Oorlog in Libië #99: Wanneer geeft Gaddafi zich over?

quote:

Op woensdag 11 mei 2011 15:11 schreef Ulpianus het volgende:
[ afbeelding ]

RIP

Homemade Tank in Misrata

quote:

Op woensdag 11 mei 2011 14:14 schreef Partizan8919 het volgende:

[..]

Kan zijn maar het land ging wel vooruit en met het vooruitzicht dat zijn meer ontwikkelde zoon de nieuwe leider zou worden zette Libie een stap richting meer ontwikkeling. Deze hele oorlog is voor Libie, vrees ik, een enorme stap terug dadelijk in de tijd op een of andere manier. Tenzij de nieuwe regering goed gebruik gaat maken van alle facetten die Khadaffi heeft opgebouwd en er geen chaos meer heerst. Hoe langer de oorlog duurt, hoe langer het stammenconflict blijft oplaaien, hoe slechter denk ik het gaat aflopen voor Libie.

quote:

Libische rebellen nemen vliegveld Misrata in

Libische opstandelingen hebben het vliegveld van Misrata ingenomen. Volgens getuigen vieren honderden rebellen er feest en steken door troepen van Gaddafi achtergelaten tanks in brand. Dit meldt de BBC.

De stad in het westen is de afgelopen weken toneel geweest van hevige gevechten tussen de rebellen en troepen van Moammar Gaddafi, maar de stad is grotendeels nog in handen van de opstandelingen.

De haven van de stad is zeer belangrijk voor de toevoer van voorraden van Libische burgers en voor het evacuëren van gewonden en mensen die de gevechten proberen te ontvluchten.

Verschillende ooggetuigen melden volgens de BBC dat het vliegveld van Misrata na enkele uren van gevechten in handen van de rebellen kwam. Lichamen van pro-Gaddafi troepen liggen op straat in de derde stad van het land terwijl rebellen de overwinning aan het vieren zijn.

Gisteren werd hoofdstad Tripoli onder vuur genomen door de NAVO. Op vier locaties in de stad werden luchtaanvallen uitgevoerd. Daarbij zou een commandocentrum van de militaire inlichtingendienst van Gaddafi zijn geraakt.

quote:

Op woensdag 11 mei 2011 15:11 schreef Ulpianus het volgende:
[ afbeelding ]

RIP

quote:

Op woensdag 11 mei 2011 15:35 schreef rakotto het volgende:

[..]

Libische rambo.

Homemade Tank in Misrata

quote:

'Libische stad Misurata bevrijd'
AMSTERDAM - De zwaarbevochten Libische stad Misurata is bevrijd van de troepen van Muammar Kaddafi.

Dat claimt een woordvoerder van de rebellen die in de westelijke havenstad tegen de regeringstroepen vechten donderdag tegenover CNN.

Zegsman van de Nationale Overgansraad Abdul Hafiz Ghoga deed zijn uitspraak tijdens een persconferentie in de oostelijke stad en 'rebellenbolwerk' Benghazi.

Woensdag slaagden de opstandelingen er in om de luchthaven van Misurata te veroveren op de troepen van Kaddafi.

Dat was een belangrijke opsteker voor het verzet Misurata geldt als belangrijke plaats in de machtsstrijd tussen rebellen de het regime van Libië, omdat het voor zover bekend de enige verzetshaard in het westen van het land waar nog tegen de troepen en milities van Kaddafi wordt gevochten.

Tripoli

Ondertussen is de hoofdstad Tripoli donderdag het doelwit van aanvallen van de NAVO. Bij een raketinslag op het hoofdkwartier van Kaddafi zouden volgens de staatstelevisie zeker zes doden zijn gevallen.

quote:

'Zes doden bij aanval op complex Kaddafi'

Zeker zes personen zijn vandaagom het leven gekomen tijdens een bombardement op het hoofdkwartier van de Libische leider Moammar Kadhafi in Tripoli, de hoofdstad van Libië. Dat meldt de staatstelevisie in het Noord-Afrikaanse land. Tien personen zouden gewond zijn geraakt.

De NAVO zou verantwoordelijk zijn voor de aanval op het uitgestrekte complex. De slachtoffers zouden burgers zijn.

quote:

'Gaddafi is the terrorist man': Derna denies being al-Qaida hotbed

Libyan ruler has singled out the town as harbouring terrorists he says are behind country's revolution

It's not the caricatures of Muammar Gaddafi that mark the crumbling Mediterranean town of Derna as unusual.

Nor is it the messy graffiti cursing his 42-year-rule, which can be seen in cities across the east of the country in the so-called Free Libya that has existed since the revolution in February.

Instead it is the neatly stencilled messages, appearing in English on walls and placards, that hint at how Derna is fighting two battles: one to rid the country of Gaddafi and the other to shed the town's reputation as an outpost of Islamist extremism.

"Yes to pluralism," reads the slogan outside the port. "No to Qaeda [sic]."

A banner outside the Sahaba mosque is more wordy, and more adamant. "We refuse to be linked with Al Qaeda & other terrorist groups," it says.

Derna's rudimentary PR campaign, apparently led by university students, is clearly aimed at foreign journalists arriving in the town to seek evidence of claims made by Gaddafi's regime.

Tripoli has repeatedly said Libya's revolution is being spearheaded not by people desperate for freedom but rather by al-Qaida militants seeking to create an Islamist state. As proof, it has pointed to Derna in the far east of Libya, much to the disgust of residents.

"Gaddafi is using al-Qaida as a bogeyman, a scarecrow, to make western countries afraid," said Abdulkarim Bentaher, an English professor who is a member of Derna's local transitional council.

"He wants to stop the west supporting us, and in some way he has succeeded. [But] there is no such thing as al-Qaida in this town."

While a day's visit is not enough to verify this, or to understand the true motives and aspirations of people, there was nothing to suggest Bentaher was anything but sincere.

The difficulty for the people of Derna is that Gaddafi's argument has been boosted by the town's history as a fertile recruiting ground for Islamist groups, and suicide bombers in particular.

Along with other cities in eastern Libya, Derna supplied militiamen for the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), an anti-Gaddafi movement that sprang up in the training camps of Afghanistan in the early 90s.

Even more damaging were the revelations that emerged after coalition forces, operating near the Syrian border with Iraq in 2007, recovered records of about 600 foreign fighters who had entered Iraq the previous year.

Analysis of the information by the Combating Terrorism Centre at West Point in the US found that of the 440 fighters whose hometowns were listed in the data, 52 were from Derna – the highest of any town or city listed.

On a per capita basis the statistic was even more remarkable. Derna's population is around 100,000, while the Saudi capital, Riyadh – which provided 51 fighters – is home to several million people.

In addition the Libyans appeared to have been especially fervent, with 85% of them listing their desired "work" as being a suicide bomber.

Residents openly acknowledge that scores of young men from Derna fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that some of those who returned are now helping the rebel cause.

"People here saw what was happening in Palestine and how America was supporting repressive regimes. So when they saw US in Iraq, a Muslim country, some people felt it was a reason for jihad," said Mohamed El-Mesori, a lecturer in power mechanics who heads the executive arm of Derna's council, which is dominated by secular figures.

"But that does not mean they supported Bin Laden."

Yet similar anti-western sentiment would have been felt across much of the Arab world. So why did so many young people from Derna in particular choose to seek martyrdom?

The answer to that is not easy. The town may be more religious than many others in Libya, but still appears to be fairly moderate. Indeed, many people here say the radicalisation had less to do with religion than Gaddafi's oppression and deliberate neglect of the town.

"There were no jobs for young people, no money, a lot of men in jail. People thought there was no future under Gaddafi so they started to get other types of thoughts," said 34-year-old Faraj al-Faitory.

Others said Gaddafi, who was one of the world's biggest sponsors of terrorism in the 80s and 90s, actively encouraged young people from Derna to join jihad, helping them obtain the necessary travel documents.

There is no way of proving that. What is certain is that there has long been opposition to Gaddafi in Derna – dating back to 1970, a year after he took power, town elders say. In turn, the town has been punished.

Despite its beautiful location, sandwiched between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jebel Akhdar, or Green Mountains, Derna's apartments and office blocks are shabby compared with elsewhere in the country, and sewage leaks on the main streets.

One of the few well-maintained buildings is the Sahaba mosque. One of its halls has been turned into a sort of shrine for the hundreds of local victims of Gaddafi's regime over the years.

There are photographs of the five demonstrators killed on 17 February, when the town rose up against the regime. Other pictures date to the mid-90s, when several dozen political prisoners from Derna were among the 1,200 people massacred at the Abu Salim jail in Tripoli.

Around the same time Gaddafi's forces staged a brutal crackdown on the LFIG, conducting house-to-house raids in Derna.

One the survivors of the regime's brutality, Ati al-Mansoury, 60, a former army lieutenant who was jailed from 1975 to 1988 for plotting a coup, sat outside the mosque. "We in Derna don't have a problem with anyone in the world," he said. "Except Gaddafi."

Asked whether anyone in the town wanted an Islamist state, his friend Abdelwhab Sary, a 57-year-old teacher, blurted out: "No, no! We want freedom only, and democracy. Al-Qaida is rubbish for us."

