Libyan revolution on the verge of collapse [Thanks Europa & States]

By Mitch Potter Washington Bureau

TOBRUK, LIBYA—Forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi smashed through the last line of defence protecting the rebel capital of Benghazi Tuesday and now appear poised to crush the revolt as hope for international intervention wanes.

Fleeing refugees confirmed the fall of Adjabiya, a strategic city that rebel leaders vowed just one day earlier would mark the bulwark of the revolution’s stand again Gadhafi, came in a matter of bullet strewn hours.

As nightfall approached, anxiety gripped Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city and the epicentre of the rebellion, as the population of 1.5 million grappled with the reality that weeks of grinding foreign diplomacy aimed to stemming the brutal Gadhafi counterstrikes will amount to too little, too late.

“The rebels are melting away. Ajdabiya is gone,” a Libyan fighter told the Toronto Star by cellphone as gunfire raged in the background. Libyan state TV, under control of the Gadhafi regime, announced that “Ajdabiya has been cleansed of mercenaries and terrorists.”

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