Twenty French fighter jets destroyed a number of tanks in Benghazi Saturday, March 19, in the first shots of the Western-Arab operation authorized by the UN Security Council 1973 against Muammar Qaddafi, soon joined by British jet fighters. After the US stated it would not take part in the first action or send troops, a US submarine and UK warships fired 112 Tomahawk missiles at 20 Libyan targets east of Tripoli, among them the Libyan army's supreme command center.

US President Barack Obama Friday, March 18, laid down an ultimatum for Muammar Qaddafi to comply with or else face "military consequences," the key condition being the withdrawal of Libyan troops from three towns including Ajdabiya – tantamount to lifting the siege on Benghazi.  He set no deadline for those withdrawals nor did he demand that the towns in question revert to rebel control or Qaddafi's departure. European and Arab planes expected to start enforcing the no-fly zone over Libya in the next day or two.

The resolution the UN Security Council passed Thursday night, March 17 approved not only a no-fly zone for Libya but also "all necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas under threat of attack" – a mandate for military steps short of invasion. It was carried by 10 votes with Russia, China, Brazil, India and Germany abstaining. The US, British, French, UAE and Qatar air forces are on standby. If attacked, Libya threatens retaliation against civilian and military targets in Europe and the Middle East.

Qaddafi has spent $1.2 billion in a shopping binge for new weapons, some acquired through barter. Libyan rebels only sold arms, mainly chemical weapons to Hizballah and Hamas through Iranian middlemen.

As Washington commended the Arab League for approving a proposed no-fly zone over Libya and European powers drew up plans for saving the anti-Qaddafi movement from defeat, Syria began sending Muammar Qaddafi supplies of arms, ammunition and weapons spare parts to sustain his effort to crush the uprising. In the last 24 hours, rebel militias were pushed out of the two key oil towns of Ras Lanuf and Brega in eastern Libya by pro-Qaddafi troops landed by sea.

A wealth of revelations on the undercover wars waged by the US and Britain in their separate interests on both sides of the Libyan uprising. Muammar Qaddafi, too, has a state of the art system of espionage, eavesdropping and assassins in place. Al Qaeda, too, has looking for pickings ...

First Obama drafted five military options, leaving the impression of a NATO intervention, and then turned his back on the Libyan conflict as Muammar Qaddafi gained ground.

Following Muammar Qaddafi's military successes Tuesday, Western-backed parties Wednesday, March 9, discreetly solicited him on the Libyan rebels' behalf for diplomatic understandings to stop his forces short of marching on rebel-held Cyrenaica in the east, debkafile's exclusive sources report. In return, the rebels would accept an informal ceasefire and let the oil facilities return to normal. Egypt's Field Marshal Tantawi, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and Vienna-based diplomats are leading these early exchanges.

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.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly's next issue out Friday has a wealth of revelations on the undercover wars waged by the US and Britain in their separate interests on both sides of the Libyan uprising. They are not alone. The US is setting military-intelligence infrastructure in place for military intervention – notwithstanding the ongoing debate in Washington; Muammar Qaddafi is drawing greater empowerment from the revolt; and Al Qaeda, too, has chosen its role in the upheaval.

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US President Barack Obama launched a number of diplomatic and military steps Monday March 7 pointing toward preparation for US and NATO intervention in the Libyan civil war - notwithstanding objections from the Pentagon and US military chiefs. debkafile's sources report the administration was behind the UAE appeal Monday for UN Security Council protection for the Libyan people. The UAE was clearly seeking a mandate for military action, but Moscow quickly declared its opposition to any foreign intervention in Libya.

Sunday, March 6, pro-Qaddafi forces followed up their gains of Saturday - a cluster of Gulf of Sirte (Sidra) towns east of Tripoli and Zawiya west of the capital - by breaking through to the bridge leading to the center of the key town of Misratah. Rebel forces preparing for a last stand in the town were bombarded from the sea, while the anti-Qaddafi forces heading for Sirte were pounded from the air. Several army colonels defected to the opposition.

The pro-Qaddafi forces' offensive to recover Libya's most important towns and oil centers, launched Friday, March 4, resulted Saturday in the recapture of the key town of Zawiya and most of the oil facilities around the Gulf of Sirte.  In Washington and London, talk of military intervention on the side of the Libyan opposition was muted by the realization that field intelligence on both sides of the Libyan conflict was too sketchy to serve as a basis for decision-making.

Obama is at odds with his two top officials on the Arab revolt, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Gates opposes president's drive for military action to unseat Qaddafi. Clinton opposes the president's pro-Iran drive.

Middle East intelligence chiefs believe the Libyan uprising exposed for the first time the cogs of the machinery manipulated by its wire-pullers to foment unrest. This revelation will color America's reputation in the region for many years to come.

Most worrisome question for Middle East rulers is this: How come that all the revolts in Arab countries have somehow benefited Tehran and its allies? Unease is growing in Israel over US policy the uprisings and the changing regional landscape in favor of its enemies.

Barring changes in the military situation, Muammar Qaddafi looked Wednesday, March 2, like averting the immediate danger of his regime's collapse by dint of a successful counter-offensive against rebel forces. During the day, his armored forces and commandos supported by the Libyan Air Force recaptured parts of Brega, Libya's refinery city, and sections of the Bay of Sirte town of Ajdabiya. In Washington, the Pentagon poured cold water on the prospects of military intervention.

The US is weighing military intervention to break the standoff between Muammar Qaddafi's army and rebel forces over the towns commanding the roads to the capital Tripoli where Qaddafi is barricaded. Pentagon spokesman Col. David Lapan stated Monday, Feb. 28 that the US "is repositioning its naval and air forces around Libya." His reference to "various contingency plans" related to the USS Enterprise and USS Kearsarge with 1,800 marines aboard soon to be redeployed off Libya.

Hours after the UN Security Council unanimously imposed sanctions on Col. Muammar Qaddafi and his regime, his reactivated air force was flying troop and tribal reinforcements from the south and landing them at the military airfields of Tripoli, Misrata and Sirte, debkafile's military sources report. They were immediately deployed Sunday night, Feb. 27 at the main road intersections leading to the capital.  This move lessened the military significance of the rebels' reported takeover of towns around Tripoli, including Al Zawiya. 

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: