Ajdabiya, Libya:
Col. Moammar el-Gaddafi's forces retreated from this strategic city on Saturday, running for dozens of miles back along the coast with Libyan rebels in pursuit in their first major victory since American and European airstrikes began a week ago.
The rebels' advance was the first sign that the allied attacks, directed not only against Colonel Gaddafi's aircraft and defenses but also against his ground troops, were changing the dynamics of the battle for control of the country. As night fell, rebel forces had recaptured Ajdabiya, a crucial hub city in eastern Libya, and had also driven almost uncontested to the town of Brega, erasing weeks of losses as the airstrikes opened the way.
At the same time, however, Western leaders are debating the ability of the military operation to achieve notably differing goals: to protect Libyan civilians and remove Colonel Gaddafi from power.
President Obama, in his weekly radio address, tried to reassure Americans that the mission was both important and effective. "Today I can report that thanks to our brave men and women in uniform we've made important progress," he said, adding, "We are succeeding in our mission."
In Ajdabiya, the charred hulls of government tanks hit by allied missile strikes and strafing runs marked the city's gates, where from a perch on a hill they had driven back rebel assaults over the past few days. But on Saturday, hundreds of opposition fighters streamed in, honking their horns, shooting weapons into the air and waving their tricolored flags in celebration.
"We owe the West much. They saved many thousands of people," said Muhammad Fergani, a safety specialist at an oil company who drove with a Kalashnikov rifle to the front. "It is not easy for this man to raise the white flag," he said, referring to Colonel Gaddafi. "His roots are deep in the earth."
By the end of the day, the rebel trucks had covered more than 50 miles, quickly gathering in Brega and beginning to move beyond. But battles along that road over the past month have been defined by vast swings of momentum, in advances and retreats that have covered miles in minutes until Colonel Gaddafi's forces have been able to bring their armored vehicles and heavy weapons to bear.
That had been the case in Ajdabiya, where tanks and superior artillery had kept the rebels at bay for a week until allied air support allowed them to reclaim a city that they had seen as a stronghold protecting the path to Benghazi, the rebel capital.
"People are celebrating," said Najib al-Mukasabi, who was driving from Ajdabiya north toward Benghazi. "The west and east gates are liberated."
The evidence of intense fighting could be seen everywhere, with apartment blocks and a mosque punctured by tank shells, and wrecked cars in the streets. Before being routed from the city by Colonel Gaddafi's forces, rebel fighters had vowed to make their stand in Ajdabiya, which is on both the major highway networks in northeastern Libya. A vital city of 120,000 before the battles began, it seemed more a deserted husk on Saturday.
At a news conference in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, Deputy Foreign Minister Khalid Kaim confirmed that government fighters had made a "tactical pullback." And he reiterated the government's charge that the American and European forces were overstepping mandates from the United Nations and NATO by providing close air support to the rebels instead of merely establishing a no-fly zone or protecting civilians.
The airstrikes in and around Ajdabiya had hit the government troops who were not advancing but merely "stationary," he said.
He also repeated accusations that the airstrikes have killed dozens of civilians, though the Gaddafi government has not yet presented evidence of those deaths. In a news conference late Friday night, the Health Ministry said more than 100 people had died in the air attacks, but officials did not break out civilian casualties from the military deaths.
Gen. Carter F. Ham, the commanding officer of the American-led operation, confirmed on Saturday that government forces were retreating south and west from Ajdabiya and, in some cases, had abandoned their vehicles and equipment, presumably to avoid being attacked by allied warplanes. "We have to be careful not to make too much of this," General Ham said in a telephone interview from his headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. "The opposition is not well trained or well organized."
He said allied warplanes were also attacking troops from the Libyan 32nd Brigade, which is based in Tripoli and commanded by Colonel Gaddafi's son Khamis. Colonel Gaddafi has used that brigade in other crackdowns, General Ham said, and allied commanders suspect it may be brought up to counterattack the rebel forces in the next few days.
