Libyan warplane bombed just beyond the walls of the base in Ajdabiyah

It is the third day in a row that the dictator's air force has bombed areas controlled by opposition fighters.

A Libyan warplane bombed just beyond the walls of the base in Ajdabiyah but did not hit it, rebel volunteers guarding the facility said.

"We were sat here, heard the jet, then the explosion and the earth shook. They fell outside the walls," said Hassan Faraj, who was at an ammunitions store at the Haniyeh base.

Another volunteer guard, Aziz Saleh, said two rockets had been fired. They had landed just outside the walls of the base, he said.

Earlier in the day, rebels said they were are preparing for further attacks by troops loyal to Col Gaddafi.

Anti-regime forces who control the key port city of Zawiyah said they had already started to launch counter-attacks against soldiers who had begun to gather in the area.

One resident of the city said an estimated 2,000 troops had positioned themselves to the south of the city with 80 armoured vehicles headed there from the east.

In the east of the country witnesses reported an air raid on Brega.