AJDABIYAH, Libya (Reuters) – Libyan rebels backed by allied air strikes recaptured the strategic eastern town of Ajdabiyah on Saturday, pushing out Muammar Gaddafi’s forces.

Rebel fighters danced on tanks, waved flags and fired in the air by buildings riddled with bulletholes after an all-night battle that suggested the tide is turning against Gaddafi’s forces in the east.

BENGHAZI, Libya, March 25 (Reuters) – The grandson of Omar
al-Mukhtar, the “Lion of the Desert” who led his warriors
against Italian colonial rule and was executed in 1931, says his
illustrious forebear would be fighting with rebels against
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi if he were alive today.

“He was a fighter for the people. He is the spirit of the
whole country,” Awad al-Mukhtar told Reuters.

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – Libyan rebels desperately need arms and ammunition from foreign countries — especially weapons to knock out tanks — to bolster their struggle against Muammar Gaddafi, a rebel military spokesman said Thursday.

But they do not want foreign advisers or troops to intervene on their behalf, said Colonel Ahmed Bani, an air force officer who has joined the rebels based in the eastern city of Benghazi.

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – Much of central Benghazi looked like a ghost town Thursday as residents feared gunmen loyal to Muammar Gaddafi were still at large five days after a failed assault on the rebel-held city.

Most banks and shops remained shut, despite rebel officials’ appeals for them to open again. In the souk, or market, where gold merchants and jewelers usually ply their trade, nearly all the shutters remained firmly closed.

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – Mustafa Gheriani was a construction contractor shuttling between the United States and Libya when the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi broke out.

Iman Bughaeis was teaching dentistry at Benghazi’s University.

Now they are part of the Libyan rebel movement’s administration, trying to bring some order to what at first sight seems a like a state of near anarchy in their headquarters in a dilapidated courthouse on Benghazi’s seafront.

BENGHAZI, Libya, March 23 (Reuters) – Libya’s rebel national
council on Wednesday named a U.S.-based academic and exile
opposition figure, Ali Tarhouni, as the senior finance official
in a transitional government it is setting up.

He will head the financial and commercial committee, in
effect acting as finance minister in a body which the rebels
hope will win international recognition in their struggle
against Muammar Gaddafi’s 41 year-rule.

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – The chief diplomat of Libya’s rebel council will be tasked with forming an interim government but this cannot be done when much of the country is in the control of Muammar Gaddafi, rebel officials said.

Al Jazeera television said earlier on Wednesday that Mahmoud Jebril was being appointed head of a new interim government. But rebel spokesman Hafiz Ghoga said such a step could only be taken when the country was united under rebel control.

NEAR AJDABIYAH, Libya (Reuters) – The Libyan rebel fighters sheltering behind sand dunes near the government-held town of Ajdabiyah are full of bravado but they appear to lack leadership, soldiering experience and any clear plan of action.

The volunteer force comes from all walks of life — engineers, taxi-drivers and the jobless — united in their hatred of Muammar Gaddafi.

NEAR AJDABIYAH, Libya (Reuters) – Rebels in east Libya outside Ajdabiyah were not advancing on the strategic town on Tuesday because heavily armed troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi could still overwhelm them despite Western air strikes.

Rebels at the frontline about 5 km (3 miles) outside the town located at the gateway to the rebel-held east said three nights of air strikes were helping cripple Gaddafi’s heavy armor, but his forces were still a potent threat.

BENGHAZI, March 21 (Reuters) – Fears of loyalist gunmen
thought to be hiding in Libya’s rebel capital kept its people on
edge on Monday, a day after the euphoria of their rescue by
Western airstrikes on Muammar Gaddafi’s forces.

The gunmen known as the Elejan El-Thoria, after the
Revolutionary Committees set up by Gaddafi, were given 24 hours
until noon on Tuesday to surrender or face retribution in a
message relayed over Mosque loudspeakers by the rebels.