qaddafi has so much stockpiled in desert depots that he would literally run out of people before he would run out of ammo.
The Civil War in Libya
- Thread starter solarz
- Start date
qaddafi has so much stockpiled in desert depots that he would literally run out of people before he would run out of ammo.
bladerunner
Banned Idiot
Unless Nato does'nt know where these depots are, why not destroy them?. If Qaddaffi has nothing else to shoot back with, he would then surrender/ give up right?
NATO is attacking the depots, but they just don't have enough planes to strike everywhere. It is worth noting that during the 1980s qaddafi had more jets and tanks (over 2,000) then the UK did.
Semi-Lobster
Junior Member
I agree with your earlier point Finn, for the most part, militarily speaking, the strikes on Tripoli are, seemingly, useless. When the bombing campaign first started they were very effective but by now all these command and control installations in the capital that haven't been hit already have been moved somewhere else, with minimal equipment left inside. Gaddafi isn't stupid, he most likely has many more deep underground military bunkers, like the one under the guest house in Brega where the real war effort is being made. Not that I'm questioning NATO's intelligence and detection equipment but I'm sceptical of the scale of NATO's focus on Tripoli using its very limited resources in the area. Afterall, NATO ships were fired upon my Gaddafi loyalist coastal artillery near Misurata, how do the Loyalists still even have any coastal artillery near Misurata?!
Semi-Lobster
Junior Member
BTW today is the 3 Month anniversary of February 17th, which is considered the first day when the protests in Libya became a civil war. There are rumours flying around that today is supposed to be a big day, possibly an uprising in Tripoli itself, whether this pans out of course, we'll see soon enough.
MwRYum
Major
Well at least the rebels finally heading at the right direction, though things would've been better if they've taken this up earlier.
I'm combing through various types of information from Libya, and as far as I can tell a few interesting tactical things happened in the last few days in The Battle of Misrata.
The rebels seem to be attempting to advance to the West and to the Southeast from the city. The rebel effort lately has concentrated on Tawergha in the southeast and the eastern outskirts of Zilten. They seem to be making minimal progress in the direction of Zilten, but regime forces seem to be quite weak in the southeast. As you can see in the map, something of a salient is forming in the center of the lines parallel to the airport and the Sikkit Farms. Gaddafi forces attempted to infiltrate through that area today because I think the rebel lines are quite sparse in the center. They made it into the area of the farms and the airport but were repulsed. I think that the Gaddafi forces in the central portion of the line will probably try to withdraw and maybe attack rebel positions on the road between the airport and the Tawergha frontline, because there's not really anything meaningful to defend in the center of the map and they risk losing their supply lines if they remain there.
Unless the rebels can get more heavy weapons or a lot more pro-active help from NATO, I think they are reaching the point where they cannot keep expanding out in all directions in Misrata. To the southeast, there is almost nothing but desert, and that doesn't bode well for an all infantry army like the Misrata rebels. Perhaps they can crack the Gaddafi defenses in Zilten, but the regime forces in that area seem to have stopped the rebels cold. There's been reports of a few dozen rebel deaths in that area.
On the wider strategic front, I honestly can't tell what the hell is going on up in the Western Mountains. The situation there is quite confused; it's tough to draw a line on the map and say that one side is rebel held and the other side Gaddafi. What I can say is that the Wazin crossing is still in rebel hands and working but it comes under artillery fire fairly frequently. The rest of the cities in the mountains are in the hands of the rebels too, although areas of the roads between them seem to blocked or occasionally attacked by regime forces and the city of Yefren is under siege and at least partially held by Gaddafi forces. The humanitarian situation in Yefren and the surrounding villages seems to be very bad.
In the east, skirmishes continue between Brega and Ajdabiya. NATO continues to hit Brega occasionally. I think that part of the reason that front has been so quiet is that both sides have been trying to secure their flanks way out in the deep Sahara towns and oil fields. There's no reporters out there so we haven't heard about it. Again, there's rumors that a big rebel offensive against Brega is coming, but I simply can't say one way or another whether they're true or not.
