Libyan rebels scrawl graffiti on a wall near a hospital in Ras Lanuf, March 27, 2011. The wall was previously defaced, in green, by Gaddafi troops.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
TIME contract photographer Yuri Kozyrev is in eastern Libya, documenting the battle between Gaddafi loyalists and rebel forces. Though he’s been covering conflict for years, he said this is the most dangerous place he’s worked. “It’s like Russian roulette,” he said. “Nobody knows where the bomb will fall.” There were “helicopters shooting at us, rockets — it was heavy. There was no place to hide.”
Kozyrev spoke to TIME as Libyan rebels, emboldened by allied airstrikes, pushed westward toward Sert, birthplace of Muammar Gaddafi. “When we reached the western gate outside of Ajdabiyah, the rebels told us tamam, good all the way to Brega. We followed the rebel trucks to Ras Lanouf. As we pushed forward, more rebels stayed behind, camping on the highway.”
“We have been chasing the rebels all day,” he wrote Sunday, from an abandoned, looted hotel in Ras Lanouf. The highway behind them was littered with crippled tanks, trucks, cars and stores of unspent ammunition. “Gaddafi’s troops appear to have left in a hurry,” he wrote, “abandoning ammunition and disappearing without a fight.”
However, the tables turned Tuesday as the rebels, pounded by Gaddafi missile fire, fled east – again. “Gaddafi’s troops have been moving fast,” Kozyrev wrote in an email Wednesday. “They drive in trucks now. It will be hard to hit them by air strikes – if there will be any.”
Libyan rebels scrawl graffiti on a wall near a hospital in Ras Lanuf, March 27, 2011. The wall was previously defaced, in green, by Gaddafi troops.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEA Libyan rebel soldier, armed with a knife, on the outskirts of Bin Jawad, March 29, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMERebels retreat in a traffic jam of gun trucks and civilian cars outside of Bin Jawad, March 29, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMELibyan rebels retreat from Bin Jawad, after Gaddafi forces pounded them with missile fire, March 29, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMERebel soldiers on the highway near Bin Jawad, March 28, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMELibyan rebel soldiers gather near Bin Jawad, March 28, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEA wounded rebel is treated at the hospital in Ras Lanuf, March 29, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMELibyan rebels celebrate on top of a Gaddafi loyalist tank outside of Ajdabiyah, March 26, 2011. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMELibyan rebels outside the town of Bin Jawad, March 27, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEA Libyan rebel stands over the dead body of a Gaddafi soldier killed during an allied airstrike, March 26, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEAllied airstrikes left a battlefield of charred remains outside of Ajdabiyah, March 26, 2011. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMELibyan rebels near a destroyed Gaddafi tank near Ajdabiyah, March 26, 2011. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMELibyan rebels collect the bodies of dead Gaddafi soldiers killed during allied airstrikes, March 26, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMELibyan rebels celebrate the retaking of Ajdabiyah near a smoldering tank, March 26, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEA Libyan rebel surveys the landscape near Brega, March 26, 2011. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEA rebel stands on the turret of a destroyed Libyan tank outside the city of Ajdabiyah, where hundreds of fighters have gathered, March 23, 2011.
Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMELibyan rebels gather outside the city of Ajdabiyah, March 22, 2011. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMERebel fighters scatter under fire outside the city of Ajdabiyah, March 22, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEThe battlefield in Ras Lanuf, March 11, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMERebels flee under fire from the Libyan army in Ras Lanuf, March 11, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMERebels move across the battlefield near the oil town of Ras Lanuf, March 11, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMERebels fire towards Libyan army planes, March 11, 2011. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEA damaged oil facility burns as a man prays in Ras Lanuf, March 11, 2011. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMELibyan rebels raise their flag at a checkpoint in Ras Lanuf, March 8, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMELibyan rebels advance during a battle with government troops as an oil facility burns, March 9, 2011. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMERebels take cover while battling government troops in Ras Lanuf, March 9, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMERebels fire rockets toward government positions in Ras Lanuf, March 9, 2011. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMERebels fire an anti-aircraft gun at Libyan jets near a checkpoint in Ras Lanuf, March 7, 2011. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEA Libyan rebel prays near the front line in Bin Jawad, March 6, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMERebels return fire on a government helicopter in Bin Jawad, March 6, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEA rebel fires a rocket propelled grenade at Libyan troops near the frontline near Bin Jawad, March 6, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMELibyan rebels embrace after retreating near Bin Jawad, March 6, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEA rebel fires towards a Libyan government helicopter during a firefight in Bin Jawad, March 5, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEAn ambulance burns after a battle in Brega, March 2, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEAn ambulance burns after a battle between rebels and the Libyan army in Brega, March 2, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMELibyan rebels before battle, March 2, 2011.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMERebels celebrate as they pass a destroyed Libyan army vehicle, March 2, 2011. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
