Libya struggles amid stalemated conflict

English.news.cn 2011-08-11 20:44:11

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BENGHAZI, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Libyan rebels strengthened the efforts to push forward their troops to Tripoli in the west front following NATO's biggest ever air strike on the Libyan capital on Tuesday.

The rebels seemed to have made some advances in the west front. Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani, a military spokesman based in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, said that "Zliten will never return to be at the hand of (Libyan leader Muammar) Gaddafi," while both the rebels and Gaddafi forces claimed control of Bir Ghanam, a town about 80 kilometers south of Tripoli.

In the east front, fighting lingers on at Brega, an oil port about 750 km east of Tripoli.

The Libyan conflict became stalemate since both the rebels and Gaddafi know that they cannot afford to lose strategic places like Brega, Bir Ghanam and Tripoli, while both are not able to break the balance at one stroke, neither does the rebels' Western supporters can.

While Gaddafi is still ruling over half the country, the rebel camp might face a possible split after its military chief Abdel Fattah Younes was killed and the American and European attention was attracted by their own economic woes and riots at home.

Maybe, just as a joke goes, the only way out of the stalemate was for Gaddafi to suffer a stroke, since there is "little left to bomb now."

There are also few things for Gaddafi to do but to criticize through the TV the air strikes for causing civilian deaths, in an effort to win public opinions.

The rebels, however, have already gone into action to quell the possible inside division and dissatisfaction of their Western supporters.

Libya's rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) disbanded its executive board and assigned leader Mahmoud Jibril to form a new one, said Khaled Zayed, a senior official from the NTC, on Monday.

The step was concerned with the circumstances that led to the killing of Younes days ago while he was presumably escorted to answer a summons by the NTC, Zayed said.

The outcome of the stalemated conflict is not yet to know, but one thing is for sure, that is, the longer this war goes on, the less likely we are to see any sort of political outcome that benefits Libya's war-afflicted people.

When the stalemated conflict will end, only time can tell.