ANOTHER TYRANT – GADDAFI FALLS VI
Kyaemon
Libya: The fight continues – The Big Picture – Boston.com
Of the six days since the revolt reached the capital of Tripoli, August 25th may have been the bloodiest yet. Evidence of fresh massacres by both sides around the city were reported, while the battle to establish full control of Colonel Khadafy’s breached compound, Bab al-Aziziya, raged on. In their drive to take command of Tripoli, the rebels concentrated their forces on a block-by-block battle for the streets of the Abu Salim neighborhood, a center of Colonel Khadafy’s support. By late afternoon, the fighting had once again swamped Tripoli Central Hospital with wounded civilians and combatants. Khadafy has not been found and the battle continues. –Paula Nelson (26 photos total)
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6 comments
Kyaemon
September 7, 2011 at 2:21 am
Gaddafi not in convoy crossed into Niger: Al-Arabiya
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-09/06/c_131106513.htm
CAIRO, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) — Fallen Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was not in a convoy of vehicles that has crossed the border from Libya into Niger, pan-Arab Al-Arabiya television reported on Tuesday.
Libya’s rebels said loyalists of Gaddafi were in a convoy of vehicles crossed into Niger late on Monday.
The National Transitional Council (NTC) said the convoy was carrying money taken from a branch of the Central Bank of Libya in Gaddafi’s birthplace of Sirte, a city that has still out of the rebels’ control.
Kyaemon
September 9, 2011 at 10:03 am
Pepe examines the current Libyan state of affairs and looks into the future
THE ROVING EYE
Libya: The real war starts now
By Pepe Escobar
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/middle_east/mi07ak01.html
Enough about The Big G’s (Gaddafi’s) downfall. Now comes the real nitty-gritty; Afghanistan 2.0, Iraq 2.0, or a mix of both.
The “NATO rebels” have always made sure they don’t want foreign occupation. But the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – which made the victory possible – can’t control Libya without boots on the ground. So multiple scenarios are now being gamed in NATO’s headquarters in Mons, Belgium – under a United Nations velvet cushion.
According to already leaked plans, sooner or later there may be troops from Persian Gulf monarchies and friendly allies such as Jordan and especially NATO member Turkey, also very keen to bag large commercial contracts. Hardly any African nations will
The Transitional National Council (TNC) will go for it – or forced to go for it – if, or when, Libya spirals into chaos. Still it will be an extremely hard sell – as the wildly disparate factions of “NATO rebels” are frantically consolidating their fiefdoms, and getting ready to turn on each other.
There’s no evidence so far the TNC – apart from genuflecting in the altar of NATO member nations – has any clue about managing a complex political landscape inside Libya.
Guns and no roses
Everyone in Libya is now virtually armed to its teeth. The economy is paralyzed. A nasty catfight over who will control Libya’s unfrozen billions of dollars is already on.
The Obeidi tribe is furious with the TNC as there’s been no investigation over who killed rebel army commander Abdul Fattah Younis on July 29. The tribals have already threatened to exact justice with their own hands.
Chief suspect in the killing is the Abu Ubaidah bin Jarrah brigade – a hardcore Islamic fundamentalist militia that has rejected NATO intervention and refused to fight under the TNC, branding both TNC and NATO as “infidels”.
Then there’s the drenched-in-oil question; When will the Libya Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG)-al-Qaeda nebula organize their own putsch to take out the TNC?
All over Tripoli, there are graphic echoes of militia hell in Iraq. Former US Central Intelligence Agency asset and former “war on terror” detainee, General Abdelhakim Belhaj – issued from the Derna circle, the ground zero of Islamic fundamentalism in Libya – is the leader of the brand new Tripoli Military Council.
Accusations have already been hurled by other militias that he did not fight for the “liberation” of Tripoli so he must go – whether or not the TNC says so. This essentially means that the LIFG-al-Qaeda nebula sooner or later may be fighting an arm of the upcoming guerrilla war – against the TNC, other militias, or both.
