por admin » Mar Mar 01, 2011 6:32 pm
US envio dos barcos y 400 marinos a las costas de Libia el Martes. Pero Obama no dijo que US intervendria en la creciente guerra civil de Libia.
Gates, el secretario de Defensa, anuncio que habia ordenado dos buques (que transportan helicopteros) Los Marinos seran transportados aereamente a los buques. (wow! - me gustaria ver eso)
U.S. Orders Ships to Libya as Battle Lines Harden
By JULIAN E. BARNES in Washington, MARGARET COKER in Tripoli and CHARLES LEVINSON in Benghazi, Libya
The U.S. ordered two warships and 400 Marines to the waters off Libya on Tuesday, but a top Obama administration official stopped short of saying the forces would intervene in the country's growing civil war.
At a Pentagon briefing, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced he had ordered to the Mediterranean the USS Ponce and the USS Kearsarge, an amphibious-assault ship that typically carries V-22 Ospreys and MH-53E troop-transport helicopters. The Marines, currently in the U.S., will be airlifted to meet the ships.
Mr. Gates wouldn't specify the military options he has offered President Barack Obama. But he sounded a note of caution about sending U.S. forces into Libya. "We have to think about the use of the U.S. military in another country in the Middle East," Mr. Gates said. "We are sensitive about all these things."
Inside Libya, battle lines hardened, with forces loyal to Col. Moammar Gadhafi blocking the advance of rebel forces based in the eastern stronghold of Benghazi. But their spread has been interrupted, with pro-government forces retaking Ras Lanuf, in the central part of the country. Meanwhile, cities in the west that rose up independently from the central government, most notably the country's third-largest city Misrata, have successfully withstood government attempts to regain control.
Mr. Gates said he didn't know how large an army the rebels had raised, or how many casualties the opposition forces have suffered. "It remains to be seen how effectively military leaders who have defected from Gadhafi's forces can organize the opposition in the country," he said.
The anti-government uprising in Libya quickly became the most violent of all the protests gripping the Arab world. Col. Gadhafi's main support resides in the western part of the country, and he retained a strong grip on Tripoli, Sebha and Sirte, his hometown.
In some towns, control is more complicated. For example, in Zawiya, 30 miles west of Tripoli, rebels controlled the center of the city Tuesday, while pro-government forces surrounded it. Witness said that pro-government forces have moved their checkpoints closer to central Zawiya, increasing their control over several neighborhoods.
Libya's deputy foreign minister, Khalid Kaid, denied reports that the government had attacked opposition forces in Zawiya's central square. He said negotiations between the government and tribal leaders would start Wednesday in Tripoli.
Some U.S. officials don't believe the civil war will be protracted, instead predicting that members of Col. Gadhafi's inner circle will attempt to assassinate the leader in the days or weeks to come.
The officials said they believe aides to Col. Gadhafi will move against him if members of his elite regime-protection brigades begin to defect. A senior U.S. official said as the rebellion spreads, an assassination attempt on Col. Gadhafi "seems more plausible."
"The best outcome for those Libyan leaders who are defecting will be [to put] two bullets into the heads of Gadhafi and his son," the official said.
For now, the elite brigades remain "the most enthusiastically loyal" to the dictator, and neither officials in Washington nor witnesses in Libya have seen any defections from the elite units so far.
"It is clear to us he still has command and control of some forces," said a military official in Washington. "He still has combat power at his disposal."
Col. Gadhafi established the brigades of elite soldiers as a regime-protection force, designed to guard against a coup by the conscript forces of the regular army, U.S. officials said. One of Mr. Gadhafi's sons, Khamis, leads the 32nd Brigade, which is Tripoli's main defense.
Power and control of the elite brigades is concentrated at the top, and the Libyan military does not allow lower-ranking officers to make decisions or take initiative. A retired Western military official said if the top commanders of the elite brigades defect, the troops underneath them would likely crumble.
Western analysts put the strength of the regime-protection force before the civil war at between 10,000 and 12,000 men.
The brigades occupying Tripoli have at their command 54 Russian-made tanks and 24 heavy artillery pieces, according to the retired Western military official. Witnesses in Libya said the tanks have been positioned in recent days in a defensive cordon along the southeastern outskirts of the capital.
Unlike members of the regular conscript army, who earn $450 a month, the troops in the regime-protection brigades are well-paid and equipped with modern weaponry. The units have received training from former British officers and within the last three years Khamis Gadhafi completed a commander's course in Russia, according to the retired Western official.
"The whole purpose of these forces has been to keep the leader in his capital," he said. "That's the design and the commanders are people considered the most likely to fulfill this plan."
In addition to the elite brigades, paramilitary forces help secure the capital for Col. Gadhafi. A person familiar with the colonel's inner circle said loyalists from the country's revolutionary committees command many of these paramilitary forces. The committee leaders include business oligarchs who have been rewarded with lucrative state contracts as well as military political commissars.
The rebels were able to relatively easily raise an army because all Libyan men serve in the conscript army and national guard. The rebels have armed themselves with weaponry and munitions looted from captured military bases in the east.
Over the long term, the new sanctions imposed on Libya will make it difficult for Col. Gadhafi to resupply the elite units.
But current and former officials are skeptical the asset freezes and sanctions will have an immediate effect. Col. Gadhafi may be able to tap black-market sources for short-term armaments needs. Although much of his wealth overseas has been frozen, Col. Gadhafi has access to cash to pay for such purchases.
Col. Gadhafi also has long-time ties with rebels in neighboring Chad, who may be able to supply the Libyan government with arms, circumventing sanctions or a naval blockade. "With billions in cash, there is always somebody he can get something from," said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Libya watchers disagree over the stability of Col. Gadhafi's inner circle. Mr. Alterman and U.S. officials said they believe that senior military leaders will move against the colonel in the coming weeks, long before the military feels the pinch of sanctions.
Mr. Alterman said the key task of U.S., Saudi and other allied intelligence agencies is convincing members of the elite brigades to defect—or to move against Col Gadhafi.
"Part of the intelligence task," he said, "is convincing people to defect. Part of the intelligence task is persuading people they have alternatives."
Jason Pack, a Libya scholar at Oxford University, said while the leader's inner circle is divided, he doesn't expect more defections of top officials. Military leaders close to Gadhafi would have little future in Libya under a new government.
"Those who have been able to defect have done so, those [are the people] who may have a future in the post Gadhafi Libya," Mr. Pack said. "But the real retrograde elements, they have to fight because they have no future. That is the difference between Libya and Tunisia or Egypt. In Libya, the closest ones can't defect. They have no options for the future."