Oorlog in Libi� #101: Waar de rebellen langzaam vooruitgang boeken.

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1.35pm: Libyan rebels have taken control of the village of Al-Qawalish, south-east of Tripoli, after a six-hour battle, according to a Reuters reporter in the village.

Scores of rebel fighters poured into the village through an abandoned government checkpoint, firing their rifles into the air in celebration and shouting "Allahu Akbar!", or "God is greatest!".

There was evidence of a hurried withdrawal by forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Near the checkpoint there were collapsed tents, half-eaten bread as well as a van and an electricity transformer station which were both on fire, the reporter said

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Tripoli wil 72 opstandelingen aanklagen

Libische aanklagers willen 72 opstandelingen, die lid zijn van de Nationale Overgangsraad, in een speciale rechtbank aanklagen voor hoogverraad.

Dat liet de rechter die de aanklacht momenteel samenstelt, Khalifa Isa Khalifa, vandaag weten tegenover persbureau AP. De opstandelingen zullen bij verstek berecht worden.

De Nationale Overgangsraad was niet bereikbaar voor commentaar. Onder de aangeklaagde opstandelingen bevindt zich ook leider Mustafa Abdul-Jalil. De 72 Libi�rs worden onder andere aangeklaagd voor het onthullen van staatsgeheimen aan buitenlandse mogendheden, het met geweld proberen het regime omver te werpen en hulp bieden aan de interventie van de NAVO in Libi�.

Volgens rechter Khalifa zal de zaak tegen de opstandelingen overzien worden door drie rechters en zullen verschillende getuigen gehoord worden. Khalifa ging niet in op de strafeis, maar in Libi� staat op hoogverraad de doodstraf. Bij een veroordeling zal Libi� de hulp inroepen van Interpol om de opstandelingen op te sporen en uit te leveren.

Libische opstandelingen rukken op richting Tripoli

De Libische opstandelingen rukken momenteel op richting hoofdstad Tripoli. Vanmiddag namen zij het stadje Al-Qawalish in. Dit maakt deel uit van een offensief om de strategisch gelegen stad Garyan op 80 kilometer ten zuiden van Tripoli te veroveren.

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Tripoli: a stronghold by day, a battleground at night


The Libyan capital may seem peaceful in daylight, but when the sun sets rebels and Gaddafi's forces clash, locals say

In daylight there is the pretence of normality: people chatting in cafes, shops open for business, motorists on the move – if they're lucky enough to still have petrol. But at night, Tripoli takes on a more menacing aspect.

"There are drive-by shootings at night here," said one man in the Souk al-Juma district, an opposition stronghold. "People are shooting at the police every night."

Numerous witnesses tell the same story: that when night falls, out come the police checkpoints aimed at locking down restive districts, but so too do rebel militas opposed to Muammar Gaddafi. Under cover of darkness, it is said, they emerge from hiding to ambush his security forces. In some neighbourhoods the gun battles rage every night, but the bodies of those killed and all other traces are swiftly removed.

With security tight and little sign of a major uprising in Tripoli, these audacious guerrilla tactics appear to be the rebels' best hope of chipping away at the Libyan leader's defences.

In Souk al-Juma there have been reports of explosions, a raid on a police station and at least one public protest violently crushed. A rebel sympathiser, pointing to a street off the district's main road, said: "On one night a couple of weeks ago, four people were killed here."

Libyan government officials denied such attacks have taken place, and the movements of foreign journalists are strictly controlled, making it impossible to verify these claims.

However, anecdotal evidence suggests that there are now regular night-time clashes in the Libyan capital .

The raids have turned parts of Tripoli, a city with no shortage of privately owned firearms, into a no-go area after dark. The man, who said he has stocked up on diesel in readiness for "zero hour", added: "Normally wedding parties go on until 2am, but now they finish at 8pm. No one goes out after sunset. They all stay at home."

Some in his working-class suburb felt it was too dangerous to talk to journalists, employing euphemisms such as "I think you know what I mean." But one young man, sitting in a T-shirt beside a blaring stereo, made an obscene gesture and shouted openly: "Fuck Gaddafi!"

The size and strength of the armed insurgency is unknown. It seems highly unlikely they could raise enough men to topple Gaddafi without external support. Their main strategy appears to be a methodical sapping of the police state's morale.

A man using the name Niz, who claims to represent a Tripoli rebel network known as the Free Generation Movement, said via Skype: "There are armed operations pretty much every night, normally at checkpoints. There is regular gunfire every night. It's not an attempt to go all out. It's an attempt to intimidate the security apparatus and show the presence of an armed group."

