Rebels said they had captured the airport and intended to push forward toward the military base after dark.
“There’s been rockets and missiles from us targeting a military base which is there to protect the Ras Lanuf oil terminal,” armed rebel Adel Yahya told Reuters, adding: “This is outside Ras Lanuf itself.”
Flashes, thuds and bangs from heavy weapons resounded from the battlefield, along with wailing sirens and puffs of smoke in the air.
Rebels with heavy artillery were streaming to the front line, backed by anti-aircraft guns mounted on trucks and anti-tank guns. It was not clear if there had been any casualties in the exchange of fire.
Rebel forces, who were about 10 km (six miles) from Ras Lanuf, had been firing for at least one hour toward the base and the army had been defending the position. As dark fell the firing died down as rebels prepared their assault on the base.
Earlier, rebels fired their assault rifles at helicopters overhead which used machine guns on the rebel positions. A helicopter launched a missile which failed to explode.
Ras Lanuf lies about 660 km (410 miles) east of Tripoli.
As the battle raged, fighters chanted: “Where is Obama! We want a no-fly zone!,” referring to the imposition of a no-fly zone which is being considered by the administration of US President Barack Obama among other options for Libya.
“The first aim is to take the military base at the oil terminal,” said Mohamed Mughrabi, a rebel.
As rebels forces engaged the army at Ras Lanuf, the head of Libya’s rebel National Libyan Council told followers in the eastern town of Al Bayda:
“We are people who fight, we don’t surrender. Victory or death. We will not stop till we liberate all this country ... The time of hypocrisy is over.”
The crowd chanted: “Libya is free and Qaddafi must go.”
Ex-justice minister Mustafa Abdel Jalil told cheering crowds: “There could be members of the old regime here among us. Your enemy can still put his people among you. Don’t listen to them and let them ruin our revolution.”
Asked by Reuters what the council would do next, he said: “We will send a message to the West and to all peoples that this is going to be a democratic country.”
On what he wanted from the international community, Abdel Jalil replied: “To help protect the Libyan people from Qaddafi’s assault and help put an end to it.”
The red, black and green flag, adopted by the rebels, waved from buildings and men carrying rifles were posted on roofs and next to the crowd, who were peaceful, enthusiastic and defiant.
Earlier, defiant rebels had vowed to march on Tripoli.
“We’re going to take it all, Ras Lanuf, Tripoli,” Magdi Mohammed, an army defector, fingering the pin of a grenade, told Reuters at a rebel checkpoint on the road to Ras Lanuf.
Rebel units took to the desert to get away from the coastal road after the intervention of their commander who warned that staying on the strategic route was dangerous.
“We’ve fanned out in the desert because this dog Qaddafi has desert cars and fighter planes. It’s harder for them to see us in the desert,” said Adel Al Imami, a former officer with Qaddafi’s brigades, now with the Feb. 17 Martyrs Brigade.
Young men randomly fired guns in the air, and tore around in open top four-wheel-drive trucks, spray painted with slogans or the word “ARMY.” Many had grenades and combat knives strapped to their bodies
There were discipline problems between youths, eager to get to Ras Lanuf, and a regular army defector who was leading them.
“Get back! (from the road) All of you, I told you to get back,” rebel front-line commander and professional soldier Bashir Abdul Gadr shouted at the group of young rebels, one younger than 20 and armed with only a knife.
The young men took to the Sahara in a flanking move, and insisted others should come and reinforce their outpost to push forward to Ras Lanuf.
It was not clear how far behind them were the armored vehicles, including five tanks, this correspondent had seen previously further east or when other rebel forces would reinforce the spearhead group.
Earlier on Friday, a Libyan warplane bombed just beyond the walls of a military base used to store huge amounts of ammunition and now held by rebels in the eastern town of Ajdabiyah but did not hit it.
The base comprises 35 bunkers. Earlier this week, this correspondent was shown one bunker packed with 10,000 tons of ammunition.