General Ham said that he was preparing to turn over command of the overall military campaign to a NATO commander, Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard of Canada. If the North Atlantic Council approves the mission, which could come as early as Sunday, General Ham said a handoff could take place by midweek.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration has been pressed at home to assure an American electorate that the United States will not be drawn into another long war.
In his radio address, recorded before the rebel victory on Saturday, President Obama defended American involvement and the airstrikes' targets, arguing that the United States was protecting a strategic interest in preserving the stability of the region as well as carrying out an international mandate to prevent a bloodbath.
"In places like Benghazi, a city of some 700,000 that Gaddafi threatened to show 'no mercy,' his forces have been pushed back," Mr. Obama said. "So make no mistake, because we acted quickly a humanitarian catastrophe has been avoided, and the lives of countless civilians -- innocent men, women and children -- have been saved."
The rebel forces are still outgunned on the ground by Colonel Gaddafi's better-equipped militia, the rebel battle lines are still hundreds of miles from the capital and there is no indication of an imminent uprising in the west against the government.
Mr. Obama did not address how the conflict might end, but he repeated his vow that the United States would not send ground forces into Libya.
"This is now a broad, international effort," he said. "Our allies and partners are enforcing the no-fly zone over Libya and the arms embargo at sea. Key Arab partners like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have committed aircraft."
He added, "This is how the international community should work: more nations, not just the United States, bearing the responsibility and cost of upholding peace and security."
There was evidence on Saturday that the allied military effort was having an effect not just in the rebel-held east, but in the west as well. France reported that it had struck at the Libyan military airfield near Misurata, destroying several aircraft on the ground. Rebel commanders in Misurata, where Libya's military has kept up a tight siege against the last opposition redoubt in the western part of the country, said the allied airstrikes had allowed them to hold out.
A rebel spokesman using the name Aiman said that government tanks and artillery resumed firing into the city on Saturday morning until three waves of airstrikes forced them back.
"After the airstrikes, things have been quiet," he said by telephone, though he added that government snipers remained active in the city's center. His report could not be confirmed because the government had barred journalists from the city.
In eastern Libya, Colonel Gaddafi's artillery left deep scars throughout Ajdabiya, and his fighters appeared to have fled in a hurry.
The entrance to the city was a preview of destruction, with the iron gates of storefronts shredded, the asphalt on the road pierced, and the facade of a mosque blown full of holes. The devastation continued in a neighborhood near the hospital, where a tank shell landed in a kitchen and another in the top floor of a house. "The shelling was at night," said Khaled Ibrahim, 37. "All night, every night."
He and other residents were just beginning to emerge from shelter. Others were returning after they had fled the government forces and headed to refugee camps on Ajdabiya's outskirts.
Inside the main hospital, Dr. Muhammad Abdul Kareem -- one of six physicians who remained through the battle -- said many residents had been afraid to seek treatment. Those who neared the doors often came under fire, he said, adding that the hospital had only three working ambulances during the worst of the violence; some of the others had been destroyed. Badly injured people were taken in the ambulances, or private cars, to hospitals in Benghazi or Tobruk, he said.
The cemetery manager, Imbarek Muhammad, said 81 people were buried in the graveyard during the violence. Dozens were interred in graves with no headstones, or only inscribed with numbers. Others had headstones of cement etched with names, like Ali Abdul Rahim, who died on March 17, two days after Colonel Gaddafi's forces took the city.
On the main road, on the way to the city's western gate, the colonel's soldiers had left their fatigues, their damaged or destroyed vehicles and a dead comrade, whose bloated body was photographed by onlookers before a man covered it with a blanket.
The trail of fatigues continued miles away, in Brega, where a small hut by an oil refinery was filled with cigarette butts and old food from the soldiers who had camped out there before fleeing. They left more than clothes: trucks full of ammunition were also recovered by the rebels, who cheerily drove them back toward Benghazi for use in their next fight.