court green light a massive discrimination lawsuit against walmart? arguments today in one of the most important workers rights cases the court has ever heard. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. moammar gadhafi and his troops are being accused of new carnage and destruction. just hours after president obama tried to explain the u.s. mission in libya to the american people. this hour we have breaking news. we re learning about major, major setbacks for rebel forces in several cities. in misrata, witnesses say government forces are hammering the city hard, firing bullets over civilians heads and telling them to run for their lives. gadhafi is fighting back with a vengeance against rebels who had regained ground in recent days under the cover of coalition air strikes. and joining us now in ajdabiya is our own arwa damon. you re with the rebels there.
are trying to hold off gadhafi forces and on tuesday the nato commander that protecting civilians mandate extends all the way into tripoli itself. i think that any gadhafi forces that are demonstrating hostile intent against the libyan population are legitimate targets. reporter: so far the assault has cost the pentagon well over half a billion dollars, but most of that money came from cruise missiles and other munitions. the strategy has shifted and now the u.s. forces are focused on refueling planes, jamming communication and striking gadhafi forces. so the military only expects to spend $40 million over the next few weeks and a spokeswoman says after that we would incur added costs of about 40 million per month. how many months? hard to tell. but a stalemate is not an acceptable solution. i think a stalemate is not in anybody s interest. reporter: the nato commander told congress that he s seen flickers of terrorist elements
as well as military means to do so. pressure from arab countries from around the world. so he does have a strategy. is it a realistic strategy? well, he also told nbc news tonight wolf that there s a ponlt he s not ruling out arming the rebels. not ruling it in. not ruling it out. they can t point to particular things they would do to guarantee gadhafi would leave. the president is on the record saying that gadhafi needs to go. he can t unring that bell. and there are a lot of uncertainties. what if flst there s a stalemate? what if gadhafi decide to wait it out. the rebels seem to be taking a couple steps backwards. this is uncertainty that we re not use to in the country.
u.s. officials say they are not in libya to help rebels win a war. it s not part of our mandate. reporter: but the coalition is launching missiles at specific units, like the headquarters of libya s elite 32nd beguide. this is one of gadhafi s most loyal units. reporter: coalition has interpreted protect civilians mean it can destroy any weapons gadhafi could use. in the last 24 hours, air strikes hit munition depots in two cities. any place that we can see ammunition storage facilities, things of that nature that we re going after those. reporter: a mission that s starting with preventing attacks from the air is now focused not even two weeks later on destroying targets on the ground. new flying gunships like the a-10 have replaced some of the ships that were firing cruise missiles. these new aircraft flying low, closer to a target and can shoot machine gunfire instead of dropping 1,000-pournd bombs. they are designed to fight in and around cities where rebels
the goal is to get gadhafi out. get a provisional government by the rebels. all the actions are leading to that. here s where the french. here s where the nato forces, the brits, gutter, some of the arab countries like the united arab em rats they are participa participating. they have to take the lead. i think that s developing as the rebels begin military momentum. has anyone asked you to talk to gadhafi and say it s over. no, no. just you have. i would be pleased to be helpful. but this is a presidential decision. i believe the state department secretary clinton is doing a very good job of handling this issue.