By Angus MacSwan
BIN JAWAD, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan rebels pushed further west on Sunday to retake more territory abandoned by Muammar Gaddafi's retreating forces, which have been weakened by Western air strikes.
Emboldened by the capture of the strategic town of Ajdabiyah with the help of foreign warplanes on Saturday, the rebels have reversed military losses in their five-week insurgency and are now back in control of all the main oil terminals in the eastern half of the sprawling, North African Arab country.
Rebels said they now had their sights on the Gaddafi stronghold of Sirte in central Libya.
A convoy of 20 military vehicles including truck-mounted anti-aircraft guns was seen leaving Sirte on Sunday and heading west towards Tripoli, along with dozens of civilian cars carrying families and stuffed with personal belongings, a Reuters reporter in the vicinity reported.
Nearer the capital Tripoli, Gaddafi's forces fought rebels in the centre of Misrata to try to consolidate his grip on western Libya after losing much of the east. Misrata is the only western city in rebel hands and has been sealed off for weeks.
"There are no Gaddafi soldiers here. We control all the town," rebel Youssef Ahmed, 22, said in Bin Jawad, the westernmost point the insurgents reached in early March -- 525 km (325 miles) from Tripoli -- before being pushed back by Gaddafi's better-armed forces to their eastern bastion Benghazi.
Fighters roamed around Bin Jawad in rebel pick-up trucks mounted with machine guns and shot in the air in celebration.
"We want to go to Sirte today. I don't know if it will happen," said 25-year-old Marjai Agouri as he waited with another 100 rebels along the main coastal road outside Bin Jawad with three multiple rocket launchers, six anti-aircraft guns and around a dozen pickup trucks mounted with machine guns.
The insurgent advance along Libya's Mediterranean coast indicated that Western strikes under a U.N. no-fly zone were shifting the battlefield dynamics in favour of rebels seeking to end Gaddafi's 41-year rule.
Their gains now put them back in control of the main oil terminals in the east -- Es Sider, Ras Lanuf, Brega, Zueitina and Tobruk -- while Gaddafi appears to be redeploying his troops to concentrate on holding the west.
U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Western air strikes had weakened Gaddafi's ability to move his heavy weapons.
"His ability to move armour, to move towards Benghazi or a place like that, has pretty well been eliminated," Gates told ABC's "This Week" programme in an interview taped on Saturday.
Gates also raised the possibility that Gaddafi's regime could splinter and said a London conference on Tuesday would discuss political strategies to end Gaddafi's tenure.
In Ras Lanuf, battle debris was scattered around the eastern gate, which had been hit by an air strike.
At least three trucks of Gaddafi's forces were smouldering. Ammunition, plastic bags of rations left behind and a tin bowl with a half-eaten meal on the ground suggested Gaddafi's units had beaten a hasty retreat.
Mansour al-Breik, a 20-year-old shopkeeper now turned fighter, said: "The air strikes were from midnight to 3 a.m."
REBELS TAKE PRISONERS
On the way into Ras Lanuf a Reuters correspondent saw a bus loaded with Gaddafi soldiers who had been taken prisoner, escorted by a machinegun-mounted pickup.
As foreign media passed, rebels chanted: "Sarkozy, Sarkozy, Sarkozy" in reference to the French president and air strikes by coalition states including France aimed at protecting civilians.
As the front line shifted towards the heartland of Gaddafi's support, government forces on Sunday resumed shelling of the besieged Misrata, ending a brief lull in fighting that followed Western air strikes, a resident told Reuters.
"All day long we heard clashes between rebels and Gaddafi forces in the area of Tripoli street, in the city centre," the rebel, called Sami, told Reuters by phone.
"We heard tanks, mortars and light weapons being used. This is still going on now," Sami said, adding that Gaddafi snipers were pinning down insurgents in Misrata, which is around 200 km (125 miles) east of Tripoli.
A Misrata resident told Reuters inhabitants had to use wells to get water and that there were problems with medicines.
A rebel in Misrata told Reuters Gaddafi was putting all his weight into attacking the city so he could control the whole of the west of the vast desert country after losing the east.
Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told reporters in Tripoli that Gaddafi was personally "leading the battle" but appeared to suggest the leader might be moving around the country so as to keep his whereabouts a mystery.
"He has many offices, many places around Libya. I assure you he is leading the nation at this very moment and he is in continuous communication with everyone around the country."
Capturing Ajdabiyah was a big morale boost for the revolt, whose disorganised and poorly equipped insurgents had raised doubts about their ability to topple Gaddafi.
"This is a victory from God," said Ali Mohamed, a 53-year-old teacher in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
"Insha'allah (God willing), we will be victorious. After two days, we will be in Tripoli," he said.
Fouzi Dihoum, a catering company employee, said the rebels could push forward because the area between Ajdabiyah and Sirte was desert where Gaddafi forces were easy targets for planes.
"There is nowhere to hide. It's an open area," he said.
Libyan state television was on Sunday broadcasting pop songs and images of palm trees, wheatfields and vast construction projects completed in Gaddafi's four decades in power.
Gaddafi himself has not been shown on television since he made a speech on Wednesday and his sons Saif al-Islam and Khamis -- who earlier in the conflict spoke regularly to foreign media -- have been out of sight even longer.
Internet social networks and some Arabic-language media have reported that Khamis, commander of the elite 32nd brigade, was killed by a disaffected air force pilot who, according to the reports, flew his plane into the Gaddafi compound in Tripoli.
There has been no confirmation and Libyan officials say such reports are part of a deliberate campaign of misinformation.
Last week Libyan officials said nearly 100 civilians had been killed in coalition strikes. Gates dismissed the assertion.
With the United States seeking to cut its military role in enforcing the no-fly zone, NATO states could agree in hours for the alliance to take over command of military operations from coalition forces, a NATO official said on Sunday.
An agreement by ambassadors would mean the council of the NATO states would take political control of all military operations, including ground strikes to protect civilians, from a coalition led by France, the United States and Britain.
(Additional reporting by Alexander Dziadosz, Edmund Blair, Maria Golovnina, Michael Georgy, Ibon Villelabeitia, Tom Pfeiffer, Lamine Chikhi, Mariam Karouny, Joseph Nasr, Marie-Louise Gumuchian, David Brunnstrom and Arshad Mohammed; Writing by Ibon Villelabeitia and Tom Pfeiffer; editing by Mark Heinrich)