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LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN THE PAST WEEK:

April 26 NATO planners said the allies are stepping up attacks on palaces, headquarters, communications centers and other prominent institutions supporting the Libyan regime, a shift of targets that is intended to weaken Col. Muammar Qaddafi’s grip on power and frustrate his forces in the field. The strikes are meant to reduce the regime’s ability to harm civilians by eliminating, link by link, the command, communications and supply chains required for sustaining military operations. The hope is that they will lead to mass defections or a coup.

April 25 NATO warplanes struck Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s compound and bombed a state television facility in an escalation of the air campaign to aid the rebellion against his four decades in power. The attack suggested that nonmilitary targets would be hit in an effort to break down the instruments of Colonel Qaddafi’s broader control.

April 24 Rebel leaders said they had consolidated their control of the western city of Misurata, taking over the last two government outposts there even as government forces continued to shell the city from its outskirts.

April 23 In a sudden shift after nearly two months of heavy siege, government forces withdrew from the western city of Misurata. The departure came so quickly that even rebel leaders puzzled over whether the withdrawal was a true military victory, a subterfuge by pro-Qaddafi forces who might return in plain clothes, or a strategic redeployment to new fronts in the mountains along the western border with Tunisia. The government said the army had ceased operations in order to give tribal leaders a chance to negotiate a resolution to the siege.

April 22 The government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi suffered setbacks on multiple fronts as rebels in the western mountains seized a Tunisian border crossing, fighters in the besieged city of Misurata said they were gaining ground and President Obama authorized the use of armed drones for close-in fighting against the Qaddafi forces.

April 21 Libyan rebels said they had control of a post on the Tunisian border, forcing government soldiers to flee over the frontier and possibly opening a new channel for opposition forces in Col. Moammar el-Qadaffi's bastion in western Libya. And a survey of weapons carried by hundreds of rebels fighting on two fronts presents a picture of an uprising that is both underequipped and in custody of many weapons with no utility in the war. The rebels also possess weapons that if sold, lost or misused, could undermine their cause. President Obama authorized the use of armed Predator drones against Libya government forces fighting the rebellion, as NATO struggles to regain momentum since taking command of the operation from the United States.

April 20 The French and Italian governments said that they would join Britain in sending a small number of military liaison officers to support the ragtag rebel army in Libya, offering a diplomatic boost for the insurgent leader, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, as he met with President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris.

April 19 Britain will send experienced military officers to Libya to advise rebels fighting forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. The soldiers marching orders are to help the rebels’ makeshift force “improve their military organizational structures, communications and logistics,” Britain’s foreign secretary, William Hague, said in a statement.

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