Muammar Gaddafi's forces seized a strategic town in eastern Libya on Tuesday, opening the way to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi while world powers failed to agree to push for a no-fly zone.
The small town of Ajdabiyah was all that stood between the relentless eastward advance of Libyan government troops and the second city of Benghazi and lies on a road junction from where Gaddafi's forces could attempt to encircle the rebel stronghold.
"The town of Ajdabiyah has been cleansed of mercenaries and terrorists linked to the al Qaeda organisation," state television said, referring to the increasingly embattled rebels fighting to end Gaddafi's 41 years of absolute power.
Government jets opened up with rocket fire on a rebel checkpoint at the western entrance to Ajdabiyah, then unleashed a rolling artillery barrage on the town and a nearby arms dump, following the same pattern of attack that has pushed back rebels more than 160 km in a week-long counter-offensive.
As well as the coastal road to Benghazi, there is also a 400 km desert road straight to Tobruk, near the Egyptian border, that would cut off Benghazi. But it was not clear whether Gaddafi's forces were strong enough to be divided and if they could operate with such long supply lines.
Soliman Bouchuiguir, president of the Libyan League for Human Rights, said in Geneva that if Gaddafi's forces attacked Benghazi, a city of 670,000 people, there would be "a real bloodbath, a massacre like we saw in Rwanda".
The small oil town of Brega, with a population of just 4,300, some 75 km southwest of Ajdabiyah, changed hands several times in three days of heavy fighting, but also succumbed to superior government firepower on Tuesday.
"MENTAL DISORDER"
Foreign ministers from the Group of Eight countries meeting in Paris could not agree to press the U.N. Security Council to back a no-fly zone to protect Libyan cities from aerial bombing.
Instead, the G8 said Libyans have a right to democracy and warned Gaddafi he faced "dire consequences" if he ignored his people's rights. The G8 urged the Security Council to increase pressure on Gaddafi, including further economic measures.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain have led calls to impose a no-fly zone. But Gaddafi dismissed the plan.
"We will fight and win. A situation of that type will only serve to unite the Libyan people," he told the Italian daily Il Giornale. Sarkozy, he said, has "a mental disorder".
At the G8, Russia and Germany argued a no-fly zone could be counterproductive, while the United States, which would likely have to shoulder much of the burden of policing Libyan skies, is still cautious over the idea.
In New York, members of the U.N. Security Council are expected to receive a draft resolution later on Tuesday calling for a no-fly zone and stepped-up sanctions against Gaddafi and his inner circle, council diplomats told Reuters.
Veto powers Russia, China and the United States, along with Portugal, Germany and South Africa are among the members that have doubts about the idea of a no-fly zone for Libya.
Growing numbers of Libyan are now crossing into Egypt fleeing the advance of Gaddafi's forces, the United Nations refugee agency said.
"Until this week, it was almost entirely migrant workers crossing into Egypt. But on Monday nearly half of the around 2,250 people were Libyans, including many families with children," said UNHCR spokeswoman Sybella Wilkes. "On the Egyptian side of Libya, we haven't seen that before."
In Misrata, the last major city in western Libya still in rebel hands, residents said water had been cut off to the city of 300,000 people, 200 km east of Tripoli.
