A senior NATO diplomat said that by late Tuesday there were four or five main pockets of resistance from fighters loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, and that the limitations on allied air power put more of an onus on rebel fighters to combat loyalist troops still fighting throughout the capital.
Until the massacre, "civilian volunteer organisations" were employed to combat rebels and separatists.
Mr. Uribe's accomplishments have mostly come on the security front, where he has increased the military budget with a tax unthinkable in the past and had appointed Ms. Ramirez, a tough, sometimes abrasive defense minister, to push a once lethargic army to combat rebels.
Troubled by the prospect of being drawn into a 38-year war that shows no sign of abating, Congress has restricted the use of the American aid to the counter-narcotics fight and a directive signed by President Clinton in 2000 bars the use of American intelligence to combat rebels.
This right-wing umbrella group was formed in 1997 by drug-traffickers and landowners to combat rebel kidnappings and extortion.
Hezbollah has over the past year sent many of its fighters to combat rebel forces, leading some analysts to conclude that it is playing an increasingly dominant role in the Assad regime's counter-revolution.
Seth Mydans SRI LANKA: FACING THE REBELS -- President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who survived an assassination attempt by Tamil rebels, made a surprise appearance in Parliament to propose a sharp rise in the amount budgeted for defense spending to combat the rebels, even as she pressed for a peace plan giving Tamil-dominated areas a measure of autonomy.
Saudi Arabia imposed a naval blockade on Tuesday on the Red Sea coast of northern Yemen to combat Shiite rebels along its border, an adviser to the government said.
Last month, Gen. Benjamin Defensor, the Philippine military chief of staff, sent three SF-260 strike aircraft to Sulu, adding to the attack helicopters and OV-10 Bronco attack planes that the Philippine forces are using to combat the rebels.
Now comes what would appear to be another setback: a steep tax, decreed by the new government of President Álvaro Uribe, to pay for a military buildup to combat leftist rebels.
