How Qatari military advisors are whipping the Libyan rebels into shape

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…

A doctor at a military base in a Benghazi suburb said Qatari trainers were instructing new recruits in fitness and basic infantry training. “Our Qatari teachers make us work,” said Mohamed Emsalati, a young doctor who volunteered to join the brigade’s medical unit early in the rebellion.