Eight top Libyan army officers defect from Qaddafi's regime

One of the officers, Gen. Melud Massoud Halasa, estimated that Qaddafi’s military forces are now “only 20 percent as effective” as what they were before the revolt broke out in mid-February, and that “not more than 10” generals remain loyal to Qaddafi.

Former Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Shalgam, who now backs the anti-Qaddafi rebels, told the news conference that the eight officers are “part of 120 officials who left and abandoned Qaddafi and are now out of Libya.”