Ajdabiyah — Libya's rebel army has replaced ragtag volunteers with polished officers to guard the flash-point eastern town of Ajdabiyah, as it seeks to bolster its image as a credible adversary of Muammar Qadhafi.
The move suggests it had little confidence in the hundreds of rebels stationed in the area, men from all walks of life — from plumbers to civil engineers — who took up arms against Qadhafi after the uprising began on 17 February.
Those are the types of fighters that make up the bulk of the rebel movement in the east which Qadhafi has vowed to recapture.
"We need order here, discipline," said Abdul Salam Mohammed, who was in command of the western gate on Tuesday and had earlier served in Qadhafi's army special forces for 10 years.
"These rebels just did what they pleased. They acted on whim, driving up and down the highway with no strategy. It had to stop," he told Reuters.
Defending Ajdabiyah is critical. The town is the gateway to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city and home to the rebel transitional national council.
In the past two weeks, rebels controlling the western gate vowed to recapture the oil town of Brega 80km (50 miles) away, but abandoned their plans several times after positioning vehicles with mounted machineguns and anti-airgraft units for assaults.
The stakes have become higher since then as both sides try to break a stalemate.
Mohammed and other former army officers said Qadhafi has built up his forces in Brega and two other towns to the west to 3000 and were digging tunnels to hide rockets to evade NATO aircraft that have been pounding his tanks.
Rebels who were able to take a few positions just outside of Brega were pushed back. Now Qadhafi's forces control an area that reaches east from Brega to a petrol station 40km before Ajdabiyah along a desert road, rebels say.
ONE BULLET CAN FORCE A RETREAT
"All it takes is one bullet and the rebels retreat," said Mohammed, as another one of Qadhafi's former soldiers nodded in agreement, and puffed on a cigarette through a black holder.
"The system had to change. The rebels still work with us but they have been sent elsewhere. We run the show here now."
He did not elaborate.
Ajdabiyah has changed hands several times. In a recent battle government forces, militiamen and snipers infiltrated the town, which has been largely abandoned by the local population of about 100,000.
Losing it would be a big blow to the rebels, who made big gains then lost one town after another as Qadhafi's troops and militiamen hit back in recent weeks.
The tall green arches over Ajdabiyah's western gateway, which made it such an easy target as scores of rebels gathered there each day, speeding up and down in vehicles mounted with machineguns and anti-aircraft units, eating sandwiches and arguing often, have been torn down.
A group of rebels who tried to drive west through the gateway were turned back by Mohammed. "Where do you think you are going? You must turn around," said Mohammed, a hefty man wearing a crisp beige camouflage uniform from the old days.
"Beware of the dangers. Snipers ahead," said a sign a few feet away, in an attempt to impose order at a checkpoint where rebels often wasted ammunition firing their guns in the air.
Others stood around with crude weapons such as javelins and machetes.
Muhammad said the new arrangement was paying off. "We use tactics. We are managing to surround Qadhafi's people. The other day we took some Qadhafi forces by surprise and captured a few while they were eating a fish dinner."
There were only a handful of fighters there on Tuesday, including one who was recently fiddling with a machinegun bullet belt and accidently fired off rounds, wounding two comrades.
"It's a batter arrangement now. It is organized," conceded the man, Waleed Khalifa, whose finger is still in a cast following the accident.
Former Libyan soldiers sat in a clearly marked "Special Forces" truck on the roadside equipped with devices rebels said they needed badly when they were controlling the checkpoint.
Unlike the fighters who predicted victory at all times of day, they are more cautious. "You can't just say you will capture Brega. You have to think it through," said one of them, Hussein Mohammed Hussein.
Proper binoculars and wireless communications equipment are now being used, instead of simple cellphones which rarely get through to anyone.
One of the doctors who spends his days at the checkpoint with an ambulance says the number of wounded has fallen dramatically since the less trained rebels were deployed elsewhere.
But everyone's bottom line — including the former army officers — is that victory won't be possible unless NATO steps up its aerial bombardment of Qadhafi's tanks.
"It's nice that more experienced people are at the gate now," said Fawzi, one of the few residents still in the town, smiling nervously at a line for bread. "But let's face it, Qadhafi's people can take Ajdabiyah any time. Any time. Only NATO can save us."
