BENGHAZI, LIBYA - The top U.S. military officer warned on Friday that the conflict on the ground in Libya threatened to become a stalemate, but Obama administration and military officials said that neither the United States nor its allies planned to fundamentally alter the NATO-led air operations despite criticism that they were not doing enough.
Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that a month of airstrikes had destroyed 30 to 40 percent of the capabilities of the military forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi but had not yet drastically tilted the conflict one way or another.
He cited shifts in tactics by Gadhafi forces that made it difficult for NATO planes to distinguish them from the rebels.
"So it's become a much more difficult fight," Mullen said in Baghdad, where he visited U.S. troops involved in another American war.
In the Libyan capital, a senior official said that government troops would step back and allow local tribesmen to deal with rebels in the besieged western city of Misrata.
The action came a day after the United States began flying armed drones to bolster NATO airstrikes. Having the tribesmen take up the fight could make it harder for the Predators to distinguish them from Misrata's civilians or the rebels.
Mullen's remarks were echoed by those of the most prominent American to visit the rebel stronghold in Libya: Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
Appearing on Friday in Benghazi, he, too, used the word stalemate as he called on the United States to intensify its attacks on Gadhafi forces, using aircraft like A-10 jets and AC-130 gunships that the White House and Pentagon have pulled from the fight.