AJDABIYA, Libya – Moammar Gadhafi's ground forces
recaptured a strategic oil town Wednesday and moved within striking
distance of another major eastern city, nearly reversing the gains
rebels made since international airstrikes began. Rebels pleaded for
more help, while a U.S. official said government forces are making
themselves harder to target by using civilian "battle wagons" with
makeshift armaments instead of tanks.
Western powers kept up the pressure to force Gadhafi
out with new airstrikes in other parts of Libya, hints that they may arm
the opposition and intense negotiations behind the scenes to find a
country to give haven to Libya's leader of more than 40 years.
Also on Wednesday, an American official and former
U.S. intelligence officer told The Associated Press that CIA operatives
were sent to Libya this month after the agency's station in the capital
was forced to close. CIA officers also assisted in rescuing one of two
crew members of an F-15E Strike Eagle that crashed, they said. They
spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the
information.
Even as it advanced militarily, Gadhafi's regime
suffered a blow to its inner circle with the apparent defection of
Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa. Koussa flew from Tunisia to an airport
outside London and announced he was resigning from his post, according
to a statement from the British government.
Moussa Ibrahim, a Libyan government spokesman in
Tripoli, denied that the foreign minister has defected saying he was in
London on a "diplomatic mission."
It was not immediately possible to confirm either statement with Moussa or people close to him.
Gadhafi's justice and interior ministers resigned
shortly after the uprising began last month, but Koussa would be the
first high-profile resignation since the international air campaign
began.
Airstrikes have neutralized Gadhafi's air force and
pounded his army, but his ground forces remain far better armed, trained
and organized than the opposition.
The shift in momentum back to the government's side
is hardening a U.S. view that the poorly equipped opposition is probably
incapable of prevailing without decisive Western intervention — either
an all-out U.S.-led military assault on regime forces or a decision to
arm the rebels.
In Washington, congressional Republicans and
Democrats peppered senior administration officials with questions about
how long the U.S. will be involved in Libya, the operation's costs and
whether foreign countries will arm the rebels.
NATO is taking over control of the airstrikes, which
began as a U.S.-led operation. Diplomats said they have given approval
for the NATO operation's commander, Canadian Gen. Charles Bouchard, to
announce a handover Thursday.
Intelligence experts said the CIA operatives that
were sent to Libya would have made contact with the opposition and
assessed the rebel forces' strength and needs if Obama decided to arm
them.
The New York Times first reported that the CIA had sent in operatives and that British operatives were directing airstrikes.
Gadhafi's forces have adopted a new tactic in light
of the pounding that airstrikes have given their tanks and armored
vehicles, a senior U.S. intelligence official said. They've left some of
those weapons behind in favor of a "gaggle" of "battle wagons":
minivans, sedans and SUVs fitted with weapons, said the official, who
spoke anonymously in order to discuss sensitive U.S. intelligence on the
condition and capabilities of rebel and regime forces. Rebel fighters
also said Gadhafi's troops were increasingly using civilian vehicles in
battle.
The change not only makes it harder to distinguish
Gadhafi's forces from the rebels, it also requires less logistical
support, the official said.
The official said airstrikes have degraded Gadhafi's
forces since they were launched March 19, but the regime forces still
outmatch those of the opposition "by far," and few members of Gadhafi's
military have defected lately.
The disparity was obvious as government forces pushed
back rebels about 100 miles (160 kilometers) in just two days. The
rebels had been closing in on the strategic city of Sirte, Gadhafi's
hometown and a bastion of support for the longtime leader, but under
heavy shelling they retreated from Bin Jawwad on Tuesday and from the
oil port of Ras Lanouf on Wednesday.
Gadhafi's forces were shelling Brega, another
important oil city east of Ras Lanouf. East of the city in Ajdabiya,
where many rebels had regrouped, Col. Abdullah Hadi said he expected the
loyalists to enter Brega by Wednesday night.
"I ask NATO for just one aircraft to push them back. All we need is air
cover and we could do this. They should be helping us," Hadi said.
The battlefield setbacks are hardening a U.S. view that the opposition
is probably incapable of prevailing without decisive Western
intervention, a senior U.S. intelligence official told The Associated
Press, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Obama's director of national intelligence, James Clapper, compared the rebel forces to a "pick-up basketball team."
Gadhafi's forces also have laid land mines in the eastern outskirts of
Adjabiya, an area they held from March 17 until Saturday, when
airstrikes drove them west, according to Human Rights Watch.
The New York-based group cited the electricity director for eastern
Libya, Abdal Minam al-Shanti, who said two anti-personnel mines
detonated when a truck ran over them, but no one was hurt. Al-Shanti
said a civil defense team found and disarmed more than 50 mines in what
Human Rights Watch described as a heavily traveled area.
NATO planes flew over the zone where the heaviest fighting was under way
earlier Wednesday and an Associated Press reporter at the scene heard
explosions, but it was unclear whether any airstrikes hit the area. U.S.