In Tripoli, rebels from Zintan, in the western mountains, control the airport. The central bank, Tripoli’s port and the Prime Minister’s office are being controlled by rebels from Misrata. Berbers from the mountain town of Yafran control Tripoli’s central square, now spray-painted “Yafran Revolutionaries”. All these territories are clearly marked as a warning.
As the TNC, as a political unit, already behaves like a lame duck; and as the militias will simply not vanish – it’s not hard to picture Libya also as a new Lebanon; the war in Lebanon began when each neighborhood in Beirut was carved up between Sunnis, Shi’ites, Christian Maronites, Nasserites and Druse.
The Lebanonization of Libya, on top of it, includes the deadly Islamic temptation – which is spreading like a virus all across the Arab Spring.
At least 600 Salafis who fought in the Sunni Iraqi resistance against the US were liberated from Abu Salim prison by the rebels. It’s easy to picture them profiting from the widespread looting of kalashnikovs and shoulder-launched Soviet Sam-7 anti-aircraft missiles to bolster their own hardcore Islamist militia – following their own agenda, and their own guerrilla war.
Welcome to our racist ‘democracy’
The African Union (AU) will not recognize the TNC; in fact, it charges the NATO rebels of indiscriminate killing of black Africans, all bundled up as “mercenaries”.
According to the AU’s Jean Ping, ” … the TNC seems to confuse black people with mercenaries … [They seem to think] all blacks are mercenaries. If you do that it means one-third of the population of Libya which is black is also mercenaries.”
The small port of Sayad, 25 kilometers west of Tripoli, has become a refugee camp for black Africans terrified of “free Libya”. Doctors Without Borders found out about the camp on August 27. Refugees say that since February they started to be expelled by the owners of the businesses they were working in, accused of being mercenaries – and they have been harassed ever since.
According to rebel mythology, the Muammar Gaddafi regime was essentially protected by murtazaka (“mercenaries”). The reality is that Gaddafi did employ a contingent of black African fighters – from Chad, Sudan and Tuaregs from Niger and Mali. The majority of black Sub-Saharan Africans in Libya are migrant workers holding legal jobs.
To see where this thing is going, one has to look at the desert. The immense southern Libyan desert was not conquered by NATO. The TNC has no access to virtually all of Libya’s water and a lot of oil.
Gaddafi has a chance of “working the desert”, of negotiating with a number of tribes, to buy or consolidate their allegiance and organize a sustained guerrilla war.
Algeria is involved in a vicious fight against al-Qaeda in the Maghreb. Algeria’s vast, porous, 1,000 kilometer-long border with Libya remains open. Gaddafi can easily base his guerrillas in the southern desert with a safe haven in Algeria – or even in Niger. The TNC is already terrified of this possibility.
NATO’s “humanitarian” operation has unleashed at least 30,000 bombs over Libya over these past few months. It’s safe to say that many thousands of Libyans have been killed by the bombing. The bombing never stops; soon NATO may be targeting some of those – civilians or not – it was in theory “protecting” until a few days ago.
A defeated Big G can reveal himself to be even more dangerous than a Big G in power. The real war starts now. It will be infinitely more dramatic – and tragic. Because now it will be a Darwinian, northern African, war of all against all.
Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007) and Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge. His new book, just out, is Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).
Kyaemon
September 9, 2011 at 10:29 am
Libya rebels scrambling to secure Kadafi arsenals
Moammar Kadafi’s regime moved its weapons stockpiles as NATO unleashed airstrikes in March. Now, rebels have the tough task of finding and securing the caches, some of which have been looted
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-libya-arms-20110909,0,6482399.story?track=rss
Reporting from Tripoli, Libya— The fall of Moammar Kadafi has opened up Libya’s vast armories to plunder and pillage, causing alarms to sound worldwide about the possibility that terrorists or insurgents may gain access to lethal weapons, including mines, mortars and missiles capable of shooting down civilian airliners.
Officials of the rebel leadership here say they are scrambling to secure Kadafi’s arms stockpiles, but the sites are so numerous that the task is overwhelming. And securing the weapons is only one of many grave challenges facing them.
