NATO: Nobody Told Us The Rebels Had Tanks

Updated 7:30 p.m. edt

NATO bombed Moammar Gadhafi's weapons depots near the town of Zintan on Friday, an eyewitness told The Jerusalem Post.

It was a timely strike for NATO, which is under fire from all sides over its questionable handing of the air campaign in Libya. Earlier today NATO refused to apologize for strikes that killed rebels in tanks, though the alliance did issue a statement of regret for the friendly-fire casualties.

The rebels are going to try to mark their vehicles so NATO will not hit them in the future, blogs Laura Rozen at Yahoo!

"Soldiers in the rebel campaign have now started to paint the roofs of their vehicles bright pink in order to alert NATO air forces that they are not allied with the Gadhafi regime--and therefore should not be singled out for attacks from the air," she writes.

Here's hoping Gadhafi does not have any pink paint.

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A defiant NATO spokesman said today the alliance will not apologize for allegedly killing five rebels when striking their tanks because NATO was unaware those opposition forces even had tanks.

"I'm not apologizing," said British Royal Navy Rear Adm. Russell Harding, the deputy NATO mission commander. "The situation on the ground is fluid, and we had no information the opposition forces were using tanks."

The rebels were once again pinned down today in Ajdabiya by artillary fire from forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi, according to CNN. If the rebels cede Ajdabiya to Gadhafi they will be forced to pull back to their nominal capital of Benghazi.

And then what?

Turkey is floating a ceasefire plan that calls for Gadhafi with withdraw his troops from Misurata and Brega and embrace democratic reforms, The Gardian reports.

Closer to home, the price of oil hit a 2 1/2-year high today, "spurred by signs of stalemate in Libya and concerns that violence in other oil-producing nations," MarketWatch reported.

The price of crude went above $112 a barrel amid the unrest in the Middle East oil patch.

Scottish officials, meanwhile, confirm they have met with and interviewed Libyan defector Musa Kusa, grilling him over his knowledge of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103, but they are not saying much more than that about the former Libyan foreign minister and intelliogence chief.