Nato hopes that Tripoli would succumb to the Arab spring were swiftly thwarted, with dissidents killed, arrested or driven underground. Apart from occasional public demonstrations, opposition to Gaddafi in the capital remains covert and fragmented, especially since access to the internet and mobile text was blocked. Informants and secret police ensure that fear, suspicion and paranoia are thick in the air.

Niz, speaking English, said he was unwilling to meet in person for fear of arrest. It was therefore impossible to verify his identity, but his account resonates with other media reports.

He said the Free Generation Movement, which posts regularly on Facebook and YouTube, has few members but is in close contact with several similar groups. He insisted that "activity is increasing, fear is decreasing and security is becoming fragmented" in Tripoli, making the ultimate overthrow of Gaddafi inevitable.

"I believe there can be an uprising in the city," he said. "We are moving towards that. I don't believe a single action will bring down the regime, but the coming closer of rebels and the continued Nato campaign shows the noose is tightening. It's going to be a combination of things. The regime will fall."

The resilience of Gaddafi's stronghold over more than four months has already confounded many. Asked to predict when the end will come, Niz replied: "Six million Libyans are asking the same question every day. What I can tell you is that every day there is more and more activity in Tripoli. The pressure on Gaddafi increases as the circle closes. We're all doing our bit to play our part."

But the risks remain high. Plain-clothes police reportedly go from house to house looking for real or perceived rebels. Niz, whose group performs acts of civil disobedience, alleged that people had been kidnapped and tortured by electrocution in increasingly overcrowded prisons.

"I feel uncomfortable using the word 'arrested'; these guys are being kidnapped," he said. "People I know have been blindfolded in the back of trucks and have heard on the radio prison officials saying, 'Don't bring them here, we're full.' There are thousands of people unaccounted for. I've heard people have been tortured, mainly through electrocution and beatings. You also hear about the pulling of fingernails."

A pro-Gaddafi rally on Friday brought tens of thousands of people to Green Square in a formidable show of strength, but Niz estimates that three-quarters of Tripoli's 2 million residents are against the regime.

Moussa Ibrahim, spokesman for the Libyan government, dismissed reports of underground networks in Tripoli. "Dream on," he said. "David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy are so embarrassed that they have to make up lies."

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The Guardian has another reporter expelled from Tripoli


Libyan regime has also recently expelled reporters from the Daily Telegraph, CNN and Reuters

The Guardian has been expelled from Tripoli for the second time in three weeks as the Libyan regime seeks tighter control over how the conflict is reported to the world.

On Wednesday, I was ordered to pack my bags and leave the country because officials objected to an article in which I interviewed critics of Muammar Gaddafi.

The government demanded that the Guardian publish an apology "to the Libyan people", which it had itself prepared. The paper refused.

Guardian journalist Xan Rice's spell in Tripoli ended similarly abruptly last month. Reporters from the Daily Telegraph, CNN and Reuters have also been expelled in recent days.

Foreign journalists in government-controlled Libya are obliged to stay at one hotel, the Rixos in Tripoli, and are not allowed to leave the grounds without a government "minder", causing frustration and strained relations. Their output is closely monitored by Libyan officials.

On Tuesday I walked out of the front gate unaccompanied, caught a taxi to a neighbourhood known for anti-Gaddafi dissent, interviewed some of its residents and reported my findings.

Within hours of the article appearing online, I was summoned to the media centre where an official held up a print-out of my article, the offending passages highlighted in yellow, and ripped it in half. He said: "Tomorrow you must leave Libya for ever! You can never come back, even when there is peace."

It was explained that there was no record of me having left the hotel on Tuesday morning, therefore I must have sat in my room and made up all the quotations. But I was given one last chance: I could remain in Tripoli if I handed over my interviewees or if the Guardian published a retraction that denied their existence. This is the absurd apology they demanded:

"Declaration of apology

To the Libyan people:

Regarding our article on the 6/7/2011 describing the situation in the Soug-Al-Jouma area of Tripoli, narrating stories of some residents opposing the Libyan system, and using obscene words against the person of (Muammar Gaddafi) who is the leader and symbol for all Libyans.

And where this report is contrary to truth and that these cases referred to do not exist.

Therefore please accept our apology,

The Guardian."

I took the car out of Libya instead. I was joined by a Daily Telegraph journalist who had committed the same offence. This means that, at least for now, no British or American newspaper reporters remain in Tripoli, although the BBC, ITV, Sky and other international media are still present.

