BBC News with Jonathan Wittedly.

卡扎菲老家附近反对派遭重创被迫撤退

Libyan rebels who have been advancing west along the coast towards Colonel Caddafi’s strongholds have been stopped by gunfire from government forces. Ben Brown sent this report from oil town of Ras Lanouf with some of the rebels has fallen back too.

It’s been a bad day for the rebels. It began with an inflaming that they had taken Sirte, Colonel Caddafi’s birth place and hometown that claim turned out to be wildly prematured. In fact, rebels have been stopped just beyond the town of Ajdabiya many miles from Sirte. Rebels told us they’ve been ambushed by Caddafi loyalists from the desert and from the beach. The great rebel advance of the weekend appears to have been halted in its track for now at least.

A senior American military official has denied that the United States is directly supporting Libyan rebels

speaking at

a news conference in the Pentagon. Vice Admiral William Goldoni gave this assessment of the conflict.

“Our opposition forces are in control of Ajdabiya and have pushed west to within 80 miles of Sirte. We believe the regime is preparing to dig in at Sirte, setting up a number of checkpoints and placing tanks throughout the city, likewise for Zenta we will assess the regime as preparing the reinforce the existing positions. Reporting from Misrata indicates heavy fighting particular near the city center.”