REUTERS: Libyan rebels repulsed a land and air offensive by Muammar Gaddafi's forces as the defiant leader warned foreign powers of "another Vietnam" if they intervened in his country's popular uprising.
Rebels in their eastern bastion of Benghazi called for U.N.-backed air strikes to halt attacks by African mercenaries they say Gaddafi is using against his own people.
Government troops, backed by air power, launched an attack on Wednesday and briefly captured Brega, an oil export terminal 800 km (500 miles) east of Tripoli.
Opposition forces took back the town they have held for about a week, rebel officers said. They were ready to move west toward the capital, they said, if Gaddafi refused to quit.
Basking in the adulation of loyalists in Tripoli, Gaddafi, Libya's leader for the last 41 years, launched into a tirade against the "armed gangsters" he said were behind the unrest, part of a conspiracy to colonize Libya and seize its oil.
"We will enter a bloody war and thousands and thousands of Libyans will die if the United States enters or NATO enters," Gaddafi told Tripoli supporters at a gathering televised live.
"We are ready to hand out weapons to a million, or 2 million or 3 million, and another Vietnam will begin." >>> Mohammed Abbas | Brega, Libya | Wednesday, March 02, 2011
THE GUARDIAN: Battle for Bregga could mark start of real war in Libya: At least six people die as eastern town fights off attack by pro-Gaddafi forces >>> Martin Chulov in Bregga, eastern Libya | Wednesday, March 02, 2011
