Boss Fallay writes:
This is becoming a really expensive joke: AKB, what kind of fighters, rebels or otherwise go to sleep at night and wake up late in the morning, and when they get ambushed, they go screaming in every direction, calling on the real army fighting Moamer from above? This is indeed becoming comical. If France and Britain so badly want Gandhafi out, they are going to have to put boots on the ground instead of sending these innocent folks/fools to their slaughter.
Late-waking rebels run from Kadhafi's artillery
AFP Libyan rebels run for cover from artillery shells fired by forces loyal to leader Moamer Kadhafi outside Brega
NEAR BREGA, Libya (AFP) In the morning's early hours, as the desert fog burned away under Libya's rising sun, the road to the oil town of Brega stood quiet on Tuesday, empty of armed rebels or any vehicle.
But soon afterwards, as the first sleepy-looking insurgents arrived cautiously to take up the position they had left late Monday, artillery and gunfire met them, sending them racing in retreat.
Unlike the untrained rebels, Colonel Moamer Kadhafi's forces had not vacated the battlefield for the night. Instead they had used the darkness to advance, to prepare their ambush.
The revolutionaries -- most of them students or young professionals with no previous combat experience -- had lost the initiative. It would cost them dearly.
They pulled back around five kilometres (three miles), to what they hoped was out of range of the incoming shells. There they massed, with most of the ragtag guerrillas driving up leisurely at 10:00 am (0800 GMT), looking gung-ho after a good night's rest.
One fighter, Ahmed Falhala, explained that the rebels had vacated the battlefield as day broke because "it's too early".
"It's like a supermarket," he laughed, intimating that, for the insurgents at least, daily war was meant to start at a reasonable hour.
After a long lull with no firing, a big group of rebels moved forward to discover two imploded pick-ups destroyed by unseen airstrikes.
The military radios inside were evidence the vehicles had belonged to pro-Kadhafi fighters. There was no sign of any bodies inside, suggesting the occupants had fled as soon as they saw the NATO planes.
But there was little time to savour the "victory". Again shells rained, pushing them back. And back again.
The rebels congregated in a desert area about 20 kilometres east of Brega where they had confidently camped out during the day for the past few days. But this time, they weren't even safe there.
Kadhafi's artillery moved forward, sending the rebels scattering.
Explosions of black cloud blossomed along a parallel desert road where the rebels' better-equipped teams, using rocket launchers, had been positioned. Those weapons, and the vehicles stacked with ammunition for them, barrelled through the desert as blasts ripped up the ground next to them.
And back and back the rebels went. They would stop every few kilometres to see whether Kadhafi's men were pausing, or whether NATO jets would beat them back. But each time they did, artillery shells exploded in the near distance, convincing them to run once more.
Their few heavy weapons, rocket launchers on top of Japanese pick-ups were no match for the firepower of Kadhafi's forces.
Kadhafi's troops who were better armed and better organised pushed the rebels eastwards in the desert, some 30 kilometres.
"Where is France? Where is Britain?" one fighter asked.
As the pro-regime force moved forward, the pace quickened. Some rebels took off for the nearest big town, Ajdabiya, which had been the scene of intense fighting and aerial bombardments just over a week ago.
"It's a very bad day today," said Mohammad Misrata, who came from Benghazi.
"They shoot from far and with the weapons that we have, we can't reach them."
The rebels were retreating, some in civilian cars and pick-up trucks, while some could be seen in columns of four pushing back at full speed.
Once again, the insurgents were looking to the skies for their salvation, hoping that NATO warplanes would do what they cannot.
Many of the rebels may not be sleeping well this night.
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