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Frankrijk wil onderhandelingen tussen Gaddafi en opstandelingen

Frankrijk vindt dat het tijd is dat de Libische opstandelingen gaan onderhandelen met het regime van Moammar Gaddafi. De zoon van Gaddafi zegt vandaag in een interview dat het regime daarover al gesprekken voert met de Fransen.

De Franse defensieminister Gerard Longuet zei gisteravond in een interview met tv-zender BFM dat zijn land beide partijen in het Libische conflict gevraagd heeft met elkaar het gesprek aan te gaan. Volgens Longuet heeft het voor de opstandelingen geen zin om op het vertrek van Gaddafi te wachten, hoewel hij benadrukte dat Frankrijk nog altijd wil dat de Libische dictator de macht afstaat.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, de zoon van de Libische leider, zegt vanochtend in een interview met de Algerijnse krant El Khabar dat het Libische regime al onderhandelingen voert met Frankrijk over een eventuele politieke oplossing voor de al maanden slepende strijd. Volgens Gaddafi heeft Frankrijk het regime beloofd bij een onderling akkoord de opstandelingen tot een staakt-het-vuren te zullen dwingen.

De Verenigde Staten lieten vannacht weten dat de druk op Gaddafi onverminderd hoog moet blijven. Het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken verklaarde dat alleen de Libische bevolking kan bepalen hoe de machtsoverdracht in Libi� eruit moet zien. De inhoudelijk verschillende verklaringen van Frankrijk en de VS laten zien dat het geduld van het NAVO-bondgenootschap met de missie in Libi� kleiner wordt. De coalitielanden proberen Gaddafi al maanden tevergeefs tot aftreden te dwingen.

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Libyan Rebels Plan Attack Near Tripoli

Anti-Gaddafi rebels have told Sky News an assault is being planned on the strategic town of Gharyan in the western Nefusa mountains as a precursor to an all-out attack on Libya's capital.

The rebels say they want to close off supply routes from the south and hope to link up with rebel elements in the town of Zawiyha, scene of some of the worst attacks on civilians by pro-Gaddafi forces in the February uprising.

But in a rare organised trip to Libya's Nefusa mountain range, about 50 miles south of Tripoli, it is clear that the government and its militia are preparing to defend Gharyan.

Women's militia groups are being trained to use weapons and the whole area is being flooded with government-supplied guns.

In the court yard of a medical institute, a group of women practised gun drills in front of foreign media bussed in from Tripoli.

They told me they had volunteered to form the militia to defend their homes and their children.

"We will die for our country," a gun-totting woman hidden by dark glasses, a traditional scarf and gloves told me.

"We are not scared of the rebels. We will fight if we have to but we will also negotiate a solution to all this - but our leader (Gaddafi) must stay," she added.

The Nefusa mountain range has been home to the only consistent anti-Gaddafi uprising in the west of the country since February.

In recent weeks, rebels have slowly pushed out pro-Gaddafi forces from the mountains and they say they can launch an attack on Tripoli if they can take Gharyan.


^{- Women in Gharyan say they will fight off any rebel attack -}

But on our drive further west towards the rebel lines, it is clear the government has been stocking up local people with a huge array of weapons.

Our bus was lead towards the town of Asabiha by a convoy of police and trucks filled with men in military clothing.

For about two miles, men lined the road firing thousands of rounds into the sky to greet us. On rooftops, women and children waved and shouted pro-Gaddafi slogans as we passed by.

In a press conference, the local governor said everyone was now armed and ready to fight.

"We are prepared to die and we are not scared of the rebels," Hamooda Mokhtar al Salem said, admitting they did expect to be attacked at some point.


^{- Rebels have already moved into the city of Kikla, southwest of Tripoli -}

The governor claimed Nato planes regularly hit his town and that civilians were killed in raids over the past two days.

When asked if he could show the media what had happened he refused the request. A government minder said it was too dangerous for us to see.

Despite their claims, it is difficult to see how the rebels can advance further along the mountain range from their current position further west without major assistance from Nato.

Even then it is uncertain if the Gaddafi regime's support will simply fade away, which the rebels predict, or stand and fight.

What is certain right now is that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has armed huge numbers of civilians in strategic towns overlooking Tripoli and he remains in charge.

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In rebel-held Libya, men find new identities as warriors

The war against Moammar Kadafi has taken over a long-sleepy mountain region, turning shepherds into fierce fighters, pastures into battlegrounds. Many wonder whether they'll ever return to their old lives.