The rebels seem to be attempting to advance to the West and to the Southeast from the city. The rebel effort lately has concentrated on Tawergha in the southeast and the eastern outskirts of Zilten. They seem to be making minimal progress in the direction of Zilten, but regime forces seem to be quite weak in the southeast. As you can see in the map, something of a salient is forming in the center of the lines parallel to the airport and the Sikkit Farms. Gaddafi forces attempted to infiltrate through that area today because I think the rebel lines are quite sparse in the center. They made it into the area of the farms and the airport but were repulsed. I think that the Gaddafi forces in the central portion of the line will probably try to withdraw and maybe attack rebel positions on the road between the airport and the Tawergha frontline, because there's not really anything meaningful to defend in the center of the map and they risk losing their supply lines if they remain there.
Unless the rebels can get more heavy weapons or a lot more pro-active help from NATO, I think they are reaching the point where they cannot keep expanding out in all directions in Misrata. To the southeast, there is almost nothing but desert, and that doesn't bode well for an all infantry army like the Misrata rebels. Perhaps they can crack the Gaddafi defenses in Zilten, but the regime forces in that area seem to have stopped the rebels cold. There's been reports of a few dozen rebel deaths in that area.
On the wider strategic front, I honestly can't tell what the hell is going on up in the Western Mountains. The situation there is quite confused; it's tough to draw a line on the map and say that one side is rebel held and the other side Gaddafi. What I can say is that the Wazin crossing is still in rebel hands and working but it comes under artillery fire fairly frequently. The rest of the cities in the mountains are in the hands of the rebels too, although areas of the roads between them seem to blocked or occasionally attacked by regime forces and the city of Yefren is under siege and at least partially held by Gaddafi forces. The humanitarian situation in Yefren and the surrounding villages seems to be very bad.
In the east, skirmishes continue between Brega and Ajdabiya. NATO continues to hit Brega occasionally. I think that part of the reason that front has been so quiet is that both sides have been trying to secure their flanks way out in the deep Sahara towns and oil fields. There's no reporters out there so we haven't heard about it. Again, there's rumors that a big rebel offensive against Brega is coming, but I simply can't say one way or another whether they're true or not.
NATO has attacked the libyan navy as well last night.
I think regime forces wanted to increasingly interefere with rebel logistics via the sea, wich should have been improving since the Misrata port is safe from artillery shelling now.
It all seems to be a more strategicly oriented air war right now. Keeping the regime somewhat on edge while rebel forces are consolidating and restructuring. Although it doesn't really do much towards progress. I hope and somewhat exspect, that in the near future they'll shift towards tactical air support again, allowing the rebels a significant advance at some point.
There's multiple pockets now, linking these up would be a good thing for the rebels. Something like closing in on Sirt from Ajdabiya and Misrata. Or breaking through towards Ziltan, although rebels must indeed be cautious not to stretch their lines to thin.
I think regime forces wanted to increasingly interefere with rebel logistics via the sea, wich should have been improving since the Misrata port is safe from artillery shelling now.
It all seems to be a more strategicly oriented air war right now. Keeping the regime somewhat on edge while rebel forces are consolidating and restructuring. Although it doesn't really do much towards progress. I hope and somewhat exspect, that in the near future they'll shift towards tactical air support again, allowing the rebels a significant advance at some point.
There's multiple pockets now, linking these up would be a good thing for the rebels. Something like closing in on Sirt from Ajdabiya and Misrata. Or breaking through towards Ziltan, although rebels must indeed be cautious not to stretch their lines to thin.
Semi-Lobster
Junior Member
The Libyan government claims that the vessels bombed were coast guard and rescue but looking at the video provided by the Royal Air Force they were quiet obviously navy vessels, coast guard don't usually have naval artillery on them