In trying to prove the rebels' terror links, Gaddafi's regime has pointed to Abdulhakim al-Hasidi, a Derna native who went to fight in Afghanistan before 9/11 and was captured by US troops and held for several months.

Now he leads a unit of rebels that has seen action in Ajdabiya and the western city of Misrata. He has denied any links to al-Qaida, and to people in town he is just another revolutionary – albeit one with useful skills.

"He's a good friend of mine," said Bentaher, the English professor. "He is not a dangerous person at all."

Indeed, to people In Derna the biggest danger to Libya is the man still clinging to power in Tripoli. In the town's training camp, Siraj Abidi, a 28-year-old farmer, was learning how to clean and reassemble an anti-aircraft gun.

"Gaddafi is the terrorist man," he said. "We are just ordinary people."

quote:

Pressure mounts on Gadhafi within Libya's capital

MAGGIE MICHAEL

Associated Press= TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Pressure is mounting on Moammar Gadhafi from within his stronghold in the Libyan capital, with increasing NATO airstrikes and worsening shortages of fuel and goods. Residents said Thursday there has also been a wave of anti-government protests in several Tripoli neighborhoods this week — dissent that in the past has been met with zero tolerance and brutal force.

Gadhafi's rebel opposition, meanwhile, received major political boosts from abroad. Britain promised to provide them with police gear, and the Obama administration invited a rebel delegation to the White House for talks on Friday.

Those announcements followed a new round of NATO airstrikes early Thursday that hit Gadhafi's fortified compound in Tripoli. Just hours beforehand, the Libyan leader had appeared on state TV for the first time since his son was killed nearly two weeks ago. Before his appearance, rumors swirled that he had been killed or injured.

Reporters were shown the airstrike damage by Libyan officials, including one who said Gadhafi and his family had moved away from the Bab al-Aziziya compound some time ago. One missile appeared to have targeted some sort of underground bunker at the compound — a sprawling complex of buildings surrounded by towering concrete blast walls.

NATO, which has hit the Libyan capital repeatedly this week, said Thursday's attack successfully hit "a large command and control bunker complex in downtown Tripoli that was used to coordinate attacks against civilian populations."

A local journalist and another resident in Tripoli, reached by telephone from Egypt, told The Associated Press that there have been protests this week in at least three neighborhoods in the capital, accompanied by exchanges of gunfire between opposition activists and Gadhafi forces. Both spoke only on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals.

When residents of Tripoli tried to protest against Gadhafi earlier in the uprising, gunmen in speeding cars tore through and fired wildly into the crowds, making many fearful to go out in the streets and demonstrate.

The local journalist said residents are deeply frustrated by a severe fuel shortage that forces some motorists to spend up to three days in line at gas stations.

The head of the rebels' transitional government, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, said during a high-level visit to London on Thursday that Gadhafi opponents in Tripoli were in the process of acquiring weapons and predicted they would eventually contest regime forces in the capital.

"Tripoli is surrounded both internally and externally, and every day its sons go out and execute a few limited operations, perhaps to acquire some weapons," Abdul-Jalil said. "Tripoli will rise to get rid of this regime."

Britain said in talks it would supply police officers in rebel-held eastern Libya with uniforms and body armor, but so far — like other governments — is declining to provide military weapons.

The rebels control most of eastern Libya, while Gadhafi controls most of the west including Tripoli. The besieged port city of Misrata — about 125 miles (200 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli — is the only rebel stronghold in the west. Local doctors say more than 1,000 of its residents have been killed in the fighting and shelling during the siege by Gadhafi's forces.

According to NATO, Gadhafi's forces dispatched a number of small speedboats to attack Misrata's port early Thursday, but they were repelled by Canadian, British and French warships on the scene.

In Tripoli, Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said three people were killed in Thursday's NATO strikes — a local official and two Libyan journalists who were making a documentary about the hundreds of Libyan civilians who have been sleeping in Gadhafi's compound to show support for their leader.

Ibrahim fumed at the persistent airstrikes, which are aimed at pressuring Gadhafi to end his 42-year authoritarian rule.

"All they want is to break our morale, to cause death and destruction everywhere," Ibrahim said. "People are being killed, every single day, every single night."

At the compound, there was a large hole in the ground near stairs leading to an underground passageway. A missile appeared to have landed and penetrated through a smaller hole before blowing up the gaping crater shown to reporters — a pattern typical of bunker-busting bombs.

Another missile made a small, charred hole in a large concrete area that appeared to serve as a corridor between buildings. Yet another dug a crater close to where khaki tents were strung up. A building described as a VIP reception area had part of its facade blown away.

