16:32
Reportage
Last night Gaddafi loyalists were once again closing in on the key town of Ajdabiya, which they had abandoned on Saturday in the face of devastating coalition airstrikes. Ras Lanuf and Bin Jawad had already fallen again.
As civilians began to flee there were reports that fresh Nato air raids were being carried out against the regime advance.
How things change: The rebels stream up the road on Monday towards Ras Lanuf after international air strikes forced Gaddafi's forces to retreat
Family affair: A large group of children and women sit on the back of a pick-up as they flee towards Benghazi
Rebels had earlier complained that they were not getting the air support they needed.
Their headlong retreat took place as foreign powers debated the legality and practicalities of supplying them with weapons.
U.S. President Barack Obama said he was ‘not ruling it out’ while David Cameron said that the UN Security Council resolution might allow for the arming of Libyan civilians to protect themselves against Gaddafi.
However Russia warned the West against taking such a step, accusing allies of already overstepping their remit.
Any decision on the supply of weapons would be too late to affect the current crisis in the rebels’ seesaw fortunes Once again, it seems only heavy Nato airstrikes can redress the balance on the ground. By Monday the rebels had advanced to within 75 miles of Gaddafi’s home town of Sirte, following a blitz of Gaddafi armour and artillery by the RAF and allied air forces.
Spirits not so high An injured Libyan rebel fighter is helped by comrades while a rebel driver wears goggles on the high-speed retreat from Ras Lanuf
Mad Max-style: Rebel fighters look out from their vehicle on the road between Ajdabiyah and Brega
They even claimed to have taken Sirte itself. There was giddy talk of Tripoli within days.
But since then the rebel volunteers’ lack of heavy weapons, battlefield tactics and communications, or even basic training has seen them routed.
During the last 36 hours the oil towns of Bin Jawad, Ras Lanuf and Agheila were all abandoned. More than 100 miles of ground was lost by the rag tag rebels to the well-armed Gaddafi loyalists.
I witnessed the fragility of the recent rebel advance on Monday evening at Nowfaliyah, some 20 miles west of Bin Jawad.
A mortar shell landed a couple of hundred yards away. This prompted the driver of the pick-up truck next to our own car to immediately drive off at great speed.
Taking what they can: Rebels load a missile into a launcher close to Ras Lanuf yesterday as they make their speedy retreat
Riding east: Two rebel fighters, one sporting a clip of ammunition as a makeshift hat, ride a vehicle on the road between Ras Lanus and Brega as they made their hasty retreat from Gaddafi's forces
His companion, who had been sitting on the truck’s open back, described a neat somersault off the vehicle, landed on his head and was abandoned to his fate.
Within minutes scores of other vehicles full of rebel fighters were also streaming eastwards in panic. They have hardly stopped since then. What was hopefully described by a senior rebel officer as a ‘tactical withdrawal’ looked anything but planned.
Nothing demonstrates the amateur charm of the rebels more than the teams of women in Benghazi making tuna sandwiches in their thousands to be wrapped in tinfoil and sent up the road to where the fighting is. One will never go hungry on the coast road.
But the supply of ammunition and a unifying battlefield command is an entirely different matter.
Scores of pick-ups carrying heavy machine guns or anti-aircraft cannon have cruised up and down the coast road for days, their positioning at the whim of their crew.
Posted in: The rebel forces retreat in disarray down the Libyan coastal road east of Ras Lanuf which they gleefully advanced up only a few days ago
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