Most of the shots fired at a picture of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, stuck to a telegraph pole yesterday in the hamlet of Bin Jawad on the Libyan coast, missed their mark.
However, the jubilant rebels didn’t care. The symbolism of pressing their triggers at Libya’s hated leader was as potent as standing in a place representing their hold on half the country.
Nearby, about 100 of the fighters danced and fired into the air in celebration while singing “Muammar, you’re a dog — we marched straight into Bin Jawad.”
The insurgents were capitalizing on precision bombing raids by US, French and British warplanes that were taking out the regime’s tanks just ahead of their sweep westwards, toward Qaddafi’s hometown of Sirte and, after that, Tripoli.
Those airstrikes on Saturday allowed the rebels to take the key eastern city of Ajdabiya, which opened the way for an advance along the main coastal road, allowing them to recapture the key oil towns of Brega and Ras Lanuf yesterday.
Near Bin Jawad, rebel fighters were seen burying the body of a black African man they said was a mercenary hired by Qaddafi.
The rebels’ entry into Bin Jawad, which they said met no resistance, marked the furthest the anti--Qaddafi opposition has gone since they started their revolution last month.
Fighters said they had also taken the next town of Nofilia, just 100km from Sirte, where the next major battle was expected to occur.
A rebel in Bin Jawad, Mohamed Ali El-Atwish, told reporters Qaddafi’s forces were now “scared rats” under the coalition bombardment.
“They are dropping their weapons, their uniforms and dressing as civilians,” he said.
Other fighters said they believed some of those deserting soldiers were hiding out in Bin Jawad, which had only a light rebel presence because most insurgents tore off down the road to the next town in a screech of rubber.
Most of Bin Jawad looked intact, although smoke poured from a house rebels said belonged to a Qaddafi sympathizer. -
Rachad Ibrahim Rachid, a 23-year-old fighter who had stopped to help comrades try to recover a truck bearing a heavy-caliber gun, said he had seen a couple of French fighter jets swoop over the area ahead of the rebel advance and strike two targets.
At the numerous rebel road checkpoints, fighters flashed the V-for-victory sign and cheerfully yelled out “Sarkozy” in praise of France’s president.
The rebels, though, showed no sign of improved discipline, often firing weaponry — including at one point a rocket-propelled grenade — in celebration.
There was no defined hierarchy, no commanders, just a gung-ho push to the west at high speed.
Meanwhile, NATO’s -decision-making body was set to expand its enforcement of the no-fly zone to include air strikes against Libyan ground targets yesterday.
Washington has been eager to hand off responsibility to NATO, which was expected to take command yesterday of the no-fly zone mission.
Canadian Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard will take charge.
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