by Selim Saheb Ettaba

BREGA, March 3, 2011 (AFP) - The mood among Libyan rebels on the front line swung on Thursday between joy at having repelled Moamer Kadhafi's troops at Brega, and pure panic at the mere mention of approaching African soldiers of fortune.

"We have heard so many rumours. Last night, someone said a convoy was coming. then this morning, then a little later, but no one has seen it," sighed Abdelrahman, a 32-year-old engineer from Benghazi, 200 km (120 miles) east of Brega, without revealing his family name.

"We're waiting for them," he added, sitting with his brothers-in-arms at the entrance to Brega's oil refinery, which until Wednesday was occupied by the regime.

"Most of them were African mercenaries but there were also some Libyan soldiers," said Abdeljalil Abdelrazzaq, a local young rebel ever-present during the fighting for Brega, which was bombed by the regime on Thursday morning in an air raid that left two craters near the oil installation.

Abdeljalil proudly showed the Kalashnikov assault rifle which he said was among 14 taken from "African mercenaries", who have been used as auxiliary forces in repressing the uprising due to the defection of whole units of the regular army.

Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi has also enlisted the help of several hundred ethnic Tuareg fighters, Malian officials said on Thursday.

One fighter in a red beret, wearing a cartridge belt over his shoulders like a shawl, stood on the platform of a pick-up truck. "We will win or we will die," he shouted.

The sudden arrival of an ambulance at Brega's hospital sent a wave of fear around, but anxiety gave way to embarrassed relief when a middle-aged man in uniform emerged from the vehicle on a stretcher.

Accompanied by a crying colleague, he had shot himself in the groin while handling an unfamiliar weapon, according to first-aiders.

"There were three fatalities among the attackers, all Africans, of whom only one had identity papers -- from Niger," said Dr Abdelfattah al-Moghrabi, the hospital's director of logistics.

However, at the University of Brega, which was occupied briefly by pro-Kadhafi forces, head of security Atiallah Hamed Abdel Moula said he had "not seen any African mercenaries."

Shops were shuttered in Brega and in Ajdabiya, 80 km (50 miles) to the east, where some 1,500 people attended funerals of six people killed the day before.

"The blood of the martyrs was not spilled in vain," chanted the crowd.

"We have just buried six martyrs who died for their country," said Mohammed Kabach, a venerable septuagenarian wearing traditional Muslim attire.

"There will be many more because he is a criminal who will never stop killing," he added in reference to Kadhafi. "There will still have to be a lot more blood."

Meanwhile an AFP reporter on the western side of Ajdabiya saw volunteers, including some defected soldiers, with machine-guns and other armaments driving towards Brega in about 10 vehicles, including three tanks.

People lined the road, cheering them on with chants of "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest).

A group of teenagers hung off the tank turrets, while one vehicle was spray painted in red with the words "the army of Benghazi".

An anti-aircraft gun parked in the desert about 50 metres (yards) from the road fired practice rounds.

Bakr, 25, an unemployed volunteer, said some young men had taught him how to use an anti-tank cannon.

"All the people are with the revolution now. We want to live another life to the one we lived under Kadhafi," he said.