Libyan rebels rout Gaddafi forces in strategic town

AJDABIYAH, Libya (Reuters) – Libyan rebels backed by allied air strikes retook the strategic town of Ajdabiyah on Saturday after an all-night battle that suggests the tide is turning against Muammar Gaddafi's forces in the east.

Western warplanes bombed the outskirts of Misrata further west to stop Gaddafi forces shelling the city, a rebel spokesman said. One inhabitant said 115 people had died in Misrata in a week and snipers were still shooting people from rooftops.

In Ajdabiyah, rebel fighters danced on tanks, waved flags and fired in the air near buildings riddled with bulletholes. Half a dozen wrecked tanks lay near the eastern entrance to the town and the ground was strewn with empty shell casings.

There were signs of heavy fighting at Ajdabiyah's western gate. The decomposing bodies of more than a dozen Gaddafi fighters were scattered on the ground. An abandoned truckload of ammunition suggested Gaddafi forces had beaten a hasty retreat.

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Troops kill Tripoli protesters as revolt swells

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – Government forces shot dead two protesters in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Friday, Al Jazeera television reported, as a popular uprising against Muammar Gaddafi closed in on his main power base.

Pro-Gaddafi forces opened fire after hundreds of people in the Janzour district in western Tripoli started a protest march after Friday prayers, a resident, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters in an email.

He said protesters were also shouting anti-Gaddafi slogans in Fashloum in the city's east, and another resident said security forces had fired into the air there.

Al Jazeera said two people had been killed and several wounded in heavy shooting in several districts..

Tripoli and the surrounding area, where Gaddafi's forces had managed to stifle earlier protests, appear to be his last main stronghold as the revolt that has put the east under rebel control has also reportedly advanced through the west.

Zawiyah, an oil refining town on the main coastal highway 50 km (30 miles) west of Tripoli, has on successive nights fought off attempts by government forces to take control, said witnesses who fled across the Tunisian border at Ras Jdir.

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