20110612
Reuters
DAFNIYA, Libya (Reuters) - Rebels at this Mediterranean front-line in Libya say the tank was 300 metres away and in the open when it fired the rounds that did the most damage.

By nightfall on Friday, 31 were dead, and more than 100 wounded in some of the heaviest fighting in weeks with forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi on the coastal road that links the rebel-held port city of Misrata to the capital, Tripoli.

The rebels say they struggle to fathom why NATO had not struck to limit the shelling, most of it focused on a flat stretch of highway slicing through olive groves and farmland.

"We can see the tanks, but there's no NATO," said Mohammed Shaban, a senior rebel fighter at this front-line west of Misrata, as behind him bulldozers shifted sand to build up defences on a stretch of earth littered with shell casings. Nearby buildings bore gaping holes caused by artillery rounds.

"If NATO had helped us we could have taken Zlitan," he said, referring to the next town between Misrata and Tripoli.

Managing these expectations is becoming a challenge for the Western powers backing Libya's rebels, who complain they are not getting the support they need to beat Gaddafi's men.

REBELS PLEADE FOR MORE AIR POWER

Rebel commanders in Dafniya say they wanted to push the fight forward on Friday, but were called back by NATO officers working through the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in east Libya.

Fighter jets could be heard in the sky on Saturday, but again they held back.

Four months since Gaddafi's forces crushed a popular uprising against his four-decade rule that transformed into an armed rebellion, Libya's civil war is in stalemate.

Almost three months of bombings by NATO war planes against Libyan military targets have failed to unseat Gaddafi or enable the rebels to launch an offensive on his territory in Tripoli.

The rebels say that is because NATO has not dropped enough bombs, though rebels in Misrata say NATO planes did carry out several strikes late on Saturday -- hitting a defunct tank.

NATO commanders say they are fulfilling their mandate to protect civilians and have dramatically weakened Gaddafi's military capabilities, but they admit difficulties in hitting small targets positioned near civilian buildings or hidden to disguise them from the fighter jets.

Without substantial air support from NATO, though, any rebel advance will be slow and bloody.

"RED LINES"

The two sides got close enough in Misrata on Friday for small-arms fire to whiz over rebel positions. But, the rebels say, they were called back by NATO, apparently to avoid blurring positions should fighter jets choose to strike. But they didn't.

"There are red lines," said Mohammed Swaisi, a rebel commander at the western front. "Last night my people wanted to go forward, but NATO told us to go back."

Here, as in other parts of Libya, the war has the appearance of being managed from the air, the rebels only able to advance once their path forward has been partly cleared.

Last week, in the Western Mountains near Libya's border with Tunisia, after weeks of heavy shelling by Gaddafi's forces rebels pushed without a fight from Zintan to the town of Yafran after pro-Gaddafi forces fled persistent NATO air strikes.

The flat farmland of Dafniya would appear to be ideal terrain for more accurate helicopter strikes, but they run the risk of helicopters being downed by ground fire.

The forces are also often only several hundred metres apart, making one difficult to distinguish from the other.

Such subtleties are lost on rebels who fought intense street battles to claim back their city from pro-Gaddafi forces but are now fighting on three fronts just to keep them at bay.

"Yesterday, Gaddafi's forces approached the gate to within 300 metres and NATO didn't do anything," said commander Omar Swahili. "We don't understand why."