Marine Corps Capt. Clint Gebke, a spokesman for the NATO operation
aboard the USS Mount Whitney, said he could not confirm any specific
strikes but that Western aircraft were engaging pro-Gadhafi forces in
areas including Sirte and Misrata, the rebels' last significant holdout
in western Libya.
The retreat Wednesday looked like a mad scramble: Pickup trucks, with
mattresses and boxes tied on, driving east at 100 mph (160 kilometers
per hour).
And as the fighting approached Ajdabiya, residents there made an exodus
of their own. The road to the rebels' de-facto capital, Benghazi, was
packed with vehicles, most of them full of families and their
belongings. Streets on the western side of Ajdabiya were deserted and
silent.
Rebel military spokesman Col. Ahmed Bani said the rebels had made a
"tactical retreat" to Ajdabiya and will set up defensive positions
there. "Even with courage and determination, the forces need power to be
able to fight back," he said.
Bani said he heard from three sources, including one in Chad, that 3,200
to 3,600 heavily armed members of the Chadian presidential guard were
marching from Sirte toward Ajdabiya. The report could not be
independently confirmed.
As Gadhafi's forces push rebels toward Benghazi, some 140 miles (220
kilometers) northeast of Brega, pressure is growing for NATO members and
other supporters of the air campaign to do more.
Prime Minister David Cameron said Britain believes a legal loophole
could allow nations to supply weapons to Libya's rebels — but stressed
the U.K. has not decided whether it will offer assistance to the rebels.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday that
Washington also believes it would be legal to give the rebels weapons.
"No decision has been made about providing arms to the opposition or to
any groups in Libya," said White House press secretary Jay Carney.
"We're not ruling it out or ruling it in."
NATO officials and diplomats said the alliance had not considered arming
the rebels. Any alliance involvement would require support from all 28
members, a difficult task, and an alliance official who could not be
named under standing regulations said NATO "wouldn't even consider doing
anything else" without a new U.N. resolution.
China, Russia and Germany oppose supplying weapons to the rebels.
Under the U.N. resolution authorizing necessary measures to protect
civilians, nations supplying weapons would need to be satisfied they
would be used only to defend civilians — not to take the offensive to
Gadhafi's forces.
Chinese President Hu Jintao said the operation already had gone too far.
He called for an immediate cease-fire and admonished French President
Nicolas Sarkozy at a diplomatic meeting in Beijing. Hu called for
peaceful efforts to restore stability, expressed China's concern that
Libya may end up divided and said force would complicate a negotiated
settlement.
Diplomats were attempting to persuade Gadhafi to leave without military force.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said negotiations on securing
Gadhafi's exit were being conducted with "absolute discretion" and that
there were options on the table that hadn't yet been formalized.
"What is indispensable is that there be countries that are willing to
welcome Gadhafi and his family, obviously to end this situation which
otherwise could go on for some time," he said. But the Italian diplomat
insisted immunity for Gadhafi was not an option.
Uganda became the first country to publicly offer Gadhafi refuge. The
spokesman for Uganda's president, Tamale Mirundi, told the AP on
Wednesday that he would be welcome there.
Gadhafi has shown no public sign he might leave power, vowing to fight
until the end. His forces were continuing to besiege Misrata, the
rebels' main western holdout.
An activist in Misrata said there have been power outages, and water
service was cut off so residents must rely on wells, but the biggest
problem was a lack of medical supplies such as anesthesia and
sterilizers, along with diapers and baby formula. Four people in the
town were killed Tuesday, the activist said.
Libyan officials took journalists to the home of a family who said their
18-month-old son was killed in an airstrike Tuesday morning against an
ammunition dump in the mountain village of Khorum, 55 miles (90
kilometers) south of Tripoli. They say their home was hit by a stray
missile when the dump was hit. Their account could not be independently
confirmed.
British and other diplomats were involved in negotiations with the rebel
leadership in Benghazi. Cameron's spokesman Steve Field said it was
partly to gauge if the opposition would be trustworthy allies —
"learning more about their intentions."
NATO's top commander, U.S. Navy Adm. James Stavridis, has said officials
have seen "flickers" of possible al-Qaida and Hezbollah involvement
with the rebel forces. Bani, the rebel military spokesman, dismissed
accusations that al-Qaida elements are fighting with the rebels.
"If there are elements that were with al-Qaida in the past and they are
now in Libya, they are now fighting for Libya, not for al-Qaida," he
said, emphasizing the word "if."
___
Associated Press writers Ben Hubbard in Benghazi, Hadeel al-Shalchi in
Tripoli, Robert Burns in Washington, David Stringer in London, Slobodan
Lekic in Brussels, Angela Charlton in Paris, Godfrey Olukya in Kampala,
Uganda, and Christopher Bodeen in Beijing contributed to this report.
موضوع: Gadhafi's forces adapt to airstrikes, pound rebels 
2011-03-31, 10:24 am
