Video: Morale sinks as Libyan rebels lose ground

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2. Closed captioning of: Morale sinks as Libyan rebels lose ground

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   >>> good evening. right about now during these past few days across our country, people are watching this unfolding situation in libya . the rebels versus gadhafi . americans have heard president obama defending the u.s. air campaign he ordered, sending our service members to fight a third concurrent conflict far from home . in our conversation with the president yesterday, he wouldn't rule out or in giving american weapons to these rebels . and now you're going to get to see the rebels we're talking about, the side the u.s. is supporting in this war. we're going to begin tonight with nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel in benghazi, who spent the day with rebel forces on the ground in libya . richard , good evening.

   >> reporter: good evening, brian. gadhafi 's forces are continuing an offensive, driving back the rebels . gadhafi 's troops are also changing tactics, using fewer tanks and more civilian cars to avoid being attacked from the air. the toll is clear on the front line . the rebels seem dejected, many appear confused, somber. no sign of the spirit that brought them just days ago to within striking distance of gadhafi 's hometown, which now seems far away . the rebels have no communications, no commanders, but they do have weapons. artillery, mortars, even surface-to-surface rockets. but no idea how to use them. and their enemy is outthinking them. the terrain has now become a decisive factor in this war, which gadhafi 's forces are using to their advantage. the rebels stay mostly on or near the main tarmaced roads. gadhafi 's forces now in that direction are also on the roads, and they're engaging the rebels , but simultaneously, gadhafi 's troops are also going out in small teams with mortars in jeeps through the open desert to flank around the rebels and catch them in a cross-fire. until now, it's been easy for western pilots to identify and destroy government tanks. but now that gadhafi is using jeeps that look just like the rebels ' vehicles, air support is much harder. on a mission to protect civilians, it's become difficult to know who to bomb. but the rebels do have one invaluable asset, heart. on the front line , we met 25-year-old adnano. from misrata, he was studying in canada, but dropped out of school to come here and fight. he bought his own gun. he doesn't know how to load it. he slept in a car for a week, living on stale bread and tuna fish . he was almost killed today by a rocket attack.

   >> are you okay?

   >> new york ci

   >> no, i'm okay. i don't want about the rockets. i don't care about the rockets. i want to die if i can. it's honor to us, it's freedom. we want freedom.

   >> reporter: to boost their morale, a few rebels gather in a circle to cheer and fire in the air. but they're losing ground fast and have little to celebrate. we saw two things today, brian, that were revealing about the rebels and also terrifying. in one case, the rebels were trying to fire a mortar, but they didn't secure the mortar to the ground, so it fired wildly off to the side. the other case, they, and i'm not making this up, they fired a rocket in the wrong direction, not toward gadhafi forces but backwards into a civilian city.

   >> and so, richard , while things don't look exactly rosy for gadhafi and his own foreign minister defected today to the brits, never a good sign, this does interfere with the story line that at least watching in this country was the rebel progress, all those graphics and maps showing their march westward. now it looks like they're going eastward most of the time.

   >> reporter: they are coming eastward and they are moving very quickly. gadhafi 's forces are now just about an hour and a half drive from here. they were all the way pushed back to sirte. the rebels ' advance has now almost been entirely erased.

   >> all right. richard engel in benghazi in libya tonight. richard , thanks.

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