Libyan rebel army would not know what to do with foreign weapons

Weapons alone do not make a fighting force. It requires discipline, command and the knowledge of how not only to take, but to hold, ground.

The rebel army has little of any of these. Zeal, they have in spades. But the rest is sadly lacking.

Events of the last 24 hours have only exposed how giving them extra weapons is unlikely to be enough to drive them on to Tripoli, especially if training is not provided in how to use them as most in this ad-hoc army have little if any military experience.

As Gaddafi forces went back on the offensive - raining munitions down on the most western of the small towns that the rebels had seized over the weekend - the revolutionaries quickly retreated in increasing panic and disarray.

Yesterday this was seen in Nawfaliyah and Bin Jawad. Today there are reports they are pulling out of the key oil installation at Ras Lanuf and, in one claim, that Gaddafi's men are even advancing on a similar installation in Brega.

In Bin Jawad the scene was one of utter chaos and confusion. One moment the revolutionaries were preparing to storm forward, the next rockets and shells started falling and the pick-up trucks were turning tail with those still on the street running after them to be pulled on board.

A few hours later they were back and claiming the recapture of the coastal town. There was just time for a revolutionary flag to be hoisted before the rockets came again and the same scene of disorderly flight.

No one thought to prepare defences. In Iraq I watched US Marines obsessively digging holes every time they secured a new stretch of land.
In Bin Jawad there was no such forward thinking so when the attack came there was no cover or defences, leaving little choice but to run. The road east was soon clogged with retreating vehicles.

The revolutionaries know that they have a problem. Mustafah Sacuzay, who has been placed in charge of military training, was blunt in criticising their failure to establish "secondary defences" and "support the front line with more fighters" so that when those at the front broke the withdrawal could be stabilised.

To try to improve matters a new military supremo was recently appointed. Colonel Khalife Haffter was trained in the US and become a hero in Libya for his successes in the war against Chad.

He has led the demand for the international community to provide heavy weapons, rockets and communication devices.

Under his orders, army personnel who defected after the uprising have been separated from the "shabab", the hotchpotch of untrained civilians who have taken up arms.

In the recent fighting they sought to operate more tactically, taking strategic positions on high ground and - during the attacks on Monday - launched flanking movements on their enemy.

These military personnel are few, however, and it is the "shabab" that makes up the vast majority of this fighting force. It is hard to see them reaching Sirte let alone Tripoli. Their solution is a near-universal demand for more air strikes to free the ground ahead.

"We need Sarkozy to bomb," said rebel fighter Fideel Deena, the French being viewed by most revolutionaries as responsible for all assistance after they launched the first sortie that stopped the advance on Benghazi. "He must destroy them so we can go forward again."

None talked to believed they could do it by themselves.