A disheartening report from the Financial Times illustrating just how ramshackle the Libyan rebellion is. The upshot: the opposition is poorly armed and poorly trained, with no real plan, and defecting regular military units have been slow to reorganize and break out from Benghazi to join their cause. Worse, the western no-fly zone is providing only incidental cover for a counterattack against Qaddafi forces, and at some points of engagement — such as the critical Ajdabiyah — the rebel advance is being halted by as few as three to five tanks.
“We have no plan. We are just going like this. We have no army,” says one rebel volunteer. “It’s not a good thing but we have no choice. We are fighting to win or die.”
Another rebel, Jamal Bennour says there were two ways the “people can win”
. . . either an uprising against Col Gaddafi by powerful tribes in Sirte or the defection of officers loyal to the leader. “It’s a kind of gamble,” he said. “It’s a matter of time, for sure it will happen.”
More here.