Oorlog in Libië #98: Waar Gaddafi nog altijd op de troon zit...

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Op vrijdag 22 april 2011 00:13 schreef Slayage het volgende:

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das mooi, maar waar zijn die dingen dan gestationeerd?

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http://www.volkskrant.nl/(...)n-uit-Misurata.dhtml

Het Libische leger gaat de westelijke stad Misurata mogelijk verlaten om de strijd daar tegen de opstandelingen over te laten aan stammen uit het gebied. Dat heeft de Libische onderminister van Buitenlandse Zaken, Khaled Kaim, vrijdag gezegd.

Volgens Kaim hebben de stammen gezegd dat zij zelf de opstandelingen uit Misurata zullen verdrijven als het leger van Muammar Kaddafi daar niet in slaagt. Kaim zei dat de stammen klagen dat door de strijd in Misurata het leven van de mensen is ontregeld en de handel stil is komen te liggen.

Ook een gevangen genomen soldaat uit het Kadaffi-getrouwe leger heeft gezegd dat zij gisteren het bevel hebben gekregen de stad te verlaten.

Troepen van Kaddafi belegeren al wekenlang Misurata, het belangrijkste bolwerk van de rebellen in het westen van Libië. Volgens mensenrechtenorganisaties heeft de strijd om Misurata al zeker duizend levens geëist.

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Misrata rebels strike back against Gaddafi snipers

Libya rebels seize tallest buildings, favoured by pro-Gaddafi snipers


Rebel fighters in the besieged city of Misrata have won a significant victory by retaking key buildings that had been occupied by Muammar Gaddafi's forces for more than a month.

The Tameen office block, the city's tallest building, with a view across Misrata, was captured after bombardment by rebel forces. Numerous snipers were either killed or captured. Several other buildings nearby were also cleared, leaving the rebels in control of the northern end of Tripoli Street, the city's main thoroughfare, which Gaddafi's forces have been desperate to capture. Snipers had caused havoc in the city after they were sent in on 19 March, picking off civilians and rebels at will, as well as firing missiles from the roof of the buildings into civilian areas.

On Friday morning, rebel forces were moving freely around the area near the Tameen building, which is littered with abandoned tanks. Firefighters were cleaning the streets.

"In this area, all the families had to leave because of the threat of the snipers," said Hadi Tantoun, a journalist and rebel. "Capturing this building was very important."

The snipers had been cut off from the rest of Gaddafi's forces for a week or more, unable to receive supplies. Entering the Tameen building through the reception, strewn with debris, it was possible to get a glimpse of how they had been living.

Mattresses and blankets indicated that several snipers had been sleeping in the stairwell on the first floor, relatively safe in the centre of the building. Their cooking pots still stood in the atrium area nearby. The once-smart offices on the sides of the building, whose tenants were mostly insurance agents, had been trashed by the snipers, with files on the floor and upturned sofas. In some offices, cabinets had been pushed against windows for protection. Many glass panes had been shattered by rebel fire.

"Every night we attacked them with our RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] and Kalashnikovs," said Abdullah Hafiz, 24, a member of the "City Centre" rebel cell that finally liberated the building. "They killed a lot of civilians." On higher floors there were empty tins of tuna and tomato paste, blankets, mattresses and sandals, and a few discarded green uniforms.

According to rebel fighters, the few dozen snipers that still occupied the building this week had changed into civilian clothes before trying to escape down Tripoli Street on Thursday, towards their main base in the vegetable market. A sniper's chair had been placed under a small window, which offered a view down the main street. Dozens of spent bullet shells and cigarette butts littered the floor around the chair.

In an office that had belonged to an architect there were graffiti written in green ink-– Gaddafi's colour – in Arabic. It read: "If we survive, we are warning you gays and dogs. We will not forgive anybody from Misrata. We will fuck your daughters and your wives." One of the rebels had already penned a riposte: "Misrata is strong. We will win in the end."

On the top floor, several Gaddafi soldiers had been sleeping on dirty mattresses next to the elevator works. A torn photograph of a woman – a wife of one of the snipers perhaps – lay on the floor. On the roof there were thousands of spent bullet shells, and numerous discarded cases of anti-tank missiles that had been fired into the city.

Up here the snipers would have had a clear view of the city, and everything that moved down below. They would have seen the destruction in the area nearby – buildings pockmarked by gunfire, featuring gaping holes where shells had struck, blackened by smoke. Glass and tyres and twisted metal on the streets.

