Gen. Abdelfatah Yunis, the commander of rebel military forces in Benghazi expressed dissatisfaction on Tuesday with the pace of the NATO/ UN intervention in his country. He worried that Misrata, the country’s 3rd-largest city, might fall altogether any moment. He could not understand why supplies were not delivered promptly to the harbor by NATO ships.
Yunis appears to me to underestimate how hard it is to do precision bombing of small targets from the air, while avoiding civilian casualties. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe underlined on Wednesday morning that his country wants no civilian causalities in the bombing raids.
Qaddafi’s tanks shelled downtown Misrata intensively during the first part of the day. They are said to have killed 2 and wounded 24. Misrata residents also suffer from heavy and continuous sniper fire.
AP reports that the rebel fighting force at Ajdabiya, some 1000 men, is significantly more competent at tactics and maneuvers than it was two weeks ago. With NATO air backing it appears just able to fight the Qaddafi forces to a draw.
Multi-billionaire members of the Qaddafi family and inner circle could do one thing to get US Treasury Department and UN sanctions on their finances lifted. They could break with the dictator, as Moussa Khoussa did last week.
Jordan is now delivering relief supplies to Misrata by airlift. Its jets have also been sent to a European air base in case they should be needed for self-defense. Two other members of the Arab League, Qatar and the UAE, are actively flying air sorties over Libya.
Russia Today reports on the oil politics of the fight:
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