By Mohammed Abbas
ROAD TO RAS LANUF, Libya (Reuters) - Rebels clashed with forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi on Friday on the outskirts of the key oil terminal of Ras Lanuf as the head of Libya's rebel council vowed "victory or death."
"There's been rockets and missiles from us targeting a military base which is there to protect the Ras Lanuf oil terminal. This is outside Ras Lanuf itself," armed rebel Adel Yahya told Reuters.
"Clashes have started. We're outside Ras Lanuf, about 10km (6 miles) to 15 km away. Right now it's heavy weapons fire. Infantry will be coming later," said Bashir Warshafani, another rebel force making his way to the front.
It was not clear if there had been any casualties.
As rebels forces engaged the army at Ras Lanuf, the head of Libya's rebel National Libyan Council told followers in the eastern town of Al Bayda:
"We are people who fight, we don't surrender. Victory or death. We will not stop till we liberate all this country ... The time of hypocrisy is over."
The crowd chanted: "Libya is free and Gaddafi must go."
"OLD REGIME IS OVER"
Ex-justice minister Mustafa Abdel Jalil told cheering crowds: "There could be members of the old regime here among us. Your enemy can still put his people among you. Don't listen to them and let them ruin our revolution."
Asked by Reuters what the council would do next, he said: "We will send a message to the West and to all peoples that this is going to be a democratic country."
On what he wanted from the international community, Abdel Jalil replied: "To help protect the Libyan people from Gaddafi's assault and help put an end to it."
The red, black and green flag, adopted by the rebels, waved from buildings and men carrying rifles were posted on roofs and next to the crowd who were peaceful, enthusiastic and defiant.
Earlier, defiant rebels had vowed to march on Tripoli.
"We're going to take it all, Ras Lanuf, Tripoli," Magdi Mohammed, an army defector, fingering the pin of a grenade, told Reuters at a rebels' checkpoint on the road to Ras Lanuf.
About two dozen rebels armed with Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles and rocket launchers had said they were intent on taking Ras Lanuf. The rebels had driven Gaddafi forces back to the port earlier in the week.
"INTO THE DESERT"
Rebel units took to the desert to get away from the coastal road after the intervention of their commander who warned that staying on the strategic route was dangerous.
"We've fanned out in the desert because this dog Gaddafi has desert cars and fighter planes. It's harder for them to see us in the desert," said Adel Al Imami, a former officer with Gaddafi's brigades, now with the self-styled February 17 Martyrs Brigade.
Young men randomly fired guns in the air, and tore around in open top four-wheel-drive trucks, spray painted with slogans or the word "ARMY."
There were discipline problems between youths, eager to get to Ras Lanuf, and a regular army defector who was leading them.
"Get back! (from the road) All of you, I told you to get back," rebel front-line commander and professional soldier Bashir Abdul Gadr shouted at the group of young rebels, one younger than 20 and armed with only a knife.
The young men took to the Sahara in a flanking move, and insisted others should come and reinforce their outpost to push forward to Ras Lanuf.
It was not clear how far behind them were the armoured vehicles, including five tanks, this correspondent had seen previously further east or when other rebel forces would reinforce the spearhead group.
Earlier on Friday, a Libyan warplane bombed just beyond the walls of a military base used to store huge amounts of ammunition and now held by rebels in the eastern town of Ajdabiyah but did not hit it.
"We were sat here, heard the jet, then the explosion and the earth shook. They fell outside the walls," Hassan Faraj, who was guarding the munitions store at the Haniyeh base, told Reuters.
Gaddafi's air force mounted a similar attack on the facility earlier this week, hitting in and around the base but not striking anything of significance.
The base comprises 35 bunkers. Earlier this week, this correspondent was shown one bunker packed with 10,000 tonnes of ammunition.
Warplanes raided eastern towns on Thursday after launching a ground assault on Brega on Wednesday that rebels repulsed.
One rebel Libyan military officer, a defector from Gaddafi's armed forces, said earlier this week he believed the warplanes had missed on purpose because their pilots did not want to kill fellow Libyans.
Another rebel volunteer, Aziz Saleh, said two rockets had been fired in Friday's attack. They had landed just outside the walls of the base, he said.
AIR STRIKES
Ahmed Jabreel, an aide to Abdel Jalil who heads the rebels' council now based in Benghazi, said air strikes to set up a "no-fly" zone were needed to help rebels topple Gaddafi, who has refused to step down despite a revolt.
The National Libyan Council has called for U.N.-backed air strikes against what they say are African mercenaries fighting for Gaddafi.
Libyan officials denied air force planes bombed civilians.
Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi's son, has said an air attack earlier this week on Brega was designed to scare off militia fighters and gain control of oil terminals.
U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates has warned against "loose talk" about a no-fly zone, saying it would require an attack on Libya to destroy its air defences.
He and other officials have listed logistical and diplomatic hurdles to such action.
(Writing by Tom Perry and Peter Millership in Cairo; Editing by Giles Elgood)