“We are doing our best, but we are extended to the limit,” said Jalal Gallal, a spokesman for the interim administration here. “Some of these places are being found on an hourly basis. It’s all-consuming. It is one of the legacies we have from Kadafi.”
Weapons depots often turn up in unexpected places: homes, commercial strips, school property. The caches were a major supply source for Libya’s rebels, who overran many stashes and helped themselves, often welding weapons systems to pickup trucks and slapping on homemade metal plates for armor.
As a NATO-led alliance unleashed its bombing campaign in March, experts say, the Kadafi regime began moving the weapons from known military outposts, shifting many of them to civilian sites. The migration of arms has greatly complicated the task of securing them.
At a sprawling base on the southern fringes of Tripoli, piles of rubble attest to the damage from airstrikes on what once was a headquarters of the much-feared 32nd Brigade commanded by Kadafi’s son Khamis. A giant sculpted eagle, a symbol of Kadafi’s power, stands at the entrance, above a thick metal door blasted to pieces as rebels assaulted the base.
At some point, it appears, Kadafi’s military transferred massive stores of armaments across the street to a mixed commercial-residential strip and a nearby government printing complex.
It was here that investigators for Human Rights Watch say they found documents, empty boxes and other evidence of hundreds of missing Russian-made surface-to-air missiles, much cherished on the international black market. Security experts cringe at the thought of terrorists getting hold of such weaponry, including the SA-7 and the more sophisticated SA-24, which is capable of taking down an aircraft at 11,000 feet.
“This kind of missile could turn all of North Africa into a no-fly zone,” said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director for Human Rights Watch….
“There is a threat of the proliferation of the weapons from Libya and we are greatly concerned — all the nations are very concerned — about small weapons, rifles and weapons similar to that, but also explosives and shoulder-fired air defense systems,” the news agency Agence France-Presse quoted Ham as saying.
Iraq, too, was awash in unsecured weapons after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Its conventional arsenal provided the raw material for the roadside bombs that became the insurgency’s signature weapon and killed many U.S. troops. …
“These are the kinds of explosives that can be turned into car bombs, suicide vests and improvised explosive devices,” said Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch, who was visiting the site Thursday. “For the Libyan people, that’s a major concern. Unfortunately, a lot of the worst things have already walked away.”
Kyaemon
September 9, 2011 at 2:19 pm
Cash-strapped Gadhafi sold gold to pay salarie
http://news.yahoo.com/cash-strapped-gadhafi-sold-gold-pay-salaries-104636972.html
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s regime sold about 20 percent of the country’s gold reserves to cover salaries, as he struggled to hold onto power during the final months of the civil war, the new governor of Libya’s central bank said Thursday.
Qassim Azzuz also said that none of the bank’s roughly $115 billion in assets “went missing or were stolen” during the six months of fighting. That figure, however, did not include money the Gadhafi family is believed to have in hiding outside the banking sector, he said.
The sale in April of 29 tons of the roughly 145 tons of gold Libya is believed to have in reserve reflects the challenges Gadhafi confronted as he struggled to crush what began as a mass uprising in the east and quickly mushroomed into a full-blown civil war. Brutal assaults on the country’s civilian population by forces loyal to the Libyan strongman resulted in sweeping international sanctions and NATO air strikes.
The sanctions froze Libya’s massive foreign assets, which stand at about 110 percent of GDP, according to several analysts, and had many speculating that Gadhafi was either raiding the central bank’s coffers or selling gold to pay troops that included foreign mercenaries.
Azzuz told reporters that the gold was sold to local traders, netting 1.7 billion dinars ($1.4 billion) that was used to pay salaries, particularly in the Tripoli area. The Libyan capital was one of the last places in which Gadhafi retained a firm grasp on power.
Asked if the gold sale violated sanctions, Azzuz said that the issue was not “of relevance because it was local liquidation of gold in Libya in exchange for dinars.”
But he acknowledged that gold sold to the local traders likely made it across the country’s western border to Tunisia.
