Libyan jets armed to kill

Here are a couple of photos of the two Libyan air force Mirage fighter jets whose pilots landed in Malta Monday rather than obey orders to attack Libyan protesters.

The second photo tells a story. It is a closeup of the rear of an antipersonnel rocket pod. The pod used by the Mirage fighter is the SNEB pod, the name being the acronym of its manufacturer. Each SNEB pod holds either 18 or 19 rockets, depending on the type.

However, blowing up this image reveals rocket-exhaust nozzles in the mid-twenties count; a better view is in this image. So this appears not to be a SNEB pod. But it is an air-to-ground weapon, which only shows how lethal Qaddafi is willing to be against his own people.

And that means he does not consider them his own people at all.

Endnote: STRATFOR's George Friedman says it is "the military and police coming over to the side of the demonstrators, that makes or breaks a revolution." The problem is that in Libya, the military (the soldiers on the ground, anyway) is not an important player.

The Libyan army is one of the poorest and most neglected security sectors in the government. They are poorly fed , equipped, trained and paid. They are mostly ceremonial and Qaddafi does not trust them. So what we have here are private battalions with each of his sons owning the one named for him. So for example his son Khamees has a battalion belonging to him calling it “Kateebit Khamees.” Each is placed in private super huge barracks situated strategically around Tripoli for situations like these. These battalions are well-equipped, trained and paid and are extremely loyal not to the country but to the leader of their battalion.

So to answer your question the regular army is non-compliant and has mostly sided with the people. Remember they are poorly-equipped and so can be of only limited help. However, the battalions belonging to the regime itself are very much in the fight and are killing people wholesale. Still their numbers are not so great to cover this huge country so it seems they are complemented by mercenaries.

Qaddafi & Sons are protected by their own, private army and mercenaries imported from Africa's southern regions. The national army is unlikely to be a major factor in the outcome.

Meanwhile, President Obama is nothing if not consistent.

Here is the Youtube of the jets landing at Malta.