A young rebel army struggles to fight back

(A rebel tries to catch his breath after running from tank shelling just outside Ajdabiya.)

BENGHAZI, Libya — While a ragtag force of Libyan rebels has managed to gain some ground in the embattled cities of Misurata and Ajdabiya, their lack of formal training and clear leadership structure has so far prevented any significant success in fighting back the army controlled by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Allies, after five days of air strikes, came to an agreement Thursday to shift responsibility for the military campaign to NATO forces after easing concerns from Turkey that the group was exceeding its authority. NATO is expected to now begin targeting Gaddafi's ground forces, tanks and artillery to help the rebel forces push back against Gaddafi.

French warplanes shot down a Libyan jet on Thursday in the first incident of its kind since enforcement of the U.N. no-fly zone began on March 17.

So far, though, the air strikes and the opposition's haphazard operation have failed to stop Gaddafi's forces from shelling rebel-held towns. Under the cover of night and into Thursday morning, Gaddafi's forces rolled into Misurata and began shelling the area around the main hospital.

Rebel leaders admit that a more organized force will have to be raised if they are to push all the way to Tripoli, Libya's capital, and unseat Gaddafi, who has ruthlessly held power for more than four decades.

Currently, the opposition relies almost wholly on a young, poorly trained band of rebels that races to and from the front lines in pickup trucks.

(A rebel wears a crown of bullets after an impromptu mission to scout a sniper point outside Ajdabiya.)

Their few victories are regularly pockmarked by amateurish, and often deadly, mistakes. On several occasions, young fighters have killed their own and injured others while firing into the air in celebration, overwhelming an already overwhelmed central hospital in Benghazi.

“This ‘intifada’ began on a peaceful basis. They were forced to arm themselves,” said Adelhafed Ghoga, a spokesman for what is now known as the National Transitional Council, of the young men now fighting in the field. “So to this end, they were forced to learn on their own how to fight and form fighting bodies.”

Former Libyan Army soldiers are now training some of the younger rebels, grouped under a unit called “Shebeb,” but they are not yet in operational control at the front, opposition leaders said.