Reply #7: Qatari military advisers on the ground, helping Libyan rebels get into shape

[tabatha]

AJDABIYA, LIBYA — The United States, European allies and other nations have dispatched representatives to the Libyan opposition’s ruling council. But on the ground here, credit for helping to get the rebel army into shape goes to military advisers from the tiny Arabian Peninsula emirate of Qatar.

Qatar was the first Arab country to formally recognize the political legitimacy of the rebel council in Benghazi and the first to provide military assistance, sending six Mirage fighter jets to help NATO enforce the no-fly zone in March. Qatar also helped the rebel leadership sell oil to help finance the fledgling administration. Now, it is alone in providing military training to the rebels, officials say.

“They are helping us to organize ourselves,” Mahmoud Jibril, a leader of the Libyan opposition council, said Wednesday during a visit to Washington, adding that no other countries are providing military training to the opposition’s fighters.

“Qatar had stood by us from the very beginning, even before it was announced that they were here,” said Col. Ahmed Bani, a spokesman for the rebel army. “They have been more effective than any other nation. They just haven’t boasted about it.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/qatari-military-advisers-on-the-ground-helping-libyan-rebels-get-into-shape/2011/05/11/AFZsPV1G_story.html