Gaddafi running out of money and fuel, US intelligence says
Source : Kimberly Dozier | AP
Tripoli | 13 Jul 2011
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is facing dramatic shortages of fuel for his soldiers and citizens in Tripoli, and he is running out of cash to pay his forces and what is left of his government, according to the latest US intelligence reports.
Rebel forces that captured towns from Nalut to Kikla in Libya's western Nafusa mountains cut a vital crude oil pipeline that feeds one of the government's major refineries in the town of al-Zawiya, US officials told the Associated Press.
They cited US intelligence estimates that fuel shortages could occur within a month.
The cash shortage follows Turkey's move last week to seize hundreds of millions of dollars held in the Arab Turkish Bank, the US officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity.
While the Libyan strongman could not access actual cash, he had been issuing letters of credit to pay his debtors, including fuel importers, the US officials said.
Intelligence analysts are pointing to the collection of indicators, including territory seized and looming fuel and money shortages, as the first shift from stalemate to momentum for the rebels since the conflict began in mid-March, the US officials said.
Word of the building pressure against Gaddafi came as France's foreign minister reported that Gaddafi was prepared to leave power, citing Libyan emissaries who have approached the French government. It was not immediately clear how credible the offer was.
Gaddafi has refused to leave or give up power since US and NATO forces launched a bombing campaign in support of rebels who rose up against the government's bloody crackdown against anti-government protests.
The US officials said morale among Gaddafi's soldiers was poor, according to troops who were captured or defected. Commanders are not pleased with the quality of forces they have and are not making major gains on the battlefield, the officials said.
The rebels, too, are facing supply problems. They are so busy trying to hold territory and survive that they have done little work governing the territory they hold, the officials said.
In Tripoli, Libyan officials warned that the rebel-controlled eastern half of the country could be cut off from water supplies without a truce to allow for maintenance work on a power plant pumping water up from the desert.
About 70 per cent of the country relies on water drawn from underground aquifers deep in the southern desert, and the plant powering it in the east is falling apart, said the Libyan agricultural minister.
However, in the rebel-held city of Benghazi, the manager there of the Great Man-made River project, Abdel Razek al-Zlitni, said there are no water supply problems in eastern Libya.
"The No. 1 zone, which supplies the eastern side of Libya with water, is fine and is working perfectly," he said of the reservoir there.
Al-Zlitni said, however, that there is no communication with the besieged area in western Libya so it is unclear whether they are having water problems.
