(Bloomberg) Tony Capaccio - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's better-equipped forces have gained momentum against the rebels trying to drive him from power, senior U.S. intelligence officials said. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday that Gaddafi's forces have superior logistics and that the "regime will prevail" if the war goes on for a long time. "My own view is that the important dimension is logistics, and I think the regime has more logistical forces in terms of the first-line equipment," Clapper said. Gaddafi is relying primarily on two special brigades "which are very, very loyal," Clapper said. "They are the most robustly equipped with Russian equipment to include air defense, artillery, tanks, mechanized equipment, and they appear to be more disciplined about how they treat and repair that equipment." Army Lt.-Gen. Ronald Burgess, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said momentum "has started to shift" to Gaddafi. "We have now reached a state of equilibrium where the initiative may actually be on the regime side." Gaddafi "seems to have staying power," Burgess said.
2011-03-11 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive