AP: Libyan rebels in Tripoli, Qaddafi Defenses Collapse

[NASSIR]

By BEN HUBBARD | AP

Published: Aug 22, 2011 00:21 Updated: Aug 22, 2011 02:16

 

TRIPOLI, Libya: Euphoric Libyan rebels raced into the capital Tripoli on Sunday and moved close to center with little resistance as Muammar Qaddafi’s defenses collapsed and his regime appeared to be crumbling fast.

 

Associated Press reporters with the rebels said they moved easily from the western outskirts into the regime stronghold in a dramatic turning of the tides in the 6-month-old Libyan civil war. A rebel leader said the unit in charge of protecting Qaddafi and Tripoli had surrendered and joined the revolt, allowing the opposition force to move in freely.

 

“They will enter Green Square tonight, God willing,” said Mohammed Al-Zawi, a 30-year-old rebel who entered Tripoli. Green Square has been the site of night rallies by Qaddafi supporters throughout the uprising.

 

Earlier in the day, the rebels overran a major military base defending the capital, carted away truckloads of weapons and raced to Tripoli with virtually no resistance.

 

Qaddafi’s whereabouts were unknown. But he delivered a series of angry and defiant audio messages broadcast on state television. He was not shown in the messages. In the latest one, he acknowledged that the opposition forces were moving into Tripoli and warned the city would be turned into another Baghdad.

 

“How come you allow Tripoli the capital, to be under occupation once again?” he said. “The traitors are paving the way for the occupation forces to be deployed in Tripoli.”

 

He called on his supporters to march in the streets of the capital and “purify it” from “the rats.”

 

Opposition leaders at one point claimed Qaddafi’s son and one-time heir apparent, Seif Al-Islam, had been arrested, but they later backtracked and said this was not yet confirmed.

 

The rebels’ surprising and speedy leap forward, after six months of largely deadlocked civil war, was packed into just a few dramatic hours. By nightfall, they had advanced more than 20 miles to Tripoli.

 

Thousands of jubilant civilians rushed out of their homes to cheer the long convoys of pickup trucks packed with rebel fighters shooting in the air. Some of the fighters were hoarse, shouting: “We are coming for you, frizz-head,” a mocking nickname for Qaddafi. In villages along the way that fell to the rebels one after another, mosque loudspeakers blared “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great.”

 

“We are going to sacrifice our lives for freedom,” said Nabil Al-Ghowail, a 30-year-old dentist holding a rifle in the streets of Janzour, a suburb just six miles west of Tripoli. Heavy gunfire erupted nearby.

 

As town after town fell and Qaddafi forces disappeared, the mood turned euphoric. Some shouted: “We are getting to Tripoli tonight.” Others were shooting in the air, honking horns and yelling “Allahu Akbar.”

 

Once they reached Tripoli, the rebels took control of one neighborhood, Ghot Shaal, on the western edge of the city. They set up checkpoints as a convoy of more than 10 trucks rolled in.

 

The rebels moved on to the neighborhood of Girgash, about a mile and a half from Green Square. They said they came under fire from a sniper on a rooftop in the neighborhood.

 

Sidiq Al-Kibir, the rebel leadership council’s representative for the capital Tripoli, confirmed the arrest of Seif Al-Islam to the AP but did not give any further details.

 

Inside Tripoli, widespread clashes erupted for a second day between rebel “sleeper cells” and Qaddafi loyalists. Rebels fighter who spoke to relatives in Tripoli by phone said hundreds rushed into the streets in anti-regime protests in several neighborhoods.

 

The day’s first breakthrough came when hundreds of rebels fought their way into a major symbol of the Qaddafi regime — the base of the elite 32nd Brigade commanded by Qaddafi’s son, Khamis. Fighters said they met with little resistance. They were 16 miles from the big prize, Tripoli.

 

Hundreds of rebels cheered wildly and danced as they took over the compound filled with eucalyptus trees, raising their tricolor from the front gate and tearing down a large billboard of Qaddafi.

 

Inside, they cracked open wooden crates labeled “Libyan Armed Forces” and loaded their trucks with huge quantities of munitions. One of the rebels carried off a tube of grenades, while another carted off two mortars.

 

“This is the wealth of the Libyan people that he was using against us,” said Ahmed Al-Ajdal, 27, pointing to his haul. “Now we will use it against him and any other dictator who goes against the Libyan people.”

 

One group started up a tank, drove it out of the gate, crushing the median of the main highway and driving off toward Tripoli. Rebels celebrated the capture with deafening amounts of celebratory gunfire, filling the air with smoke.

 

Across the street, rebels raided a huge warehouse, making off with hundreds of crates of rockets, artillery shells and large-caliber ammunition. The warehouse had once been using to storage packaged foods, and in the back, cans of beans were still stacked toward the ceiling.

 

They freed several hundred prisoners from a regime lockup. The fighters and the prisoners — many looking weak and dazed and showing scars and bruises from beatings — embraced and wept with joy.

 

The prisoners had been held in the walled compound and when the rebels rushed in, they freed more than 300 of them.

 

“We were sitting in our cells when all of a sudden we heard lots of gunfire and people yelling ‘Allahu Akbar.’ We didn’t know what was happening, and then we saw rebels running in and saying ‘We’re on your side.’ And they let us out,” said 23-year-old Majid Al-Hodeiri from Zawiya. He said he was captured four months ago by Qaddafi’s forces and taken to base. He said he was beaten and tortured while under detention.

 

Many of the prisoners looked disoriented as they stopped at a gathering place for fighters several miles away from the base. Some had signs of severe beatings. Others were dressed in tattered T-shirts or barefoot. Rebels fighters and prisoners embraced.

 

From the military base, the convoy sped toward the capital.

 

Mahmoud Al-Ghwei, 20 and unarmed, said he had just came along with a friend for the ride .

 

“It’s a great feeling. For all these years, we wanted freedom and Qaddafi kept it from us. Now we’re going to get rid of Qaddafi and get our freedom,” he said.

 

At nightfall, the fighters reached Janzour, a Tripoli suburb. Along the way, they were greeted by civilians lining the streets and waving rebel flags. One man grabbed a rebel flag that had been draped over the hood of a slow-moving car and kissed it, overcome with emotion.

 

“We are not going back,” said Issam Wallani, another rebel. “God willing, this evening we will enter Tripoli.”

 

The uprising against Qaddafi broke out in mid-February, and anti-regime protests quickly spread across the vast desert nation with only 6 million people. A brutal regime crackdown quickly transformed the protests into an armed rebellion. Rebels seized Libya’s east, setting up an internationally recognized transitional government there, and two pockets in the west, the port city of Misrata and the Nafusa mountain range.

 

Qaddafi clung to the remaining territory, and his forces failed to subdue the rebellion in Misrata, Libya’s third-largest city, and in the Nafusa mountains. Since the start of August, thousands of rebel fighters, including many who fled Qaddafi-held cities, joined an offensive launched from the mountains toward the coast.

 

The fighters who had set out from the mountains three weeks ago rushed toward Tripoli on Sunday, start out at dawn from a village just east of the coastal city of Zawiya. Only a day earlier had the rebels claimed full control of Zawiya, an anti-regime stronghold with 200,000 people and Libya’s last functioning oil refinery.

 

Rebels said Saturday that they had launched their first attack on Tripoli in coordination with NATO and gunbattles and mortar rounds rocked the city. NATO aircraft also made heavier than usual bombing runs after nightfall, with loud explosions booming across the city.

 

On Sunday, more heavy machine gun fire and explosions rang out across the capital with more clashes and protests.

 

Government minders in a hotel where foreign journalists have been staying in Tripoli armed themselves on Sunday in anticipation of a rebel take over. The hotel manager said he had received calls from angry rebels threatening to charge the hotel to capture the government’s spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim.

 

Heavy gun fire was heard in the neighborhood around the Rixos hotel, and smoke was seen rising from a close by building.

 

“We are scared and staying in our houses, but the younger boys are going out to protect our homes,” said a woman who spoke to The Associated Press by telephone from the pro-rebel Tripoli neighborhood of Bin Ashour. She spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. She said a neighbor’s son was shot dead on Saturday night by Qaddafi troops as he tried to protect his street with a group of rebel youth.

 

Nuri Al-Zawi, another resident of Bin Ashour, told the AP by phone that the rebels were using light arms to protect their streets, and in some cases were using only their bodies to fend off the Qaddafi troops riding in pickup trucks.

 

“We are used to this situation now. We are a city that is cut off from the world now,” he said.

 

The residents reported clashes in neighborhoods all over Tripoli as well as the city’s Mitiga military airport. They said they heard loud explosions and exchanges in of gunfire in the Fashloum, Tajoura and Bin Ashour neighborhoods.

[NASSIR]

Libya rebels: Two of Gadhafi's sons captured, presidential guard surrenders

Libya's rebel National Transitional Council says will halt Tripoli offensive if Gadhafi announces departure, as state spokesman says Gadhafi ready for direct negotiations; government says 1,300 Libyans killed Sunday.

