Air strike near Libyan town as rebels reinforce

Libyan forces Friday launched a fresh air strike on the town of Ajdabiya, as pumped-up rebels armed themselves with anti-aircraft missiles on the third day of an offensive by the regime.

There were no casualties or damage in the bombing run near a military base on the outskirts of the strategic town, which came as hundreds of opposition volunteers rushed to defend their frontline in the nearby oil port of Brega.

"There was a bomb outside the military base near Ajdabiya," said Mohammad Abdallah, a rebel fighter at the last checkpoint of the town on the road to Brega, where rebels fought deadly battles with government forces on Wednesday.

"It was about 8:00 am (0600 GMT)," Abdallah added. Other rebels also reported the air strike, but there were no casualties nor any visible damage.

The Mediterranean coastal towns of Brega, with its oil refinery, and Ajdabiya, a key road junction, are vital for rebels in eastern Libya if Moamer Kadhafi's forces are not to isolate them from the rest of the country.

An AFP reporter saw a group of cars heading out of Ajdabiya towards Brega. One group came from the eastern town of Al-Baida while another car came from Tobruk, nearer the Egyptian border.

Mohammad, 35, who works in a bank in Tobruk said he had come to fight in the "jihad" with a group of friends.

"A lot of cars have started to come from Tobruk in the last two days. I'm coming with four friends. We don't have heavy guns, but we expect to get them when we reach Brega. We have to prove to him (Kadhafi) that this is our land," he said.

"This is the time of jihad," he told AFP.

Regime forces have repeatedly targeted the military barracks on the outskirts of Ajdabiya since rebels in the east began a popular uprising to evict the Libyan leader who has ruled for four decades.

An AFP reporter on Friday saw crates upon crates of abandoned ammunition inside the barracks about 500 metres (yards) down the road from the checkpoint into the desert, but no damage.

A warehouse was full of anti-tank rockets, bazookas and rocket launchers, the reporter said. The buildings were all abandoned, bedding and military uniforms had been left behind.

Rebels also reported a series of explosions near Ajdabiya at around 3:00 am (0100 GMT), but the cause of the blasts was not immediately clear.

About 15 to 20 rebel fighters manned the checkpoint.

In Ajdabiya, about 10 shops were open but the streets were deserted, in keeping with usual custom early Friday, the Muslim day of rest and the start of the Libyan weekend.

In the main rebel-held city of Benghazi, there were scenes of chaos as young men pushed and shoved each other to grab old Libyan flags which organisers handed out ahead of a rally planned after Friday prayers, an AFP reporter said.

Opposition groups have also called for protests in the capital Tripoli, where Kadhafi retains his grip on power.