Libyan rebels say they've reached oil town again

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Libya's rebel forces advanced once again to the strategic oil town of Brega, thanks to four days of airstrikes by NATO, a rebel officer said on Saturday.

Following scattered clashes with government forces, the rebels reached the outskirts of Brega, which has already changed hands half a dozen times since fighting began in early March, Col. Hamid Hassy said. Explosions that appeared to be from new airsrtrikes could still be heard Saturday in the area.

For four days, rebel forces have maintained their positions around the city of Ajdabiya, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) to the east, allowing airstrikes to weaken government forces, said Hassy. But on Friday, the fighters pushed in to reach Brega's university campus, just outside the town's oil port. He said that if rebels retake Brega, they will bring engineers to repair any damage to the refinery and oil facilities there.

The NATO-led air campaign has rebels from being outright defeated on the battlefield by the better trained and equipped government forces, but it still has not been enough to completely turn the tide.

At a two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Berlin, the United States and its allies put up a united front on the goals of the alliance's stalemated military mission in Libya but failed to resolve behind-the-scenes squabbling over how to achieve them.

NATO members agreed on paper that Gadhafi had to go to end the crisis, they also made clear that they would not be the ones to oust him.

Previous rebel advances through Brega and its sister oil center of Ras Lanouf have ultimately foundered as rebels overextended their supply lines and were routed by the heavier firepower and more sophisticated tactics of the government forces.

Mohammed Kikley, a rebel volunteer, said he was in Brega on Friday, but when he tried to return the next day he was stopped by heavy fighting and shelling. The hospital in Ajdabiya said two rebels were killed in Friday's fighting.

So far, the airstrikes have not been enough to sufficiently degrade government forces to allow the rebels to reach Gadhafi's heavily defended hometown of Sirte, the gateway to the regime-controlled western half of the country.

In contrast to their pell mell charges and retreats over the past six weeks, the rebels appear to be attempting a more gradual advance that might actually result in them holding territory.

The rebels acknowledge that their forces — defected army units and armed civilians — can't defeat Gadhafi on their own. Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, head of the rebels' National Transitional Council, said this week that without NATO airstrikes, even Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city and the rebels' main stronghold, would be in "complete danger."

Government troops, meanwhile, continued their powerful assault with tanks and rockets on Misrata, the last major rebel city in western Libya.

Misrata has become emblematic of the limits of NATO's air campaign, with the alliance's top military commander saying he needs more precision attack aircraft to avoid civilian casualties in urban combat.