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The coastal highway that runs south from this eastern Libyan city was a tree-lined graveyard Sunday, strung with burnt-out hulls of city buses, military vehicles and trucks. All are signs of the fierce battle over the weekend between rebels and forces loyal to leader Moammar Gadhafi....   >>>

The coastal highway that runs south from this eastern Libyan city was a tree-lined graveyard Sunday, strung with burnt-out hulls of city buses, military vehicles and trucks. All are signs of the fierce battle over the weekend between rebels and forces loyal to leader Moammar Gadhafi.



Local residents streamed to the fields to sightsee and pick up war souvenirs. Among them: 3-foot-long plastic rocket casings and 6-foot-long wooden boxes that had stored rockets.

The highway was the main route of attack by Gadhafi's soldiers, but the rebels succeeded in pushing them back to about 20 miles from Benghazi, the headquarters for the rebellion, according to rebel military spokesman Khalid El-Sai'ih.

The rebels were aided by massive warplane and missile strikes launched Saturday by U.S. and European allies to halt airstrikes by Gadhafi forces that had proven highly effective against the rebels



"People come here just to celebrate," said 39-year-old Hafiz Juma, a petroleum engineer, as youths gathered on top of a burnt truck mounted with multirocket launchers. The youths fired assault weapons that included AK-47s that rebels carry and newer-looking automatic rifles possibly captured from Gadhafi's troops.

The celebratory gunfire became so deafening and dangerous — the bullets caused two leg injuries and one head wound — that older men angrily told the young ones to stop.



**The excerpt is taken from the USA Today article, "Libyan rebels cautiously optimistic after victory" written by Clare Morgana Gillis and linked below. Do click through to read about the foreign intervention in Libya. | Image is from flickr user, BRQ Network http://www.flickr.com/photos/brqnetwork/**