THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The latest swing of the pendulum saw panicked rebel fighters fleeing their fleetingly-held gains in the west of Libya.
"Back to Benghazi!, defend Benghazi!" yelled one young man from the back of his pickup as it tried to force its way through a traffic jam at a squalid checkpoint strewn with rubbish.
Only five days earlier rebels had burst out of their eastern base of Benghazi following a storm of Nato air strikes that had left Col Muammar Gaddafi's tanks and armour as smoking wrecks.
That five-day Libyan rebel offensive ended yesterday in desperate flight as the rebels hour-by-hour deserted all their gains to fall back once again to their stronghold. The total reverse was the latest tilt of the see-saw: eastern rebels have twice approached Col Muammar Gaddafi's home town of Sirte and twice fled back. They are starved of weapons and unprotected by more attacks from British, French and American warplanes. » | Ben Farmer, Ajdabiya | Wednesday, March 30, 2011
THE GUARDIAN: Libya rebels flee as Gaddafi retakes Brega: Government tank and artillery fire forces opposition fighters to abandon ground won since Nato air strikes began » | Chris McGreal in Ajdabiya and James Meikle | Wednesday, March 30, 2011
