LIBYAN REBELS REGAINED control of Ajdabiya today after international airstrikes on Gaddafi’s forces, in the first major turnaround for an uprising that once appeared on the verge of defeat.

Ajdabiya’s sudden fall to Gaddafi’s troops spurred the swift UN resolution authorising international action in Libya, and its return to rebel hands comes after a week of airstrikes and missiles against the Libyan leader’s military.

On the road into the city today, at least eight blackened Gaddafi tanks lay on the ground.

Stores and houses were shuttered after the week-long siege that left residents without electricity or drinking water, but drivers honked horns in celebration and flew the tricolour rebel flag. Others in the city fired their guns into the air.

Saif Sadawi, a 20-year-old rebel fighter with an RPG in his hands, says the city’s eastern gate fell late yesterday and the western gate fell at dawn this morning after airstrikes on both locations.

“All of Ajdabiya is free,” he said.

The UN Security Council authorized the operation to protect Libyan civilians after Gaddafi launched attacks against anti-government protesters who demanded that he step down after 42 years in power. The airstrikes have sapped the strength of Gaddafi’s forces, but rebel advances have also foundered, and the two sides have been at stalemate in key cities.

Earlier yesterday, British and French warplanes struck near Ajdabiya, destroying an artillery battery and armored vehicles. Ajdabiya, the gateway to the opposition’s eastern stronghold, and the western city of Misrata have especially suffered because the rebels lack the heavy weapons to lift Gaddafi’s siege.

Today, rebels in Ajdabiya hauled away a captured rocket launcher, adding to their limited firepower.

The US commander in charge of the overall international mission, Army Gen Carter Ham, told the Associated Press yesterday that “We could easily destroy all the regime forces that are in Ajdabiya,” but the city itself would be destroyed in the process. “We’d be killing the very people that we’re charged with protecting.”

Instead, the focus was on disrupting the communications and supply lines that allow Gaddafi’s forces to keep fighting in Ajdabiya and other urban areas like Misrata, Ham said in a telephone interview from his US Africa Command headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany.

The turnaround in Ajdabiya is a boost for President Barack Obama, who has faced complaints from lawmakers from both parties that he has not sought their input about the US role in the war or explained with enough clarity about the US goals and exit strategy.

Obama is expected to address the US in a speech on Monday outlining his administration’s policy on Libya, but said today that the coalition action to protect civilians is working:

- AP