in a rebel bid to stanch setbacks on the front lines and facilitate greater cooperation with coalition forces.
But as the army has stepped up its role, a leadership squabble has emerged among two rebel commanders. That could pose an early test to the strength of the civilian rebel leadership's control over the military, since some military commanders appear to disagree with the leadership decisions made by the civilian leaders.
The two rival commanders are the rebel-appointed Army Chief of Staff Abdel Fattah Younis, the former Minister of Interior under Col. Gadhafi, and Col. Khalifa Hiftar, the former commander of Libyan forces in Chad during Libya's war there in the 1980s. Mr. Hiftar later defected and sought asylum in the U.S., residing in rural Virginia until he returned to Libya in mid-March, shortly before the coalition air campaign began.
The rebel leadership proclaimed Mr. Hiftar commander of the army after his return, but backtracked over the weekend. A rebel government spokesman and National Council member, Abdel Hafeez Goga, said Gen. Younis was the lone commander of the military and that Mr. Hiftar had no official role.
Defected army commanders said they began assuming control of the rebel ranks over the weekend, after the rebels' temporary governing body, the Transitional National Council, asked them to do so Thursday.
Rebel military leaders said the deployment of trained military forces led by experienced military commanders will bring increased discipline and battlefield smarts to a ragtag fighting corps that is high on enthusiasm, but light on experience.
In Tripoli, Growing Murmurs Of Dissent
The consequences of having large numbers of ill-trained overenthusiastic youth on the front lines was painfully evident in a friendly-fire incident Friday night, when a coalition airstrike hit a rebel position, killing 13 rebel fighters and wounding seven.
Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Ghatrani, a rebel army commander in Benghazi, said the errant airstrike was a result of jubilant youth firing rifles into the air in celebration while a coalition fighter jet was overhead. The jet mistook the rebels' celebratory fire for antiaircraft rounds from pro-Gadhafi forces.
Still, Gen. al-Ghatrani said the army has has begun the transition from a "training and consulting" role for young rebel fighters into a command and lead fighting role.
"The army has stepped up to the front in coordination with the rebel volunteers," he said. "Organized trained army units have begun advancing. Untrained rebels will be given new responsibilities in the rear."
Scores of disorganized rebel fighters continued to mob the front lines Sunday, making rushed advances and panicked retreats, witnesses said. But uniformed military personnel have begun trying to regulate the flow of volunteer fighters, setting up checkpoints and turning away untrained volunteers.
Rebel fighters appear to have successfully stabilized the front lines for the first time in weeks. They halted Mr. Gadahfi forces' eastward advance on Friday at the oil city of Brega, regrouped, reorganized and counterattacked the city on Friday night.
In the past 48 hours, they appear to have successfully driven Mr. Gadhafi's forces out of parts of the city and retaken portions of the eastern half, mounting what appears to be a slower and more measured advance.
On Sunday, there were also reports by Arab news channels of continued heavy shelling of Misrata, the lone rebel outpost in western Libya, where Col. Gadhafi's forces still largely hold sway.
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