 

By Reuters

 

Libyan rebels have captured two of Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi's sons, and his presidential guard has surrendered, said the rebel National Transitional Council on Sunday.

 

Gadhafi's eldest son, Mohammed al-Gadhafi, has surrendered to Libyan rebel forces, rebel National Transitional Council Coordinator Adel Dabbechi told Reuters. He also confirmed that Gadhafi's better-known younger son, Saif Al-Islam, had been captured. International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo later confirmed the report that Saif al-Islam had been detained.

 

"We have confirmed information that our guys have captured Saif al-Islam," the head of the NTC, Mustapha Abd El Jalil, told Al Jazeera television earlier. "We have given instructions to treat him well so that he can face trial."

 

An Al Arabiya report, citing the NTC, said Gadhafi's presidential guard has surrendered and Al Jazeera television reported that troops responsible for the veteran leader's security had laid down their arms.

 

Rebel fighters streamed into Tripoli Sunday in a fight they seemed sure was the final battle to topple Gadhafi, as the Libyan leader's forces collapsed and crowds took to the streets to celebrate, tearing down posters of the colorful and often brutal autocrat who has ruled Libya for over 40 years.

 

A convoy of rebels entered a western neighborhood of the city, firing their weapons into the air. Rebels said the whole of the city was under their control except Gaddafi's Bab Al-Aziziya-Jazeera stronghold, according to al-Jazeera Television.

 

"Now we go to Tripoli to get him," said a fighter driving with five others in a pickup loaded with guns.

 

The fighters, arriving from the rebel-stronghold of Misrata, joined opposition forces engaged in a fierce gun battle with forces loyal to Gadhafi inside the Mitiga airbase in Tripoli's Tajoura district, a pro-rebel activist told Reuters.

 

A Libyan government official said on Sunday that 1,300 Libyans were killed on Sunday, while on Saturday night a total of 376 were killed on both sides and over 1,000 were injured in fighting.

 

Spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said Gadhafi's government is ready for immediate negotiations with rebels, and has asked NATO to convince the rebel forces to halt the attack on Tripoli.

 

Speaking on state television, Ibrahim said Gadhafi was prepared to negotiate directly with the head of the NTC.

 

The head of the NTC said on Al Arabiya television that the rebel fighters will halt their offensive if Gadhafi announces his departure.

 

Mustapha Abd El Jalil added that the rebel forces would give Gadhafi and his sons a safe passage out of the country.

 

Gadhafi made two appeals Sunday evening for his people to "save Tripoli" from a rebel offensive, in an audio message played on state television.

 

"It is the obligation of all Libyans. It is a question of life or death," he said in his second appeal. Gadhafi made a similar appeal earlier in the evening on state television, as rebels streamed into the capital. "I am afraid if we don't act, they will burn Tripoli," he said. "There will be no more water, food, electricity or freedom."

 

Al Arabiya television aired images of Libyans celebrating in central Tripoli and tearing down Gadhafi posters, the first images from the city since rebels entered from the west earlier in the day.

 

NATO called the situation in Libya "very fluid" as rebel fighters streamed into Tripoli, and said Gadhafi's rule was "crumbling".

 

"It's a very fluid situation. We can see that the regime is crumbling, and the sooner Gaddafi realises he cannot win this war against his own people, the better," NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said.

 

"He's the one who's responsible for starting the conflict and he should spare his people further bloodshed," she added.

 

After a six-month civil war, the fall of Tripoli came quickly, with a carefully orchestrated uprising launched on Saturday night to coincide with the advance of rebel troops on three fronts. Fighting broke out after the call to prayer from the minarets of the mosques.

[NASSIR]

10.48pm: Nato says it will continue to fulfil its mandate in Libya if it needs to protect civilians, Reuters reports.

10.45pm: Libyan rebels are now within two miles of the centre of Tripoli, AP reports.

10.40pm: The Libyan government refuses to surrender to the rebels but appears to propose a ceasefire. Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim says 1,300 people have been killed in Tripoli since midday and 5,000 injured and warns that Nato will be held responsible "morally and legally" for the death toll. Addressing a news conference, he says:

The hospitals can't even cope with such a death toll. Life was normal and peaceful in this great city and now it's been turned into a hell fire because of Nato's actions. Nato is attacking volunteers who came out of their houses to defend their cities and Nato gives direct air cover to these armed gangs who have no political project, no real dream for Libya. They are filled with hatred. All they want is to destroy this beautiful city.

