Airstrikes Clear Way for Libyan Rebels’ First Major Advance

The rebels’ advance was the first sign that the allied attacks, directed not only against Colonel Qaddafi’s aircraft and defenses but also against his ground troops, were changing the dynamics of the battle for control of the country. As night fell, rebel forces had recaptured Ajdabiya, a crucial hub city in eastern Libya, and had also driven almost uncontested to the town of Brega, erasing weeks of losses as the airstrikes opened the way.

At the same time, however, Western leaders are debating the ability of the military operation to achieve notably differing goals: to protect Libyan civilians and remove Colonel Qaddafi from power.

President Obama, in his weekly radio address, tried to reassure Americans that the mission was both important and effective. “Today I can report that thanks to our brave men and women in uniform we’ve made important progress,” he said, adding, “We are succeeding in our mission.”

In Ajdabiya, the charred hulls of government tanks hit by allied missile strikes and strafing runs marked the city’s gates, where from a perch on a hill they had driven back rebel assaults over the past few days. But on Saturday, hundreds of opposition fighters streamed in, honking their horns, shooting weapons into the air and waving their tricolored flags in celebration.

“We owe the West much. They saved many thousands of people,” said Muhammad Fergani, a safety specialist at an oil company who drove with a Kalashnikov rifle to the front.  “It is not easy for this man to raise the white flag,” he said, referring to Colonel Qaddafi. “His roots are deep in the earth.”

By the end of the day, the rebel trucks had covered more than 50 miles, quickly gathering in Brega and beginning to move beyond. But battles along that road over the past month have been defined by vast swings of momentum, in advances and retreats that have covered miles in minutes until Colonel Qaddafi’s forces have been able to bring their armored vehicles and heavy weapons to bear.

That had been the case in Ajdabiya, where tanks and superior artillery had kept the rebels at bay for a week until allied air support allowed them to reclaim a city that they had seen as a stronghold protecting the path to Benghazi, the rebel capital.

“People are celebrating,” said Najib al-Mukasabi, who was driving from Ajdabiya north toward Benghazi. “The west and east gates are liberated.”

The evidence of intense fighting could be seen everywhere, with apartment blocks and a mosque punctured by tank shells, and wrecked cars in the streets. Before being routed from the city by Colonel Qaddafi’s forces, rebel fighters had vowed to make their stand in Ajdabiya, which is on both the major highway networks in northeastern Libya. A vital city of 120,000 before the battles began, it seemed more a deserted husk on Saturday.

At a news conference in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, Deputy Foreign Minister Khalid Kaim confirmed that government fighters had made a “tactical pullback.” And he reiterated the government’s charge that the American and European forces were overstepping mandates from the United Nations and NATO by providing close air support to the rebels instead of merely establishing a no-fly zone or protecting civilians.

The airstrikes in and around Ajdabiya had hit the government troops who were not advancing but merely “stationary,” he said.

He also repeated accusations that the airstrikes have killed dozens of civilians, though the Qaddafi government has not yet presented evidence of those deaths. In a news conference late Friday night, the Health Ministry said more than 100 people had died in the air attacks, but officials did not break out civilian casualties from the military deaths.

Gen. Carter F. Ham, the commanding officer of the American-led operation, confirmed on Saturday that government forces were retreating south and west from Adjabiya and, in some cases, had abandoned their vehicles and equipment, presumably to avoid being attacked by allied warplanes. “We have to be careful not to make too much of this,” General Ham said in a telephone interview from his headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. “The opposition is not well trained or well organized.”