NBC's Jim Maceda answers questions from Tripoli

Video: Rebels, Libyan army face off

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2. Closed captioning of: Rebels, Libyan army face off

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   >> french fighter jet shot down a warplane of gadhafi . we are live in tripoli. jim, bring us up to date what we know about the no fly zone violations.

   >> reporter: i think we should step back a bit about the downing of the french fighter jet downing a libyan warplane. there's a lot of confusion now and conflicting signals that it may not have been in the air. it may have just been a trainer plane on the air strip . obviously we're watching that very carefully and will sort it out. in terms of the frontline, however, we've got -- there were air strikes on misrata throughout the day yesterday and pro gadhafi tanks giving hopes to the rebels and not necessarily under cover of darkness but still many ways of fighting troops from planes overhead. snipers are in there. they are shooting indiscriminately and they were not hit by those air strikes and they apparently killed up to 16 in the past 24 hours . ajdabiya, another good example despite air strikes on pro gadhafi -- inside the town there is still gadhafi forces, outside the town there are still frustrated rebels trying to penetrate, pleading for more air strikes so despite those air strike , the status quo remains the same. no change there. it shows you how difficult it is in these environments where there is a lot of population in the urban environments. it gives gadhafi forces a lot of options to hide, to wait, and to -- so this is not something that is going to happen quickly. civilian casualties, something that nato, the united states , and don't want to do. so this could well be a stalemate, a long, protracted battle. back to you.

   >> jim maceda in tripoli, thank

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