After days of Western air strikes, some people in the Libyan capital felt bold enough on Tuesday to drop their customary praise of leader Muammar Gaddafi for a few moments and say instead they want him gone.
Residents who spoke to Reuters reporters in Tripoli were still too wary to give their names, and switched back to extolling Gadhafi when officials came within earshot.
But their willingness to openly criticize the man who has led the country for four decades was a marked change from the normal pattern, when people have been too frightened of retribution to speak candidly to reporters in the street.
“Here, everyone is waiting. It’s not like before,” said one man, who steered a reporter away from a government minder towards a coffee shop in Tripoli’s medina, or old city, so he could speak freely.
“My children are afraid but I know it’s all changing. This is the end. The government has no control any more.”
Keeping public opinion on his side in Tripoli is vital to Gadhafi’s grip on power because the capital is his biggest remaining stronghold, after the next two biggest cities in Libya were taken over by rebels.
In the medina, the sound of pro-Gadhafi songs could be heard from nearby Green Square, where a handful of supporters was holding a rally. Their numbers were sharply down on the thousands who were gathering a few weeks ago.
Isa, a bespectacled businessman with family in Britain, praised Gadhafi when a minder was close, but when the official moved away he changed tack.
“This is the moment. It’s critical. The bombs are booming at night. But we are watching the sky and we see the world is trying to help,” he said.
A man working in a clothing shop did not want to give his name because he said it was too risky for him to be identified, but he did say: “We want Gadhafi to go.”
“We are happy that the West is attacking his forces but we don’t want them to get rid of him. We want to do it ourselves. Libyans should get rid of him.”
In another change from the usual reticence shown by people in Tripoli around foreign reporters, a man working in a jewelry shop gave his opinion without being asked.
“He (Gadhafi) should have handled it differently. He opened fire on those protesters. They had a legitimate cause. We want changes in this country now.”
Mr. Gadhafi and his officials say the rebels are al Qaeda militants who are trying to destroy the country.
“Don’t believe any of this,” said the man in the jewelry shop. “It has nothing to do with al Qaeda.”
“These are protests against the system. We all know that Gadhafi is the problem,” he said. Moments later a minder walked into the shop and the shopkeeper fell silent.
Coalition forces pounded Libyan military targets with 24 more Tomahawk missiles, expanding the no-fly zone over the North African nation but suffering the loss of a U.S. fighter jet, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
The two dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from U.S. and British submarines in the last 24 hours, a defence official said early Tuesday on condition of anonymity because he spoke before the daily Pentagon briefing on the operation. That brought to about 160 the number of Tomahawk strikes aimed at disabling Libyan command and control facilities, air defences and other targets since the operation started Saturday, the official said.
He said the strikes overnight Monday and into Tuesday effectively extended the area covered by the no-fly zone, but declined to describe how large the zone had become.
Mr. Gadhafi's forces shelled rebels regrouping in the desert dunes outside a strategic eastern city on Tuesday, and his snipers and tanks roamed the streets of Misrata, the last major opposition-held city in the west, signalling a prolonged battle ahead.
Disorganization among the rebels could hamper their attempts to exploit the air campaign by U.S. and European militaries, who themselves have struggled to articulate an endgame. Since the uprising began on Feb. 15, the opposition has been made up of disparate groups even as it took control of the entire east of the country.
Regular citizens — residents of the “liberated” areas — formed an enthusiastic but undisciplined force that in the past weeks has charged ahead to fight Gadhafi forces, only to be beaten back by superior firepower. Regular army units that joined the rebellion have proven stronger and more organized, but only a few units have joined the battles while many have stayed behind as officers struggle to get together often antiquated, limited equipment and form a co-ordinated force.
The ragtag band of hundreds of fighters who made their way to the outskirts of Ajdabiya on Tuesday milled about, clutching mortars, grenades and assault rifles. Some wore khaki fatigues. One man sported a bright white studded belt.
Some men clambered up power lines in the rolling sand dunes of the desert, squinting and hoping to see Mr. Gadhafi's forces inside the besieged city of 140,000 that is the gateway to the east.
“Gadhafi is killing civilians inside Ajdabiya,” said Khaled Hamid, a rebel who said he been in Mr. Gadhafi's forces but defected to the rebels' side. “Today we will enter Ajdabiya, God willing.”
Mokhtar Ali, a Libyan dissident in exile elsewhere in the Mideast, said he was in touch with his father in Misrata and described increasingly dire conditions.
“Residents live on canned food and rainwater tanks,” Ali said. He said Mr. Gadhafi's brigades storm residential areas knowing that they won't be bombed there. “People live in total darkness in terms of communications and electricity.”
U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates and others said the U.S. military's role will lessen in coming days as other countries take on more missions and the need declines for large-scale offensive action like the barrage of Tomahawk cruise missiles fired Saturday and Sunday mainly by U.S. ships and submarines off Libya's coast.
In his first public comments on the crisis, Army Gen. Carter Ham, the lead U.S. commander, said it was possible that Mr. Gadhafi might manage to retain power.
“I don't think anyone would say that is ideal,” the general said Monday, foreseeing a possible outcome that stands in contrast to President Barack Obama's declaration that Mr. Gadhafi must go.
With files from Associated Press