20110402
presstv
Libyan revolutionary fighters have wrest back control of the strategic oil town of Brega after a fierce and bloody fighting with forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, reports say.

Seven bodies of pro-Gaddafi troops and at least 10 burnt-out army vehicles were seen along the road between Ajbadiya and Brega, 80 kilometres (50 miles) to the west, AFP reported on Saturday.

The oil town of Brega, which has changed hands for a seventh time in six weeks so far, came under heavy assault by pro-regime forces over the past few days, as they struggled to penetrate deep into the city of Ajdabiya--- a key oil town just 160 kilometers (100 miles) from the opposition stronghold of Benghazi.

Reports also say that at least 10 revolutionary forces have been killed in the latest spate of US-led aerial strikes on the outskirts of Brega, while the Libyan regime says at least seven civilians were killed when foreign jets pounded a village near the city.

The development comes after the Libyan government slapped down a conditional ceasefire offer made by opposition forces.

On Friday, government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim called the truce offer a "trick," vowing that Libyan government troops would not withdraw from towns they control.

Gaddafi's forces on Friday pounded the western strongholds of revolutionary forces in Misrata with tanks and artillery, followed by heavy air strikes by the Western alliance after the regime rejected an offer of a ceasefire.

The ongoing battles in Cyrenaica, Libya's fertile eastern coastal region, has taken a dramatic twist in favor of the embattled ruler Muammar Gaddafi, as his loyalists muscled opposition forces out of the strategic oil enclave of Ras Lanuf and closed in on another major eastern city.

Sitting in the back of pick-up trucks mounted with machineguns, scores of opposition forces, who earlier this week were rapidly piercing west toward the capital Tripoli, were seen retreating from Ras Lanuf on Wednesday, facing a barrage of rocket fire and artillery strikes by Gaddafi's ground troops.

Pro-Gaddafi troops, backed by heavier armor and aerial firepower as compared to poorly armored opposition forces, have reportedly also recaptured the town of Bin Jawad. However, vast swathes of cities in the eastern Cyrenaica region--the center of anti-Gaddafi forces of the ongoing revolution, remain in control of opposition forces.

The odds are stacked against the 68-year-old Libyan strongman Gaddafi, especially after two senior government officials mutinied in a move that laid bare a noticeable level of fissures within the Libyan regime.