After three weeks of savage warfare,  Col. Muammar Qaddafi reached the tipping point of his offensive against rebel forces Tuesday, March 8  and his troops are advancing toward Ajdabiya, their first destination in the rebel-held eastern region of Cyrenaica, debkafile's military sources report. Seriously outgunned, the anti-Qaddafi militias appear to have folded and are no longer able to post a defense line to stop the government advance. Their appeals for outside aid fall on deaf ears.

Hundreds of US, British and French military advisers have arrived in Cyrenaica, Libya's eastern breakaway province, debkafile's military sources report exclusively. This is the first time America and Europe have intervened militarily in any of the popular upheavals rolling through the Middle East since Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution in early January.  The advisers, including intelligence officers, were dropped from warships and missile boats at the coastal towns of Benghazi and Tobruk Thursday Feb. 24, for a threefold mission:

Muammar Qaddafi's 42-year rule of Libya appeared to have begun disintegrating Monday, Feb. 21, as civil war swept the country with no sign of him quitting. Instead, he ordered the army to redouble its brutal assaults on the opposition. The Air Force began bombing crowds at random – except for pilots who preferred to defect and fled with their warplanes to Malta - while army tanks and armored vehicles fired live ammunition.  The day's casualties were estimated at 600, with 250 in Tripoli.