Reporting from Kikla, Libya— He is a soft-spoken 22-year-old with a massive Belgian machine gun.

"Allahu akbar!" Radwan Othman cries out as he opens fire in response to a barrage of rockets fired by Moammar Kadafi's troops less than two miles across the valley.

Afterward he goes silent, staring into space with glazed eyes. He doesn't talk much, and his friends at this front-line position at the far eastern edge of rebel-controlled territory in the Nafusa Mountains worry about him.

Until the uprising against Kadafi's 42-year rule began in February, Othman sold women's clothes at a shop in Tripoli and had never handled a gun in his life.

"The war changes you," said Mesbah Sassi, a 28-year-old fighter who was unemployed before the war began and is among the volunteer fighters here in Kikla. "It turns you from a nice person into an aggressive person. I was a civilian. Now I have a gun and shoot to kill, and for us it's getting too easy."

The drive to oust the longtime ruler has subsumed nearly every aspect of life in these long-sleepy mountains, a 100-mile-long rebel-controlled region of pasturelands, tiny farming villages and close-knit towns that has become the focal point of the NATO-backed effort to weaken and oust Kadafi.

War has turned shepherds into hardened volunteer fighters, bent the economy to fit battle needs, replaced long-planned weddings with somber funerals for young men.

And it has raised the question of how, or even whether, those taking part in a conflict that has lasted nearly five months and shows little sign of a quick resolution will be able to simply turn in their weapons and go back to civilian life.

Already there are signs of an emerging warrior caste, young men who have forged identities in war, and found self-respect in toting weapons and pushing people twice their age around.

The creation of such a generation can change not only the individuals but the trajectory of the country. In the most chaotic Third World examples, nations have been beset by roving groups of heavily armed men long after the conflict ends, while in other countries, such as Iran after its 1980s war with Iraq, the fighters have become today's leaders, now pursuing an assertive and some would say belligerent security policy.

Here in the mountains of Libya, young men alternate between giddiness and horror at their new selves.

"When they ran out of ammunition, we warned them to give up. But they didn't give up," Hadi Mohammad, a 22-year-old fighter, said with dismay, describing a recent battle against Kadafi's forces. "We killed so many of them."

One of the fighters confided to his friend Madgis Abouzakher that he was becoming too enamored with the daily rhythm of war, that he was feeling too much violence inside him, that he felt he was becoming a "monster" to others.

"Everybody is worried about the front and thinking about the front," said Abouzakher, the co-director of a cultural association in the town of Yafran. "They can't communicate with their wives or their children. It's an important issue. What happens after the war?"

Already, just as in eastern Libya, the fighters' unruliness and lack of discipline have contributed to a number of battlefield debacles. But unlike eastern Libya, the Nafusa Mountains are hemmed in by Kadafi's forces to the north, south and east. The risks are even higher for these poorly trained volunteers, who sometimes appear heedless of the danger.

"They want to do anything anytime," said Jumaa Ibrahim, spokesman for the Zintan-based rebel command. "It's difficult to stop."

Mohammad, the 22-year-old at the front lines of Kikla, said all aspects of his life had been taken over by war, and even during the three or four hours of fitful sleep he has each night, he's often startled awake by gunfire, rushing to grab his gun and hurry half-awake toward the front line.

"In this town, there's no celebratory gunfire," he said. "It's not allowed. Every bullet is to be used for Kadafi's men."

In areas where there is relative security, such as the towns of Jadu and Qala, the rebel administration has reestablished police forces in an attempt to bring some sense of normality. "The point of getting guns is to get rid of Kadafi," said Mohammad Abul Qassem, a 26-year-old former engineer and fighter. "After that we don't need guns. Hopefully, the law will prevail then."

For now, men with guns rule these rustic mountains. In Zintan and Nalut, pickups mounted with antiaircraft guns stream up and down roads largely devoid of people. Children who should be in school serve tea and water to young men at military positions.

But many of the women and children have been sent to Tunisia or to safer cities, to clear the men's minds of worry for their families as they head into battle.

"Because of this fighting and killing and shelling, a lot of the women go," said Mokhtar Fakhal, a quiet former schoolteacher who is considered one of the elders of Zintan. "They go out of town and live in caves. They go underground."

His son, Hisham, 25, was shot in the neck during a battle, a clean wound that didn't hit any major arteries or nerves. He's recovering at a clinic in neighboring Tunisia, once a medical tourism destination for Libyan plastic surgery and cancer patients and now serving as vast triage for the war-wounded flooding across the border.