Gadhafi's compound has been a frequent site of recent airstrikes, including one on April 30 that killed the leader's son, Seif al-Arab. Officials said Gadhafi was in the compound when that strike occurred but escaped unharmed.

NATO has repeatedly said all its targets in Libya are military and that it is not targeting Gadhafi or other individuals. In its latest update Thursday, NATO denied targeting the North Korean Embassy in Tripoli — a response to a report by the Libyan state news agency JANA that the embassy had been damaged during one of this week's strikes.

Gadhafi had seven sons and one daughter. He also had an adopted daughter who was killed in 1986 when a U.S. airstrike hit the Bab al-Aziziya compound in retaliation for a bombing attack on a German disco in which two U.S. servicemen were killed.

In an apparent effort to dispel rumors that Gadhafi himself had been killed, Libyan state TV showed him meeting tribal leaders, but did not record him speaking. To authenticate the scene, the camera zoomed in on the date on a TV monitor in the room, which read Wednesday, May 11. It was apparently recorded at the hotel where foreign correspondents must reside in Tripoli. Gadhafi did not make himself available to them.

The last time Gadhafi had been seen in public previously was April 9, when he visited a school in Tripoli.

Intensified NATO airstrikes on Gadhafi's forces across Libya have given a boost to rebels fighting to oust the regime. In all, NATO said, the alliance has carried out more than 2,400 airstrikes since March 31 as part of the effort to assist the rebels and pressure Gadhafi relinquish power.

Even though some of the recent reports of rebel advances are difficult to confirm, they seem to represent a major boost for the opposition's military prospects after weeks of stalemate on several fronts.

The United States has still made no decision on whether to formally recognize the rebels' Transitional National Council as Libya's legitimate government, though it has been boosting its support for the opposition in recent weeks.

President Obama has authorized $25 million in non-lethal assistance, and thee first shipment of that aid — 10,000 ready-to-eat meals from Pentagon stocks — arrived in Benghazi this week.

The French Foreign Ministry said Thursday that a Frenchman was killed at a police checkpoint in Benghazi, and four other French citizens were detained. Rebel officials said the victim was a military contractor, and he was shot in the back Wednesday in unclear circumstances. His name was not released.

---

Maggie Michael reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Michelle Faul in Benghazi and Slobodan Lekic in Brussels also contributed to this report.

quote:

‘Zestien doden bij NAVO-aanval in Libische stad Brega'

Bij een luchtaanval van de NAVO bij de oostelijke oliestad Brega zijn volgens de Libische staatstelevisie zestien mensen gedood. De NAVO heeft het plaatsvinden van de aanval nog niet bevestigd.

Naast zestien doden zouden er zo’n veertig mensen gewond zijn geraakt bij de aanval, die volgens de staats-tv een pension als doel had. Daar zouden geestelijken op het moment van de aanval een religieuze bijeenkomst hebben gehouden. De meeste slachtoffers zouden dan ook geestelijken zijn.

Op het propagandakanaal van Gaddafi’s regime waren beelden te zien van negen lichamen. Het is niet onafhankelijk na te gaan of dit daadwerkelijk slachtoffers van het bombardement waren.

De NAVO heeft het plaatsvinden van de aanval nog niet bevestigd. Wel zei een een woordvoerder op een persbriefing in Napels dat de organisatie “geavanceerde middelen” gebruikt om het maken van burgerslachtoffers te voorkomen.

Gisteren beschuldigde het Libische regime de NAVO ook al van het maken van burgerslachtoffers. Bij een aanval op de compound van Gaddafi in Tripoli kwamen volgens de Libiërs zes mensen om.

quote:

TRIPOLI - De Libische leider Muammar Kaddafi is hoogstwaarschijnlijk gewond geraakt bij een bombardement door de NAVO.

De Libische dictator Muammar Kaddafi. De Libische dictator Muammar Kaddafi. Foto: epa

Dat heeft de Italiaanse minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Franco Frattini vrijdag gezegd. Volgens Frattini heeft de dictator in gewonde toestand de Libische hoofdstad Tripoli verlaten. Hij baseerde zich op informatie van de bisschop van Tripoli, de Italiaan Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli. De geestelijke onderhoudt goede banden met de Libische machthebbers.

Nadere details ontbreken nog.

LATER MEER

quote:

Op vrijdag 13 mei 2011 18:05 schreef MisterJ.Lo het volgende:
Wat een pauperkrant is het toch ook, bronnen baseren op enkel en alleen een waarneming van een persoon zonder dit te kunnen verifiëren.