ARBAEEN: Libyan rebels pushed back toward the contested oil port of Brega Wednesday, regaining mostly desert territory lost to Muammar Gaddafi's army the day before. At the tiny outpost of Al-Arbaeen, half way between Brega and rebel stronghold Ajdabiyah, on the Mediterranean coastal road, rebels returning from the front reported rocket duels close to the port. The rebels had clearly made ground after retreating at least 40 km Tuesday but it was impossible to verify accounts that they were back close to sparsely populated Brega, which sprawls across about 25 km. Meanwhile, Gaddafi appealed directly to President Barack Obama to halt what he called “an unjust war” and wished Obama good luck in his bid for re-election next year. In a rambling, three-page letter to Obama obtained by The Associated Press, Gaddafi implored Obama to stop the NATO-led air campaign, which he called an “unjust war.” “You are a man who has enough courage to annul a wrong and mistaken action,” Gaddafi wrote in the letter that was sent to the State Department and forwarded immediately to the White House, according to a US official who had seen the letter. Rebel fighter Ali Jomaa said fighting with mortars and Russian-made Grad rocket batteries was going on near Brega, focus of a week-long battle. Another rebel, Mabrouk Osman, said Gaddafi's forces were concentrated in New Brega, a residential area close to the Mediterranean coast in the strung-out settlement. Confirming reports from NATO that government troops were sheltering in residential areas to dodge Western airstrikes. Rebel Idriss Karim joined a chorus of complaints about lack of support from NATO warplanes. “They are scared of the NATO airstrikes but NATO doesn't bomb anything in the first place.” But NATO officials claimed that Muammar Gaddafi is using human shields to foil airstrikes on his forces. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said NATO operations were at risk of getting “bogged down” due to the fact that Gaddafi's forces were frequently deploying close to civilians as tactical protection against airstrikes. Western air power has fashioned a rough military balance in Libya, preventing Gaddafi troops from overrunning the motley rebel force dominating the east — but not forceful enough for the insurgents to advance solidly hundreds of kilometers along the Mediterranean coast to the capital Tripoli in the west. Said Emburak, an Ajdabiyah resident, chimed in: “What is NATO waiting for? We have cities that are being destroyed. Ras Lanuf, Bin Jawad, Brega, and Gaddafi is destroying Misrata completely.”
