reporter: they are trying to push through sirte, but they are meeting resistance. for the first time, really, in the desert on the outskirts of sirte. we saw rebels today in footage taken from the area retreating from the gadhafi s forces that were firing artilleries and what appears to be tank shells on the rebels. they advanced from ajdabiya, from here in benghazi, and were able to go about 350 miles completely unchecked. they were able to make this rapid advance because of the western air strikes that have destroyed so much of gadhafi s heavy armor, heavy artillery, but gadhafi remains dug in in sirte, it is his hometown, and he has a tribal base there, and it s very important that gadhafi hold sirte because if he were to lose it, and the rebels were able to take sirte, they would quickly move on from sirte, go to misrata, about 130 miles away, and be right on the doorstep of tripoli. richard, i have to ask you about some disturbing reports that have come out that some of