Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's momentum has been stopped and rebels have been able to hold onto areas that Gadhafi's forces had been poised to take over, a U.S. official said Monday.
Some regime forces have pulled back, but it is unclear what their intentions are, the official said. It appears the regime's efforts are at least "stalled" right now, the official said.
The coalition is watching carefully to see if Gadhafi's claim of another ceasefire "is a pledge or just words," the official said.
The official said Gadhafi is surrounded by "fierce loyalists" with some defections, but no mass defections.
The official's remarks came shortly after the head of U.S. forces in Libya told reporters that coalition forces had made "very effective" progress Monday toward their goal of enforcing a U.N. Security Council resolution intended to protect civilians from attack by forces loyal to Gadhafi.
"I assess that our actions to date are generally achieving the intended objectives," said Gen. Carter Ham, commander of U.S. Africa Command. "We think we have been very effective in degrading his ability to control his regime forces."
No Libyan aircraft have been observed operating since the onset of military operations over the weekend, he said. In addition, air attacks have stopped Libyan ground forces from approaching Benghazi, "and we are now seeing ground forces moving southward from Benghazi," he said.
Citing "a variety of reports," Ham said ground forces loyal to Gadhafi that had been near Benghazi "now possess little will or capability to resume offensive operations."
During the prior 24 hours, he said, U.S. and British forces launched 12 Tomahawk land attack missiles aimed at command-and-control facilities, a Scud surface-to-surface military facility and, in a repeat attack, an air defense site.
Air forces from France, Spain, Italy, Denmark and Britain flew missions to maintain a no-fly zone over the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi, Ham said.
Actions on Monday were focused on extending the no-fly zone to al-Brega, Misrata and then to Tripoli, a distance of about 1,000 kilometers (more than 600 miles).
Canadian and Belgian forces joined coalition forces Monday, he said, and aircraft carriers from Italy and France have added "significant capability" in the region.
The process of transitioning the leadership of military operations to a designated headquarters was in development, Ham said. "This is a very complex task under the best of conditions," he said.
NATO could command the coalition's no-fly mission in Libya, but some Arab nations are hesitant to fly under a NATO banner, and that has held up the move, said one official who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of negotiations.
"NATO has the capability to do a rapid switchover," the official said. "The problem is, they have to do everything by consensus."
If Arab nations don't sign on to a NATO mission, the other option would be to create an ad-hoc command-and-control structure piece by piece, the defense official said. But that would take time, the official said.
Ham said he knew little about the location of Gadhafi and has not tried to find him. Instead, he said, "we have expended considerable effort to degrade the Libyan regime's military command-and-control capability, and I think we've had some fairly significant effect in that regard."
On Monday, approximately 80 sorties were flown, more than half of them by air forces other than the United States, he said.
Ham's remarks came as the heart of Gadhafi's compound in Tripoli lay in shambles after an attack by the United States and its allies.
Ham said the compound measures some 500 meters (a third of a mile) by 1,000 meters (.6 of a mile) and contains a number of buildings, including a command-and-control facility. "That's the facility that was attacked," he said.
But Gadhafi himself has not been targeted and there are no plans to do so, Ham added. In fact, he said, "I could see accomplishing the military mission, which has been assigned to me, and the current leader would remain the current leader. Is that ideal? I don't think anyone would say that that is ideal. But I could envision that as a possible situation, at least for the current mission that I have."
CNN's Nic Robertson was among several Western journalists taken inside Gadhafi's bombed compound in Tripoli by Libyan officials early Monday to survey the destruction.
Robertson reported a four-story building was heavily damaged.
A Libyan government official said the building had been used by Gadhafi officials but said there were no casualties from the strike.
Ham said the operations were being carried out "with very high concern for civilian casualties."
It was concern over possible civilian casualties that led the British to call off an attack targeting the compound, a Ministry of Defence spokesman told CNN Monday, declining to be named, in line with British tradition.
The U.S. military mission in Libya may have peaked, Africa Command spokesman Vince Crawley said Monday.
"We are moving from the action phase to a patrolling phase," he said. "Our aircraft participation has ... plateaued, if not reduced somewhat."
A witness in the Libyan city of Misrata reported "absolute destruction and carnage" by Gadhafi forces on Monday -- despite the regime's recent call for a cease-fire.
"Misrata is being flattened and razed to the ground as we speak," said the man, whom CNN is not naming to protect his safety. "He (Gadhafi) is using tanks and snipers to terrorize the city."
The man added, "They are shooting people in the main street and on the back street."
The Libyan military announced the cease-fire after an attack near Benghazi -- the heart of the Libyan opposition forces. Coalition forces pounded a Libyan military convoy there Sunday.
British military spokesman Maj. Gen. John Lorimer on Monday dismissed the Libyan announcement.
"Although a Libyan cease-fire was announced again there has been no evidence to suggest there has been a change in their stance," he said.
The Security Council resolution, which passed Thursday, allows member states "to take all necessary measures to protect civilians under threat of attack in the country ... while excluding a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory."
Bernard-Henri Levy, a French philosopher who met Monday with the Libyan opposition in Paris, said they expressed gratitude for the coalition attack. "It was really a life or death question," he told CNN. "It was a matter of hours. If the allied forces had not intervened on Saturday morning it would have been a bloodbath, it would have been a massacre."
Levy, who recently returned from Benghazi, said the rebel leaders can be trusted to install a democratic government should they take power. Though Levy noted that regime change has not been the stated goal of the attack, he predicted Gadhafi would not retain power. "He will fall like a ripe, bad and ugly big fruit," Levy said. "If he is deprived of his force, he will lose power automatically."
But support for the attacks was not universal. The Russian government said the mission has killed innocent civilians and urged more caution. The Foreign Ministry in Moscow cited reports that "nonmilitary" targets were being bombed, including a cardiac center. India, China and Venezuela have also spoken out against the airstrikes.
Arab League Secretary-General Amre Moussa told reporters Sunday that what is happening in Libya is not what was intended by imposing a no-fly zone, according to Egypt's al-Ahram newspaper.
"What we want is the protection of civilians and not the shelling of more civilians," he said. He added that "military operations may not be needed in order to protect the civilians."
But Arab League chief of staff Hisham Youssef said Sunday that Moussa's comments did not signify a shift by the organization.
"The Arab League position has not changed. We fully support the implementation of a no-fly zone," Youssef said. "Our ultimate aim is to end the bloodshed and achieve the aspirations of the Libyan people."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon -- who met Saturday with Moussa and other world leaders to discuss Libya -- said support from Arab leaders was key to the Security Council's decision.
"The strong recommendation by the league of Arab states to take decisive measures -- including the establishment of a no-fly zone -- figured prominently in the adoption of the Security Council resolution," Ban told reporters in Egypt on Monday. "This decisive measure is meant to protect the civilian population, who are being killed by Colonel Gadhafi and his regime."
The Libyan government has said that 48 people, mostly women, children and clerics, have died in allied attacks.
However, U.S. Vice Admiral Bill Gortney said, "We have no indication of any civilian casualties."
And France -- which conducted the first strike in Libya on Saturday when fighter jets fired at a military vehicle -- also disputed claims of civilian deaths.
"There is no information of killed civilians recorded by the French command," French government spokesman Francois Baroin said Monday on the French TV channel Canal-plus. "We must be cautious of communication campaigns and propaganda."
Ahmed Gebreel, a member of the Libyan opposition, told CNN the Gadhafi government collected bodies of people killed in fighting in the past week and displayed them over the weekend in an attempt to show they were killed by coalition airstrikes.
Also on Monday, the New York Times announced that its four journalists who had been held in Libya since last week had been released.
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