At the foot of the building lay the body of a sniper, covered with a blanket. It had been burned. One of the rebels said that if Gaddafi's forces could not get their dead back to base, they set them on fire.

A few civilians ventured cautiously on to Tripoli Street, which housed some of the city's best coffee shops, several banks and the Italian-built hotel where Mussolini once stayed.

A rebel with a loudhailer warned them not to try to enter any of the shops: "This is not your property. Even if it is government property, it is for all the people."

He then cleared the area, saying it was still dangerous. The rebels had learned their lesson on Thursday night.

After taking over the Tameen building, they dropped their guard while celebrating.

Several fighters were killed, prompting scenes of grief at the main hospital, where brothers, fathers and colleagues of the victims wept and swore to avenge them.

In a sign that the regime was giving up on Misrata, the Libyan deputy foreign minister, Abdul Ati al-Obeidi, said yesterday that the army may withdraw and let surrounding tribes deal with the rebels. He also said the use of Predator drones – announced by US defence secretary, Robert Gates, on Thursday – would be a crime against humanity.

John McCain, the US senator who arrived in Benghazi yesterday to meet rebels, called for increased military support for the opposition, including weapons, training and stepped-up airstrikes, in a full-throated endorsement of the opposition in its fight to oust Gaddafi. A day after the US began flying armed drones to bolster Nato firepower, the top Republican on the Senate armed services committee said the US and other countries should recognise the opposition's political leadership as the "legitimate voice of the Libyan people".

The White House disagrees, saying it is for the Libyan people to decide who their leaders are.

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Libyan forces loyal to Gaddafi attacked on retreat from Misrata

Rebels fight back in besieged city as Nato targets Muammar Gaddafi's Tripoli compound

Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi claim to have come under fierce attack as they tried to retreat from the rebel-held city of Misrata.

The Libyan government earlier said Nato air strikes may force it to withdraw from the port city, 120 miles east of Tripoli, and let tribes loyal to Gaddafi deal with rebels.

Early this morning, Nato bombs hit what appeared to be a bunker in Gaddafi's Tripoli compound. Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said three people were killed by the "very powerful explosion" in a car park.

Reuters reporters said they saw two large holes in the ground where the bombs had penetrated what appeared to be an underground bunker.

The strike came after the most senior American military officer admitted the conflict was heading towards a "stalemate" despite more than a month of allied strikes against Gaddafi's forces.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US military's joint chiefs of staff, said Gaddafi's ground forces had been degraded by 30% to 40%.

But he warned that Nato forces faced a protracted military engagement in the civil war-torn country.

"It's certainly moving towards a stalemate," Mullen told American troops during a visit to Iraq's capital, Baghdad, yesterday. "At the same time, we've attrited somewhere between 30% and 40% of his main ground forces, his ground force capabilities. Those will continue to go away over time."

He said the allies would "put the squeeze" on the Libyan dictator "until he's gone".

"Gaddafi's gotta go," he said.

A group of wounded Libyan soldiers captured by rebels in Misrata, the last large city held by rebels in the west of the country, said they had come under fierce attack from anti-Gaddafi forces as the army tried to retreat.

"We have been told to withdraw. We were told to withdraw yesterday," one soldier, Khaled Dorman, told Reuters.

Ayad Muhammad, another soldier, said: "The rebels attacked us while we were withdrawing from Misrata near a bridge this morning,"

Another serviceman told the news agency the Libyan government had lost control over Misrata, the country's third largest city.

Reuters reported that it was unclear how far out of Misrata the army had managed to withdraw.

Earlier, the Libyan deputy foreign minister, Khaled Kaim, said the army had been given an "ultimatum" to stop the rebellion in Misrata, which has been under siege for nearly two months. Hundreds of people have died in shelling and fighting, petrol is scarce and thousands of migrant workers are trapped there.

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Libya: 'If people in Misrata put down their guns, Gaddafi will kill all of us'

More than 1,000 people have died in Misrata since protests began in February, but its volunteer fighters remain defiant

The slight, smooth-cheeked young man sat patiently in the hospital reception as gurneys rushed by carrying the dead and wounded from the frontline. He had two crutches at his side. He had one leg.

His name was Hassan Ibrahim, he said. Born in 1992 in Misrata, Libya's third biggest city, home to more than 300,000 people. A first-year engineering student. What had happened? He flipped open a laptop, and called up a picture taken on 18 March, a month after the uprising began, and the day when Muammar Gaddafi sent in five brigades to crush it once and for all.

Ibrahim had been walking along a street near the city centre with several friends when a column of tanks suddenly advanced, firing. A shell exploded close to them. The photograph showed his torso, his right leg, and mangled flesh where his left thigh used to be. Bleeding heavily, he was brought to the private clinic that now serves as a trauma hospital. Doctors who just a few weeks earlier had barely even seen a bullet wound had to make a quick decision. They amputated his left leg just below the hip to save his life.

Ibrahim grimaced slightly as he stood up, and then said: "What happened to me is nothing compared to others who have given their lives."

This is the spirit of Misrata, a besieged city that has resisted everything that Gaddafi has thrown at it for more than two months, thanks to the solidarity and fierce determination of its people. On Friday night the Libyan government admitted that its military solution in Misrata was not working, with deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim saying local pro-Gaddafi tribes might be sent into the city to end the rebellion.

The rebels even claimed that the tables had been turned on Gaddafi's forces. "Misrata is free, the rebels have won. Of Gaddafi's forces, some are killed and others are running away," rebel spokesman Gemal Salem said. But heavy fighting continued on Saturday, with street battles in the area around the technical college, close to where Gaddafi's forces have a base. By noon at least 14 rebel fighters had been killed.

But each day of anguish only appears to strengthen the people's resolve. Many thousands of men who had never held a gun before have taken up arms and fight street by street against an enemy with far superior firepower.

Other volunteers drive bulldozers or trucks, bringing sand from the beach to stop Gaddafi's tanks rolling down the streets. Families forced to flee from the outskirts of the city, or the city centre, where the fighting has been heaviest, have been welcomed into strangers' homes in safer areas. "People who never knew each other are now living together in the same home," said Ibrahim Amer, 21. "In a big house, you can find 50 or 60 people living together."

Committees have been set up to help the poor and the displaced, who collect free food from warehouses and $10 in cash daily. Women prepare meals, which are sent out to the hundreds of checkpoints manned by young volunteers.

The cost of the resistance has been huge. At least 1,000 people have died, picked off by Gaddafi's snipers, who set up base in the city's tallest buildings, or by indiscriminate shelling. Thousands more have been injured.

"We have done too many amputations here, arms, legs, both legs," said Dr Khalid Abu Falgha, a member of Misrata's medical committee. "When this is over we are going to need so many prosthetic limbs."

No one knows when that will be. But this much is certain: nobody in Misrata can contemplate life under Gaddafi again. They will win, or they will die.

"If people put their guns down, Gaddafi is going to kill us all," said Haythem Ibrahim, who runs a large company importing goods from China. He has a US passport, but has never contemplated leaving the city by boat, as he could have. Instead, he spends most days at the hospital with his brother Suleiman, archiving footage of the revolution – and the war.

The brothers' younger twin siblings, 24, a dentist and trainee doctor, are also at the hospital, working 18-hour days, sleeping on the premises.

"The people of Misrata are all in this together – this revolution has brought us together," said Haythem, 31. "I have lost so much of my business because of this. But it's only money. People are sacrificing much more."

The uprising began on 19 February, a small demonstration called in support of the people of Benghazi in the east, whose own protests had been crushed by the government. For 14 days the people of Misrata controlled the city. Some say it was the greatest time of their lives. People flooded the streets, crying with joy. But they knew Gaddafi's forces would come back. And they were prepared. When a large convoy of Gaddafi tanks and armoured vehicles reached the city on 6 March, they met no resistance and were drawn into the city centre.

Hundreds of young men were waiting on the roofs of buildings, armed with petrol bombs and "gelatinas", tiny bombs made with TNT, which they had been instructed to prepare.

The mobile network was still working then, and once the order was given the homemade bombs rained down on the convoy. Gaddafi's forces were humbled. Many died, others retreated. Inside some of the destroyed tanks rebels found cakes and juice; the troops had been so convinced that they would retake the city they had prepared for a party.

On 18 March, a day after Nato instituted the no-fly zone, Gaddafi's forces launched a furious attack on Misrata. For two days they pounded it, but again the rebels rode out the attack. Gaddafi's troops were unable to take control of the city, and remain on its southern side. Last week many of the snipers in the tallest buildings were killed, captured or chased away by the rebels.

But the shelling by Gaddafi's forces continued. On Wednesday night, Ibrahim was in the hospital again. He had an inch-long wound on his neck.

"I was sleeping at home with my family when I heard shells falling nearby," he said. "I went to wake up my brother and tell him to move. Then the shell came through the roof."

