Libyan warplanes bombed the rebel-held port city of Brega on Wednesday as paramilitary groups and other forces loyal to leader Moammar Gadhafi fought for control of a major oil refinery there and a weapons depot in a nearby city.NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro witnessed the airstrike on Brega that involved several Libyan jets. She said some rebels were fleeing the city, but it was unclear whether either side had gained the upper hand in the fighting.
Map of Libya
"We've seen ... huge plumes of smoke rising into the air over the town of Brega, jets roaring overhead," she said, adding that it appeared Gadhafi was "pulling out all the stops" to regain the east.
Doctors told NPR that at least four people had been killed in the latest fighting in Brega, but that more casualties were expected. Close to a dozen people were wounded
Screaming Warplanes And Heavy GunfireThe attack on Brega and a similar assault on the city of Ajdabiya were part of a government counter-offensive to recapture the rebel-held eastern half of the country. It coincided with a televised speech by Gadhafi in which he said Libya would conduct a "bloody war" if U.S. or NATO forces intervene in the conflict.
Gadhafi warned that "thousands and thousands" of his people could die as a result.
The fighting in the east was centered on the oil facilities at Brega, which lies at the western edge of the opposition-controlled territory in the east. Witnesses told The Associated Press on Wednesday morning that it had been retaken by a large convoy of pro-Gadhafi forces. But hours later, people on the outskirts of the city said the fighting had resumed.
The sound of screaming warplanes and the crackle of heavy gunfire could be heard as the witnesses spoke by phone.
Ahmed Dawas, an opposition fighter at a checkpoint outside Brega, said a large force of pro-Gadhafi fighters in about 50 SUVs descended on Brega shortly after sunrise and swept over the facility, taking the airstrip as warplanes struck nearby targets. But later, he said, anti-regime fighters from the nearby city of Ajdabiya and from Brega's residents flooded in and took back it back.
Rebel fighters carrying automatic weapons, along with a tank, sped out of Ajdabiya in pickup trucks toward the oil port 40 miles away to join the fight.
At the same time, Ajdabiya's people geared up to defend their city from attacks by the regime. Garcia-Navarro said there were several bombing attempts on Ajdabiya, the site of a key weapons depot.
"The weapons depot there is vast. It has about 35 warehouses filled with all sorts of munitions, including surface-to-air missiles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and other arms. And so it is a very strategically important place for the rebel army and clearly also for pro-Gadhafi forces," she said.
At the gates of the city, hundreds of residents took up positions on the road from Brega, armed with Kalashnikovs and hunting rifles, along with a few rocket-propelled grenade launchers. They set up two large rocket launchers and an anti-aircraft gun in the road.
One rebel military leader, Capt. Faris Zawya, told NPR that forces in Adjadabia are "still holding the line."
Scores of armed young men also streamed out of Benghazi, which is seen as the capital of "free Libya," to reinforce pro-democracy forces in Brega and Ajdabiya, Garcia-Navarro said.
"They say they are willing to die to maintain their hold of eastern Libya," she said. "And not only their hold of eastern Libya  they say that once they have defended this place, they will push out and try and overthrow Moammar Gadhafi once and for all."
'Terrorist Elements Are Wreaking Havoc'
From his stronghold in the capital, Tripoli, Gadhafi reiterated accusations that al-Qaida operatives backed by lies propagated by international media were responsible for the chaos.
"The terrorist elements are wreaking havoc, killing men, raping women and taking refuge within mosques," he said in the speech translated by Al-Jazeera English. "If one person is killed, it can be reported [by the media] as 1,000."
Gadhafi also claimed that high-ranking army officers who defected to the opposition had in fact been "forced at gunpoint" to switch sides. He repeatedly said the forces allied against him were armed and that reports of peaceful demonstrations were "a complete lie."
"These groups are in possession of arms and falsely reported to the outside world through their own cell phones that they are marching peacefully," he said. "On the ground, you can see that's not true."
When Gadhafi repeated the refrain that he will "fight to the last drop of blood," some in the audience in Tripoli stood up to chant and wave the green flag that has been the symbol of Libya since the 1969 coup that removed the monarchy.
But in Benghazi, the first city to fall to the opposition, Al-Jazeera broadcast footage of people holding hand-lettered signs in English reading "Gadhafi is lying now" and "The liar is talking." Protesters waved the red, black and green pre-Gadhafi tricolor and flashed "V for victory" signs.
Some opposition members told the AP that they believe Gadhafi was pulling up reinforcements from bases deep in the deserts of southwestern Libya, flying them to the fronts on the coast.
People in the eastern city of Tobruk, near the border with Egypt, told NPR that they were expecting the regime's counteroffensive given Gadhafi's commitment to cling to power. They said they are ready to join the fight  but are equally adamant that they will not accept the presence of foreign troops in their country.
'No-Fly' Contingencies Reportedly Under DiscussionBut members of the opposition in Tobruk said they want the international community to impose a no-fly zone over Libya  something that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said is under active consideration.
The amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge traveled through the Suez Canal in Ismailia, Egypt, on Wednesday on its way to the Mediterranean.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates downplayed the prospect of U.S. military intervention in Libya during a Pentagon news conference Tuesday. He did not, however, rule out options such as providing air cover for Libyan rebels.
"We also have to think about, frankly, the use of the U.S. military in another country in the Middle East," he said, referring to the long war in Iraq and its backlash in the Arab world. "So I think we're sensitive about all of these things, but we will provide the president with a full range of options."
Gates said he has ordered two Navy amphibious warships into the Mediterranean Sea, along with an extra 400 Marines, in case they are needed to evacuate civilians or provide humanitarian relief.
NATO has said establishing a no-fly zone over Libya would require a clear mandate from the U.N. Security Council. This is unlikely because Russia, which has veto power in the council, has already rejected the idea.
Still, some diplomats told the AP on Wednesday that NATO countries are drawing up contingency plans modeled on the no-fly zones over the Balkans in the 1990s in case the international community decides to impose an air embargo over the North African nation.
The diplomats, who asked that they not be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, cited NATO's aerial offensive against Yugoslavia in 1999  which did not have the U.N. Security Council mandate  in response to the crackdown on ethnic Albanian nationalists in Kosovo. The onslaught ended after 78 days with Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic agreeing to withdraw his forces from Kosovo.
"Very clearly there are such discussions going on, and contingency plans are being worked on, but there is no decision yet," said a senior EU official who also declined to be identified.