Rebels bury pro-Gaddafi fighters killed by Nato

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The stench of the bodies, steaming in the Libyan sun just outside the town of Ajdabiya on Monday, made several of the rebels retch.

Others covered their faces as they dragged the charred, dismembered remains into a hasty grave, where shovelled dirt lifted clouds of flies.

They were the last of 35 pro-regime fighters killed in thunderous Nato airstrikes the day before to be buried, the rebels said.

"There are two or three more are melted into the wreckage of the vehicles," said one 63-year-old insurgent, Muftah Jadallah, indicating more than a dozen military-use pick-ups that were now blackened knots of metal.

There were no signs of tanks Nato said it had destroyed outside Ajdabiya.

But it was clear the targets they had hit had prompted a hasty retreat by forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi who had been threatening Ajdabiya for the previous four days.

Boots, uniforms, ammunition cases and ration boxes lay scattered by the roadside, picked over by scavanging locals.

No shelling met a cautious rebel advance several kilometres (miles) westwards of the town, but it was not yet known where the new frontline lay.

Rebels were hopeful they would eventually be able to push into Brega, the next town 80 kilometres (50 miles) to the west which houses a strategic oil terminal. But for now they were holding back, wary of more air strikes on the coastal road ahead.

The rebel fighters were grateful for the aerial bombardments. Several smiled and exclaimed "Sarkozy! Sarkozy!" in thanks to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is viewed here as their protector for putting French warplanes at the vanguard of the Nato mission.

"I feel very good. They (Gaddafi's fighters) had launched a surprise attack, and the planes took them out," said one man, Saleh Farej Hassan, 37, standing near a group of four blackened vehicles.

Other rebels came up to show money, discontinued old Libyan dinars, which they said had been found on some of the bodies. The speculated that foreign mercenaries were unwittingly being paid in worthless money to fight for Gaddafi's regime.

The decimation of the pro-regime forces that had been shelling and making incursions into Ajdabiya over the weekend gave the rebels heart on the battlefield as their leaders politely listened to a delegation of African presidents attempting a ceasefire mediation.

After suffering days of setbacks, they believed fortune — and Nato's airborne firepower — were again on their side.