A piece of shrapnel nicked his neck. When he looked at the wall behind him, he saw a big piece of metal. If it had landed a few inches closer, he would have been dead.

He shrugged, and half-smiled. Then he excused himself, took hold of his crutches and hopped away towards his car, which he has already learned to drive with one leg. On the back of his jersey was sewn a small flag, black, red, and green, with a star and crescent in the middle – the Libyan flag before Gaddafi took over.

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21:38 Al Jazeera

Abdelati Obeidi, the Libyan foreign minister, has crossed the border into Tunisia, according to Tunisias state TAP news agency.

TAP said Obeidi, who entered Tunisia through the main transit point of Ras Jdir on the Tunisian-Libyan border, was heading to Djerba airport. It said he was believed to be on his way to Cyprus, but a senior Cypriot government source said: We cannot confirm this report, he is not coming to Cyprus.

A security source at Djerba airport said Obeidi later took a flight to the capital Tunis.

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Opnieuw zware gevechten in Misurata

De West-Libische stad Misurata is vandaag opnieuw zwaar onder vuur komen te liggen van troepen die loyaal zijn aan Muammar Kaddafi, ondanks een eerdere aankondiging van de regering dat haar troepen hier de strijd hadden gestaakt.

'De situatie is hier zeer gevaarlijk', zei een zegsman van de rebellen in Misurata, dat al twee maanden wordt bestookt door de troepen van Kaddafi. Volgens de woordvoerder werden het centrum en drie woonwijken beschoten.

Over slachtoffers is niets bekend. Volgens mensenrechtenorganisaties zijn in de havenstad, die voor de oorlog 300.000 mensen telde, al zeker duizend doden gevallen.

Onderminister van Buitenlandse Zaken, Khaled Kaim, verklaarde vrijdag dat de regeringstroepen zich zouden terugtrekken om de strijd over te laten aan stammen.

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Libyan troops easing Misrata siege to allow tribal talks, regime claims

Deputy foreign minister says frustrated tribal leaders will attack rebels themselves if deal not done by Monday night

Libyan forces have pulled back from their siege of Misrata to let tribal leaders in the area attempt to negotiate a political resolution, according to the Libyan government.

In an acknowledgement that loyalist troops had failed to take control of the city after two months of the siege, the deputy foreign minister, Khaled Kaim, said: "The tactic of the army was to have a surgical strike but, with the [Nato] air strikes, that doesn't work."

He said tribal leaders had set a 48-hour deadline – due to expire on Monday night – to strike a deal with the rebels, who hold the port area of Misrata and have made gains in the centre of the city in recent days.

If the talks failed, the tribal leaders would launch a military assault on the rebel strongholds, Kaim said. He warned that could be "very bloody".

Tribal leaders have not confirmed any intervention, and rebel leaders in Misrata are sceptical about the government's statements. Kaim said the tribes were "trying to get in contact with the rebels".

Gaddafi's forces have faced setbacks both in Misrata and the western mountain region, close to the Tunisian border.

The government's assertion that tribal leaders are ready to intervene politically and militarily may be an attempt to pressure rebels after the killing and capture of rebel troops, and to deflect attention from rebel gains.

"The armed forces have ceased operations [in Misrata]," Kaim said in Tripoli. "The leaders of the tribes decided to do something to bring normal life back [to the city].

"Their main demand is that foreign fighters leave the town or surrender themselves to the army."

The regime maintains that rebel fighting in Misrata and the east of the country is being driven by al-Qaida and Hezbollah militants – a claim rejected by the opposition.

Kaim said the tribal leaders wanted to reopen access to the port, which has been under the control of rebel forces since the siege began. The port served all Libyans, he said, but was of particular interest to tribes in the region south of Misrata.

"The leaders of the tribes are determined to find a solution to this problem within 48 hours," he added. "The other option is military intervention."

He claimed the six tribes in the region could muster a force of 60,000 men to "liberate" the city. Any assault by the tribal forces would be ruthless, he claimed.

"The tribal leaders are pushing to intervene militarily," he said. "We have to do our utmost to stop this. If the tribes move into the city, it will be very bloody and I hope to God we will avoid this."

Despite the Libyan government's claim to have suspended military operations, residents and journalists in Misrata reported continued shelling on Saturday. Twenty-four people were killed and about 75 wounded, according to doctors.

US Predator drones have begun flying sorties over Libya and hit a government rocket launcher in Misrata on Saturday.

Last week, Nato air strikes took out three command and control centres around the city of Sirte, between Tripoli and Misrata, which is thought to have affected government military communications.