We expect the death toll to rise beyond anyone's imagination. It's really a true tragic event taking place before you here in Tripoli, supported by the might of Nato. Because Nato kills anything that moves before the rebels, these rebels are able to move forward, so we appeal to the world. People in my city are being killed day in and day out without any possible way out.

We are very resilient and still very strong and we have still thousands and thousands of fighters who have nowhere to go but to fight, so this will increase and the death toll will increase. Each side is terrified of the other side so let's suspend all military operations. Nato can order the rebels to stop immediately and we can order our troops and volunteers to stop immediately.

v

[NASSIR]

Hard to verify all the facts. But we await as realities unfold in the next couple of days..

[Som@li]

Very fast changes

[Dabrow]

No point of return for ghaddafi. Its game over.

If the lybians get lucky...they sort it out. Otherwize its another Somalia in the making. They have strong tribal mentality.

[Abdul]

I think the Nato bombing took the life out of his military.The rebels had no resistance at all capturing Tripoli.

[NASSIR]

Abdul, do research on AFRICOM & AFRICAN UNION. The latter has resisted AFRICOM's proposal to building bases in the continent. Qaddafi was the biggest financial contributor to the AU's budget. What is the main objective of AFRICOM you might ask. In the next decade more than 25% of the oil supplies to the United States will come from the continent, overtaking the Middle East, if not already!

[NASSIR]

It iss also the first war for the newest Pentagon overseas military command, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM).

 

AFRICOM spokesman Lieutenant Commander James Stockman boasted that American and British missiles hit at least 20 of 22 intended targets in Libya on March 19, and newly appointed AFRICOM chief General Carter Ham pledged to "degrade the Qadhafi regime's capability" under his command's Joint Task Force Odyssey Dawn the same day.

 

Taking part in the attacks were the U.S. submarines USS Florida, USS Providence and USS Scranton, guided missile destroyers USS Barry and USS Stout, amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge, amphibious transport dock USS Ponce, flagship of the Mediterranean-based Sixth Fleet USS Mount Whitney, B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, AV-8B Harrier II ground-attack aircraft and EA-18G Growler electronic warfare planes.

 

The USS Bataan helicopter-carrying amphibious assault ship and USS Whidbey Island dock landing ship are on their way to the coast of Libya.

 

The U.S. maintains 42 F-16 Fighting Falcon jet fighters at the Aviano Air Base in Italy and has the use of two air bases in Bulgaria and one in Romania.

 

The USS Enterprise carrier strike group, with 80 planes, is in the Arabian Sea and can cross back through the Suez Canal for action against Libya.

 

The above is to be recalled as the White House continues to disavow a direct, much less a leading, role in the war.

 

Although to date not formally a NATO operation, the air and sea campaign against Libya began with the Alliance subjecting the targeted country to around-the-clock surveillance by Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft assigned to the nearly ten-year-old Operation Active Endeavor naval surveillance and interdiction mission. NATO's E-3A AWACS planes fly at a height of 30,000 feet and cover a range of 120,000 square miles.

 

The military buildup in the Mediterranean Sea by other NATO nations matches that of the U.S.

 

In addition to 20 warplanes flying over Libya, on March 20 France deployed the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, the only non-American nuclear-powered carrier, from its base in Toulon for air strikes against Libya.

 

Britain has warships and a submarine off the coast of Libya which participated in the first round of missile strikes. The BBC reported that London has also deployed Eurofighter Typhoon and Tornado warplanes and Nimrod surveillance aircraft to the region.

 

Canada, whose prime minister Stephen Harper has identified the attacks on Libya as "acts of war" while acknowledging that Libyan civilians will be killed by them, has sent the HMCS Charlottetown frigate to the area and has deployed six CF-18 Hornet multirole jet fighters to Italy for air patrols over Libya. Defence Minister Peter MacKay has stated that the Charlottetown is available to assist in enforcing a naval blockade of the North African country.

 

Norway has committed six F-16 jet fighters and Belgium eight F-16s, a frigate and 200 military personnel in an effort to, in the words of Defense Minister Pieter De Crem, "topple the Gaddafi regime."

 

The Belgian F-16s are currently in Greece and the warship in the Mediterranean, with European Affairs Minister Olivier Chastel stating his government has decided to "tell NATO that we are available, offer what we have and wait for a common command."

 

Spain has provided four F-18 jet fighters, a maritime surveillance plane, a submarine and a frigate in addition to turning over to NATO its military bases at Rota and Moron de la Frontera in the south of the country.

 

Italy has offered eight combat aircraft and the use of seven bases on its mainland and in Sardinia and Sicily for the war effort. It has also activated five ships, including the Andrea Doria destroyer, for action against Libya.

