Colonel Gaddafi’s forces hit back very hard
indeed
. Around the town of Bin Jawad, there’s been ferocious fighting there. The rebels, hundreds of them up at the front line, fired Katyusha rockets among other things at the Gaddafi forces. The Gaddafi fighters hitting back with heavy weapons. But the
upshot
is that the rebels have had to
retreat
from Bin Jawad and also where here in from Ras Lanuf as well, an important oil town with a large oil refinery.
Other news now. And Laurent Gbago, the leader of Ivory Coast who refused to step down following elections last year, has
appealed for
an immediate ceasefire
in the face of
advances by opposition forces. His spokesman called for talks mediated by the African Union. John James reports from Bouake.
As the pro-Ouattara fighters move south, they meeting very little
resistance
from the official state forces publicly at least remain loyal to President Gbagbo. In the major western town of Daloa in the heart of the country’s cocoa-producing region, pro-Ouattara forces captured a major army barracks without much of a fight. On further south, the town of Issia was abandoned by the security forces before the pro-Ouattara fighters arrived. From there, only the town of Soubre remains before fighters reach the coast and the key port of San Pedro. In the east, on the border with Ghana, progress has been even faster.