Libyan rebels fight off Gaddafi attack

Libyan rebels said they have repelled an attack by Muammar Gaddafi's forces on the eastern town of Brega and witnesses reported that two people were killed during the fighting.
The major counter-offensive came as the regime's warplanes launched airstrikes on the opposition-held town of Ajdabiya.
Pro-Gaddafi soldiers and mercenaries armed with tanks and heavy artillery stormed Brega, 200 kilometres southwest of the main eastern city Benghazi, sparking heavy clashes, residents said.

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"Brega is now under the full control of the revolution," a police general in Ajdabiya said on condition of anonymity. "People have gone from Ajdabiya to help."
Mehdi Suleiman Hussein, a fighter from Ajdabiya, told AFP that "Gaddafi's forces arrived in Brega and fought, but now they are pulling back," adding however that some "mercenaries" were still battling the rebels.
The Gaddafi loyalists seized oil refineries and a pipeline for several hours, an oil company official said, adding that mercenaries from Chad were among the combatants.
Two people were killed in the fighting, a member of the rebel forces and an oil company engineer who arrived in Ajdabiya from Brega told AFP. Brega itself was impossible to reach on Wednesday.
People fired in the air and flashed victory signs in Ajdabiya after reports emerged that the Gaddafi counter-attack had failed, an AFP journalist said.
Earlier, a resident of Brega said by telephone that Gaddafi's forces had entered the town and violent fighting was taking place at the port.
A doctor in Ajdabiya, Ayman al-Moghrabi, told AFP the attack began under cover of darkness. "During the night Gaddafi's forces attacked the airport at Brega where they clashed with the rebels," said the doctor.
In Ajdabiya, one witness said airstrikes by Gaddafi's planes had apparently targeted a weapons dump that was also hit two days ago. But residents said it had hit a former army base 3km from the town.
There were no casualties, they said.
"There has been an air strike three kilometres past Ajdabiya towards Brega. It was the military base of El Haniya. It was not successful. They (pro-Gaddafi forces) hit outside the military base," he said.
"Nobody was injured because it hit in no man's land."
The counterattack was one of the biggest yet since the uprising against Gaddafi's rule erupted on February 15.
Anti-Gaddafi forces have seized most of the east of the country since the uprising began on February 15 and have taken tentative steps towards setting up a parallel government, while watching warily for a fightback.
Gaddafi remains entrenched in the capital Tripoli in the west of the oil-rich North African country.
AFP