"We chose this way and we will never go back," Fakhal said. "That is life."

A grim aesthetic has taken hold of the region. Pickups once used to haul produce to market are smeared with mud to make them blend in with the high desert landscape. Bulldozers and backhoes that once contributed to a small boom in new housing form dirt mounds at checkpoints. Unemployed cooks prepare aluminum trays, each with rice and beans and a clump of fatty mutton for fighters on the front.

Rebel commanders here predict that the war could be finished in three weeks. But the incremental nature of the rebels' battlefield advances suggests that such a timeframe could be wishful thinking; and the rebel administration itself appears to be preparing for one that could last months. They have built training bases for young recruits in Nalut, Jadu and Zintan and are preparing another in Kikla.

Recruits stream in from across Libya, including some from the rebel stronghold, Benghazi, bored by the lack of action on the front to the east.

Bundoq Assem Bundoq, 26, came from the northwestern coastal city of Zuwara. He arrived in the mountains after a perilous journey by boat to Tunisia, spending weeks settling his family abroad before heading back to Libya. He wore a red beret as he underwent three weeks of basic training in Jadu.

He speaks near-perfect American-tinged English, picked up from countless television shows, action movies and pop music recordings. He used to play guitar, an aspiring musician who loves Pink Floyd, My Dying Bride and traditional Arab folk music.

"That part of my life," he said, "is over for now."

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Libya: Paris denies claims it is in direct talks with Muammar Gaddafi

The country's foreign ministry insists claims by Gaddafi's son are unfounded and that Libyan leader must go

France has denied claims that it has changed its policy towards the Libyan conflict and is negotiating directly with the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, but has called for political flexibility over the terms and timing of his departure.

The country's foreign ministry said on Monday that the Libyan leader must go and insisted there were no direct negotiations with him, as claimed by his son.

The comments followed an interview in which the French defence minister, G�rard Longuet, urged the rebels to talk to the government in Tripoli. "We have … asked them to speak to each other," he said on BFM TV on Sunday.

"The position of the TNC [rebel Transitional National Council] is very far from other positions. Now, there will be a need to sit around a table."

Asked if it was possible to hold talks if Gaddafi had not left office, Longuet replied: "He will be in another room in his palace with another title."

Representatives of the TNC said there had been no change and dismissed a claim by the leader's son, Saif al-Islam, that Libya was negotiating with France.

"The truth is that we are negotiating with France and not with the rebels," Saif al-Islam said in an interview with the Algerian newspaper al-Khabar. "Our envoy to [Nicolas] Sarkozy said that the French president was very clear and told him: 'We created the [rebel] council, and without our support, and money, and our weapons, the council would have never existed.' France said: 'When we reach an agreement with you [Tripoli], we will force the council to cease fire.'"

Gaddafi's chief of staff, Bashir Saleh, reportedly met French officials in Paris recently. But foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said on Monday: "France supports a political solution, as it has always said. There are no direct negotiations between France and the Gaddafi regime, though we pass on messages together in consultation with the TNC."

Guma el-Gamaty, a London-based spokesman for the TNC, also dismissed the Libyan claims. "It's just rumours and speculation," he said. "These are recycled ideas. Saif is a loose cannon at the moment. He is desperate. No one should take his statements seriously."

Any shift by France would be significant since it and Britain are bearing the brunt of Nato's bombing campaign.

British officials said there was now a new emphasis on finding a political exit from the crisis, an issue that is being quietly explored by the UN special envoy for Libya, the Jordanian Abdel-Ilah al-Khatib, who held talks in Tripoli over the weekend about "managing a transition". The sequence of a ceasefire and Gaddafi's departure has yet to be worked out and has been complicated by the arrest warrant for crimes against humanity issued by the international criminal court.

"It's not a change of tack but it is about exploring what a political solution would look like," said one diplomat.

Nato's unity and determination over the Libyan crisis has been called into question by a recent Italian call for a suspension of attacks after civilian deaths caused by alliance errors.

In the background there is mounting concern and impatience in London and Paris that nearly four months of air strikes that have cost billions of dollars have failed to see a rebel victory or the removal of Gaddafi.

The US was quick to signal that it was not prepared to leave Gaddafi in place. "The Libyan people will be the ones to decide how this transition takes place, but we stand firm in our belief that Gaddafi cannot remain in power," the state department insisted in a statement.

International action on Libya intensifies this week with a meeting between the TNC and Nato and EU officials in Brussels and a new session of the international contact group in Istanbul on Friday.