 

Denmark has six F-16s in Italy prepared for deployment to Libya.

 

According to the Sabah newspaper, Turkey will also supply F-16s for NATO's Libyan campaign.

 

Greece has provided the U.S. and NATO the use of bases at Aktio and Souda Bay in Crete.

 

More military assets are being added by NATO nations almost hourly, which indicates that a no-fly zone is the least of Western plans for Libya and that the campaign is not expected to end in the foreseeable future.******

 

Source: OEN

[Som@li]

The AU is toothless, yes, Gadaffi used to help, but they could not help him, No body can help dictator

[NASSIR]

Som@li;742099 wrote:

The AU is toothless, yes, Gadaffi used to help, but they could not help him, No body can help dictator

I concur but keep in mind the AU is an evolving regional institution and it is thus fragile and vulnerable to outside influences, which can impede its progress. However, oil and revenues are part of this problem even if we discount the tribal feuds and other internal challenges faced by Libya without Qaddafi.*

We should be consistent in how we deal with dictators in the region. We can't simply sanction air bombardment and Tomahawks and the arming of rebels in one resource-rich country whereas we turn a blind eye to other brutal tyrants in Bahrain, Syria and Yemen.*

[Som@li]

True, well said bro

[NASSIR]

Interesting Editorial

 

 

Things will not be made perfect in the troubled country, but they can – and will – be made much better

Editorial

 

The Guardian, Mon 22 Aug 2011 21.00 BST

 

Every liberation is different, with its own special qualities and historical context, and yet every liberation is the same. All obey, to one degree or another, an iron law of unrealistic expectations, high hopes dashed, eroding unity and, at the very least, the banalities of ordinary life quickly overlaying the excitement of sudden change. In a month when we are remembering Yeltsin atop his tank, as well as looking back to the already frayed Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, it is not surprising that the Libyan liberation is viewed with some scepticism. But, although it is certain that some things will go wrong in Libya, it is far from certain that everything will go wrong.

The always fractured return to normal life is in fact the essence of a successful liberation. Things will not be made perfect. But they will, or they can, be made better. The problems facing Libya are difficult, but it also enjoys significant advantages. The first problem, at least in terms of time, is unity. The National Transitional Council, until now weighted toward easterners and Benghazi people, must swiftly bring in a balancing percentage of westerners and a significant representation of Berbers from the south. Equally, it must reach out to engage people from Muammar Gaddafi's core tribal constituencies. Tribe matters much less in urbanised Libya than it used too but it is still important, and discrimination on tribal grounds would be foolish. That would be playing Gaddafi's own divide-and-rule game after he is gone. A parallel process under which large parts of the police and the armed forces, apart from those with serious blood on their hands, will be retained is already envisaged in plans made by the NTC.

This avoids the error deemed so critical in Iraq, where disbanding the army left a security vacuum and fed an insurrection, but it will nevertheless not be easy. Some of the young men who have fought on the rebel side will want retribution. They may also feel they have a right to the jobs and the perks their opponents enjoyed. To the victor the less of the spoils the better, should nevertheless be the guideline. The combination of large numbers of young men with a strong sense of their own entitlement and importance, under very loose discipline, with large amounts of weaponry, is in any case a bomb that needs defusing with both delicacy and urgency.

The second problem is the economy. The swift restoration of economic life, the efficient functioning of utilities, petrol in the pumps, and goods in the stores, all these matter hugely. Gaddafi's reference to Nato's "attack on air conditioning" on the day before Tripoli fell may seem comic but in fact is apt. New authorities lose credit quickly unless they can deliver these services. In order to do so they will need to get the oil industry running again, repair other damaged infrastructure and get their hands on frozen Libyan assets around the world – not as easy as it sounds. Libya's basic economic condition, with ample oil, a small population of 6.5 million and an enviable sovereign wealth fund, is very favourable, especially compared to its fellow revolutionary states of Egypt and Tunisia. But that fact means that expectations will be even higher. It also underlines a difficult but fundamental issue.

Libya's oil wealth has created a distorted society in which much of the hard work has been done by foreigners for more than a generation. In agriculture, in oil and in tourism, the strain was taken by migrant Egyptians, Turks, Tunisians, Africans and others. If Libyans were politically oppressed, they were economically pampered. That pampering very much included the business class, which, when not actually drawn from the ranks of the ruling clan and its allies, benefited from sweetheart deals of various kinds. Libya therefore needs economic as much as political reform because these economic bad habits, if unchecked, could undermine any political progress.