Azzuz said the central bank was under considerable pressure from the Gadhafi regime in recent months, but insisted that those running the bank had done so “under great risk” and had managed to “maintain the assets.”
He said an external audit would be conducted in the future.
Azzuz said the $90 billion in central bank assets held abroad were accounted for, as were about $25 billion held locally.
Not all branches of Libyan banks have reopened, in part because not all staff have returned to their jobs, Azzuz said……
Kyaemon
September 17, 2011 at 2:46 pm
Libya: Revolutionaries Pull Back From Bani Walid
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/16/libya-fighters-advance-on_n_965751.html
SIRTE, Libya — Moammar Gadhafi’s fighters beat back an attempt by Libya’s new government Friday to crush remnants of the old regime, forcing revolutionary troops into retreat in the mountains and turning Gadhafi’s seaside hometown into an urban battlefield of snipers firing from mosques and heavy weapons rattling main boulevards.
The tough defense of the holdout towns of Sirte and Bani Walid displayed the firepower and resolve of the Gadhafi followers and suggested Libya’s new rulers may not easily break the back of regime holdouts. It also raised fears the country could face a protracted insurgency of the sort that has played out in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The Gadhafi loyalists have so many weapons,” cried Maab Fatel, a 28-year-old revolutionary fighter on the front lines in the mountain enclave of Bani Walid, 90 miles (140 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli.
“This battle is really crazy,” Fatel said, his uniform splattered with blood from carrying a wounded comrade.
Revolutionary forces began the day by streaming into Bani Walid but pulled back after intense fighting failed to dislodge pro-Gadhafi snipers and gunners from strategic positions. The two sides traded relentless mortar and rocket fire across a 500-yard-wide desert valley called Wadi Zeitoun that divides the town between north and south.
Mohaned Bendalla, a doctor at a field hospital in nearby Wishtata, said at least six rebels were killed and more than 50 were wounded.
Inside the town, a radio station believed linked to one of Gadhafi’s main propagandist kept up a steady stream of appeals to fight and rants that demonized the revolutionaries as traitors who did not honor Islamic values.
“These revolutionaries are fighting to drink and do drugs all the time and be like the West, dance all night,” the announcer claimed. “We are a traditional tribal society that refuses such things and must fight it.”
Ahmed Omar Bani, a military spokesman for Libya’s transitional government, dismissed such allegations, saying the revolutionary forces’ only goal was “to liberate our people.”
In Sirte, Gadhafi’s birthplace on the Mediterranean coast, his backers rained gunfire down from mosque minarets and high-rise buildings on fighters pushing into the city from the west. In the streets the two sides battered each other with high-caliber machine guns, rockets and rocket-propelled grenades.
At one point, a pickup truck filled with revolutionary forces rushed back to the rear lines, its bed bloodied and strewn with the body parts and mangled face of a fighter who had been manning a machine gun. Other fighters shouting “God is great” pulled out his lifeless remains and comforted his partner, the pickup driver.
NATO warplanes swept overhead, but it was unclear whether there were fresh airstrikes to help the anti-Gadhafi advance. The alliance said it struck multiple rocket launchers, air missile systems, armored vehicles and a military storage facility in Sirte on Thursday when revolutionary units launched the offensive.
Kyaemon
September 25, 2011 at 4:23 pm
YOUTUBE VIDEOS OF THE FIGHT FOR TRIPOLI
No Comment | euronews: watch the international news without commentary | http://www.euronews.net/nocomment
Fighting intensifies in Libya – no comment – YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo7mAKEaxpg&feature=relmfu
As fierce fighting intensifies between government and Libyan rebel forces there’s been a growing momentum for some kind of international military intervention. An earlier euphoria by the rebels as they easily made ground against pro-Gaddafi militias has given way to the reality of coming up against superior troop numbers who are better equipped….
Battle for Libya – no comment – YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y2CpIA7lz0&feature=relmfu
Video shows Libya army ‘executions’ – YouTube
Al Jazeera has received pictures that purportedly show Libyan army officers killed for refusing to fire on the rebels.