A Reuters reporter heard repeated explosions and machinegun fire near Ajdabiyah, a gateway to the rebel-held east that has changed hands repeatedly in weeks of back and forth fighting.
Muammar Gaddafi's forces fired rockets on Sunday at Libyan rebels stationed on the western edge of Ajdabiyah, prompting some residents to flee the strategic eastern town, witnesses said.
A Reuters reporter heard repeated explosions and machinegun fire near Ajdabiyah, a gateway to the rebel-held east that has changed hands repeatedly in weeks of back and forth fighting.
A witness said he saw around a dozen rockets land around the town''s western gateway. Rebels backed up his account.
"There are still some (rebels) out there at the western gate but the situation isn't very good," said Wassim el-Agouri, a 25-year-old rebel volunteer waiting at the town's eastern gate.
Another insurgent fighter, Hakim Khalifa, confirmed there was heavy rocket fire at the western gate and said some of the rebels had turned back.
Scores of rebels and civilian cars carrying men, women and children streamed east from the city down the coast road towards the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
A sandstorm whipped up during the morning, obscuring the view across the flat expanse of desert. Some rebels said they were laying anti-tank mines near the Ajdabiyah's eastern gate.
Days of sporadic clashes on the road west to the oil town of Brega have failed to break a deadlock in the fighting.
Rebel officials said on Saturday that their most experienced soldiers were clashing with Gaddafi's forces on the edge of Brega, but it was not possible to verify the claim.
The front line is hard to locate because of the hit-and-run style of fighting, long-distance shelling and the growing tendency of Gaddafi's followers to launch outflanking manoeuvres and ambush less experienced rebel fighters on the coastal road.
The rebels pushed hundreds of kilometres towards the capital Tripoli after foreign warplanes began bombing Gaddafi's positions to protect civilians, but proved unable to hold territory and were pushed back as far as Ajdabiyah.
The anti-Gaddafi forces have called repeatedly for heavier arms, saying their machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades are not powerful enough to face the government forces.
"We want weapons, modern weapons," said rebel Ayman Aswey, 21. "If we had those, we could advance against them."
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