Kaim said the deployment of Predator drones would result in more civilian deaths. "When President Obama was elected, I was one of those who celebrated in the hope of a more peaceful world, he said. "But now I'm losing faith with him."

He said 18 warships from Nato countries were blockading the port of Tripoli, in violation of UN security council resolution 1973, which authorised military action to protect civilians.

"They are preventing civilian materials reaching the Libyan people," he said.

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6:05pm

Fearing a stalemate in Libya, three members of the Senate Armed Services Committee want immediate military aid for the rebels fighting Gaddafi's forces, stepped up NATO airstrikes and more direct US involvement.

They said they interpreted the UN Security Council resolution - authorizing military action to protect Libyan civilians and imposing a no-fly zone - as also allowing moves necessary to drive Gaddafi from power

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Op zaterdag 23 april 2011 22:45 schreef Hans_van_Baalen het volgende:
Verder vanmiddag bevestigd dat de eerste strikes door drones zijn uitgevoerd. MQ-9 Reapers neem ik aan? MQ-1 Predator.

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Documenting Conflict in Misurata, Libya
Using High-Resolution Satellite Imagery

The conflict in Misurata has led to reports of heavy fighting, widespread indiscriminate shelling, and numerous civilian casualties. To investigate the veracity and details of these reports, Amnesty International-USA requested the assistance of the Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Satellietfoto's en toelichting.

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Berber Rebels in Libyas West Face Long Odds Against Qaddafi

It came as a shock, then, when they captured a border crossing near Wazen last week, a strategic victory for the beleaguered rebel forces that thrust the desert region under the worlds gaze.
Colonel Qaddafi has also turned his attention to the region, escalating a low-grade war of attrition into what may prove an important battlefront.

Having put down more serious challenges to his rule in Zawiyah and Zawarah, on the northern coast between Tripoli and Tunisia, and pulled troops out of Misurata, the second largest western city, on Saturday, Colonel Qaddafi has massed troops along the mountains and launched missiles on its towns, according to residents and rebel fighters.

The fighting has driven about 30,000 Libyans into Tunisia, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Libyans there said they had been under siege weeks before the recent escalation.
Government troops have held the desert plains below the mountains since mid-March, they said, cutting off supplies of food, gasoline and medicine, and, several witnesses said, poisoning the wells of at least one town.

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Op zaterdag 16 april 2011 13:21 schreef remlof het volgende:
En er gaat natuurlijk een signaalwerking uit van die aanvallen van het westen. Dat dictators zich maar niet zomaar tegen hun eigen bevolking kunnen richten.

Ik sta er nog steeds achter.

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Op maandag 25 april 2011 09:55 schreef Monidique het volgende:

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Dus hoe vind je die signaalwerking werken op het moment, met tanks en sluipschutters in Syrie, martelingen en doden in Bahrein, geweld in Jemen? Niet erg succesvol, me dunkt. En in dat geval is zelfs dit allerzwakste excuus voor de oorlog niet geldig gebleken.

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Op maandag 25 april 2011 10:21 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Het is ook niet makkelijk om 60 jaar Real-politik terug te draaien.

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Een van de gevaarlijke ex-gevangenen is Abu Sufian bin Qumu, tegenwoordig een kopstuk van de opstand in Libië. Zes jaar lang zat hij vast in Guantanamo Bay.

Volgens de Amerikaanse publieke omroep NPR volgde hij trainingskampen bij terreurnetwerk al-Qaeda, vocht hij met de Taliban tegen de Sovjet-Unie en was hij chauffeur van terreurleider Osama bin Laden toen die in Sudan woonde.

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Op maandag 25 april 2011 10:25 schreef Monidique het volgende:

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De Realpolitik richting Libie bestond onder meer uit sancties en bombardementen, dus er wordt weinig teruggedraaid.

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Maar het gaat erom dat een van de weinige nog staande excuses voor deze agressie de zogenaamde signaalwerking is. Dit lijkt nu een bijzonder slap excuus. Met de consequentie, me dunkt, de overtuiging dat de oorlog tegen Libie dom, ondoordacht en hypocriet is. Een fout kortom.

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Op maandag 25 april 2011 11:42 schreef rakotto het volgende:
Misschien een late reactie, maar jullie weten dat de Libische zenders uit de lucht zijn?

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Op maandag 25 april 2011 11:42 schreef rakotto het volgende:
Misschien een late reactie, maar jullie weten dat de Libische zenders uit de lucht zijn?