THE GUARDIAN: Government troops close in on centre of resistance as western powers continue deliberations on whether to aid oppostionLibya's revolution was facing collapse as Muammar Gaddafi's forces broke through the last major line of resistance before Benghazi, the heart of the uprising and the seat of the rebel administration.
Pro-Gaddafi troops pushed back the rebels in an air and land assault on the town of Ajdabiya, as the regime moved to crush the revolution once and for all before foreign powers could agree measures in support of the uprising, including a no-fly zone.
The rebels had pledged a vigorous defence of Ajdabiya but swiftly lost control of large parts of the town, including the strategically important coastal road, although pockets of fighting continued. The regime's advance leaves the road open to Benghazi, 90 miles away, where there was growing alarm as word of the assault spread.
"The battle is lost. Gaddafi is throwing everything against us," a rebel officer who gave his name as General Suleiman told Reuters.
The revolutionary leadership promised a fight to the death but some Benghazi residents were fleeing to the Egyptian border last night amid considerable bitterness at the failure of western countries to back up vocal support for the rebels with practical help, including a no-fly zone and military equipment to fight Gaddafi's better armed forces, some of them trained by the British army.
"They have betrayed us," Ahmed Malen, one of the revolutionary volunteers pasting anti-Gaddafi posters on walls in Benghazi. "If they kill us all, the west will have blood on its hands. They do not believe in freedom. They are cowards." » | Chris McGreal in Benghazi | Tuesday, March 15, 2011
