Rebels fighting the forces of Muammar Gaddafi in the east of Libya retreated from the oil town of Brega on Sunday after heavy bombardment delivered government forces another battlefield success. “The rebels have left Brega. It is evacuated,” said 33-year-old anaesthesiologist Osama Jazwi.
At about 10:30 a.m. (0830 GMT) the bombardment started. “We saw, it was on the main gate,” Jazwi told Reuters by telephone. Abdul Hakim, also a resident of the bombarded town, told Reuters that the rebels had left.
There were no details of the Gaddafi forces attack immediately available. Earlier, Libyan television had said that the rebels had retreated. “Brega has been cleansed of armed gangs,” a military source was quoted on Libyan state TV as saying.
At the nearby town of Ajdabiyah, retreating rebel soldiers were demoralised. “He’s out of Brega. He’s on the way, maybe in half an hour his rockets will reach us here,” said rebel fighter, Masoud Bwisir, at the western gate of the town. “There’s no uprising any more,” said rebel Nabeel Tijouri, whose heavy machine gun had been destroyed in the fighting.