Pro-Gaddafi troops unleashed an assault on Saturday on the town of Misrata, the only rebel outpost between the capital and the eastern front around the oil town of Ras Lanuf.
This is certainly what I said I'd do before really mounting an offensive in the east.
But the Libyan loyalists do have a jumping off point for such an offensive, as the first link notes:
Further east, Gaddafi's troops pushed insurgents out of Ras Lanuf on Saturday, a day after making an amphibious assault on the oil port and pitting tanks and jets against rebels armed with light weapons and machineguns mounted on pick-up trucks.
The rebels are being pounded. This is one noose readily visible. Can the rebels hold out no further east than Ajdabiya? If they can't hold that far west, the rebels will have serious problems given the loyalist options once they control that objective.
I don't think DNI Clapper will revise his opinions on the outcome of this civil war based on the last day's events.
