BREGA, Libya — Moammar Gadhafi loyalists shelled around a key oil port Friday trying to dislodge rebels who have dug in and are struggling to regroup after their fighters were scattered in a heavy regime offensive.
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The rebels appeared to have a tenacious hold around the oil facilities at Ras Lanouf, taking refuge among the towering storage containers of crude oil and gas. Government forces stopped directing their fire at those positions, apparently to avoid blowing up the facility's infrastructure, according to fighters.
Instead, the pro-Gadhafi troops, positioned in Ras Lanouf's residential about 10 miles (16 kilometers) east of the oil port across a barren desert no man's land, were raining rockets and shelling along the main coastal highway, targeting rebel vehicles trying to reinforce and bring supplies to the port, said Mohammed Gherani, a rebel fighter.
The bodies of at least three opposition fighters killed in the shelling were brought to rebel-held Brega, a larger oil port to the west, bringing the toll from two days of battles at Ras Lanouf to at least nine.
The standoff in Ras Lanouf was an attempt by the rebels' ragtag force to halt a dramatic shift in the momentum of Libya's upheaval, which is shaping into a potential civil war. Last week, opposition forces that hold the entire eastern half of the country came charging along the Mediterranean coast westward, trying to push toward the capital Tripoli, Gadhafi's strongest bastion.
But the regime struck back with an overwhelming force, backed by warplanes, artillery, rockets and tanks, that over the past few days pushed the rebels back to Ras Lanouf, 380 miles, 615 kilometers, southeast of Tripoli. On Thursday, pro-Gadhafi forces barraged the port for hours, reportedly adding warships shelling from off shore to their arsenal, in an assault that stunned the once-confident rebels and sent hundreds of their volunteer fighters fleeing in an unorganized retreat.
"They came from the air, they came from the sea, and there were rockets everywhere. It was a big surprise for us," one rebel fighter, Mustafa Mehrik, a 39-year-old coffeeshop owner, said in Brega. "Everyone is worried. Today they say there will bring heavy weapons from Benghazi."
In Tripoli, Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam vowed to retake the eastern half of the country. If government forces take Ras Lanouf, they could threaten the opposition's bastions further east.
"I have two words to our brothers and sisters in the east: We're coming," he told a cheering crowd of young supporters late Thursday. The son depicted Libyans in the east as being held "hostage" by terrorists.
The rebel force at the Ras Lanouf front appeared thinner Friday, perhaps a sign they had yet to regroup from Thursday's blow. The core of the opposition port holding out at the oil facilities appeared to be the more disciplined soldiers from army units that defected and joined the uprising.
At Brega's western entrance, facing Ras Lanouf, there were few rebel fighters to be seen at the checkpoint – usually the scene of many fighters waving their automatic weapons. Few fighters or equipment were seen passing through on the way to Ras Lanouf, except an occasional pickup truck with an anti-aircraft gun mounted on the back. Doctors in Brega said six people were killed in Thursday's fighting, raising their previous count of four.
The assault on Ras Lanouf was a sign of greater confidence in the Gadhafi camp after it first seemed to reel in confusion for the much of the uprising that began Feb. 15.