Moammar Qaddafi's forces pushed the Libyan rebels back to the east March 30, re-taking towns they had ceded just days ago. Rebel forces have now been pushed east of Brega and are headed for Ajdabiyah. Even amid Qaddafi's advance, his foreign minister Moussa Koussa defected to the UK. The first Allied air-strikes on Libya's east in two days were carried out, to check the Qaddafi forces' advance on Ajdabiyah. The Obama administration has sent teams of CIA operatives into Libya to establish ties with the rebels, the New York Times reported. Reuters, citing unnamed sources, said that Obama had signed a presidential "finding" authorizing covert aid to the rebels—which the administration would not confirm or deny. "No decision has been made about providing arms to the opposition or to any groups in Libya," said White House press secretary Jay Carney. "We're not ruling it out or ruling it in."

Libyan rebels are reported March 28 to be advancing on Moammar Qaddafi's heartland of Sirte after seizing the eastern coastal towns of Ras Lanuf, Brega, Uqayla and Bin Jawad. The rebels re-captured the ports of Ajdabiya and Brega on March 26. The rebels, on the verge of losing their eastern stronghold city of Benghazi before Allied air-strikes began on March 19, have turned the tide and pushed westwards towards Tripoli. (BBC News, Middle East Online, March 27)

US Representative Justin Amash (R-MI) on March 25 announced legislation requiring an immediate halt to military action in Libya until Congress authorizes its resumption. The Restoring Essential Constitutional Constraints for Libyan Action Involving the Military (RECLAIM) Act cites Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution while declaring that President Barack Obama must obtain authorization before any further military action is conducted. Amash explained the legislation:

The anti-imperialist left is confused and divided on Libya—running a spectrum from vulgar responses that loan comfort to Qaddafi's propaganda, to more serious attempts to seek out a neither/nor position. But even commentaries in the latter category still dodge the question of what are the world's responsibilities to the Libyans as Qaddafi turns his guns on his own people. Especially since the West supplied much of that firepower, this question must concern us. Defense Industry Daily informed us March 3 that Libya has been notably armed by Franceover the past decade, while continuing to deal with its old mainstay Russia.

NATO agreed March 24 to take control of enforcing the no-fly zone over Libya. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after lengthy negotiations: "We are taking action as part of a broad international effort to protect civilians against the Qaddafi regime." Rasmussen said the NATO operation was limited to enforcing the no-fly zone, but reports indicated that NATO members reached a "political agreement" to also command all other operations ostensibly aimed at protecting civilians—meaning strikes against Qaddafi's ground forces. The UK's Defense Secretary Liam Fox said that British Tornado jets launched missiles overnight at Libyan armored vehicles in the strategic eastern town of Ajdabiya.

As Allied bombardment of Tripoli continued, Libyan rebels advanced on Ajdabiya March 24 in their bid to retake the strategic eastern oil town from troops loyal to Moammar Qaddafi. The rebels, whose weapons range from Kalashnikovs to knives, face cordons of tanks guarding approaches to the city, and the populace is fleeing en masse. In Benghazi, rebel spokesman Ahmed Omar Bani said: "We are trying to negotiate with these people [Qaddafi troops] in Ajdabiya because we are almost sure that they have lost contact with their headquarters. Truthfully some of the Ajdabiya militias have asked to surrender, to be left alone and to go back home. But we cannot leave them to go without interrogation because the answers we get from them will be useful in saving lives." (Middle East Online, March 24)

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in Cairo March 23 that the UN Security Council resolution authorizing a no-fly zone in Libya is "not time-limited" and that it was unrealistic to expect military action to be over in a matter of weeks. "So I think that there is no current timeline in terms of when it might end," he told reporters. The comments came as nearly 12 hours of Allied air-strikes broke the Libyan regime's five-day siege of the key rebel-held town of Misurata. Aerial bombardment destroyed tanks and artillery, sending the bulk of Moammar Qaddafi's besieging forces fleeing, and securing the town for the rebels. The battle for Misurata is said to have cost some 100 lives from shelling, snipers and street fighting. (Middle East Online, The Guardian, March 23)

As air-strikes continue on Libya, Tripoli on March 21 accused both Allied forces and rebels of breaking a ceasefire, which it had announced late the previous day—but rebel sources said Qaddafi's troops continued to attack their western enclave of Misurata. Qaddafi's troops retreated 100 kilometers from the rebel capital of Benghazi after being strafed by coalition aircraft, but beat off a rebel advance on their new positions in Ajdabiya. Gen. Carter Ham, head of the US Africa Command, said US forces have no mission to support a ground offensive by the rebels—but that Qaddafi's troops in the Benghazi area show "little will or capability to resume offensive operations."