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Op maandag 11 juli 2011 20:55 schreef Hans_van_Baalen het volgende:
Is het vreemd dat ik aan G en aanverwanten denk toen ik las over de explosie bij een Italiaanse marinebasis?

Misschien een beetje doorgeslagen gedachte, maar kon het niet laten een linkje te leggen tussen zijn bedreiging en deze explosie. Al kan het net zo goed een ongeluk zijn.

quote:

Op maandag 11 juli 2011 20:55 schreef Hans_van_Baalen het volgende:
Is het vreemd dat ik aan G en aanverwanten denk toen ik las over de explosie bij een Italiaanse marinebasis?

Misschien een beetje doorgeslagen gedachte, maar kon het niet laten een linkje te leggen tussen zijn bedreiging en deze explosie. Al kan het net zo goed een ongeluk zijn.

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Gaddafi-gezanten tegen Frankrijk: Libische leider wil aftreden

De Franse minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Alain Jupp� is verteld dat Moammar Gaddafi “bereid is om te vertrekken”. Parijs heeft contact gehad met gezanten van de Libische leider die dat beweren.

Jupp� zegt dat van onderhandelingen met het regime van Gaddfi geen sprake is. Hij zet de woorden van de gezanten tevens in perspectief:

“Iedereen heeft contact met iedereen in dit conflict. Het Libische regime stuurt haar boodschappers overal heen; naar Turkije, New York, Parijs. Wij ontvangen afgezanten die zeggen: ‘Gaddafi is bereid om af te treden, laten we dit bespreken’”.

Gisteren ontkende het Franse ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken al dat Frankrijk onderhandelt met Gaddafi. Jupp� onderschrijft dat dus. Als lid van de NAVO-operatie vindt het land dat Gaddfi moet aftreden. De Libische premier Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi zegt vanochtend in een interview met de Franse ochtendkrant Le Figaro dat een dialoog, met de oppositie of NAVO-landen, zonder betrokkenheid van Gaddafi kunnen worden gevoerd.

“Hij is slechts de gids, niet de overheid. Met betrekking tot de onderhandelingen, zei hij dat hij klaar was om de beslissing van het Libische volk te respecteren. De bevolking kan kiezen voor de vorm van een regering, een republiek, een monarchie of het huidige systeem. Hij zou zich conformeren aan deze beslissing.” – Premier Al-Mahmoudi in Le Figaro.

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Op dinsdag 12 juli 2011 10:48 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]

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‘Noord-Afrikaanse tak Al-Qaeda smokkelt wapens uit Libi�’

Islamitische militanten van de Noord-Afrikaanse tak van Al-Qaeda profiteren van de aanhoudende strijd in Libi�. Volgens de Italiaanse minister van Buitenlandse Zaken slagen zij er door de chaos in het land in wapens uit het land te smokkelen.

Minister Franco Frattini zei vanmiddag op een persconferentie in Algerije, een buurland van Libi�, dat militanten van Al-Qaeda in de Islamitische Maghreb profiteren van het voortgaande geweld tussen troepen van Moammar Gaddafi en de opstandelingen en de NAVO-landen. Hoewel er eerder berichten waren over wapensmokkel door Al-Qaeda in Libi�, is Frattini de eerste westerse minister die deze geruchten bevestigt.

Frattini’s Franse collega Alain Jupp� zei vanochtend dat hij via gezanten van Gaddafi heeft begrepen dat de Libische leider bereid is om af te treden. De Libische premier Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi beweerde vanochtend in de Franse krant Le Figaro dat Gaddafi klaar is om “de beslissing van het Libische volk te respecteren”.

Dit bericht wordt momenteel aangevuld.

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Libyan rebels make gains against Gaddafi forces in western mountains

Weeks of fierce fighting sees troops consolidate positions less than 100 miles from the capital, Tripoli

A flattened lamp-post, two neat rows of bullets and a no-left-turn sign lying on the tarmac road mark the frontline in Libya's western mountains.

Nearby are seven young men, leaning against a battle-scarred building they say was once a guardhouse for Italian soldiers during the second world war. Another sits on a rock, gazing into the desert of no man's land in search of Muammar Gaddafi's forces, said to be little more than a mile away.

The advance in the Nafusa mountains has raised hopes of a significant breakthrough for rebels striving to reach Tripoli and topple Gaddafi. Whereas the battlefields in eastern Libya have reached a virtual stalemate, rebel soldiers have seized 25 miles of this arid, hot, rocky terrain in recent weeks, putting government troops on the defensive.

But it is a hard campaign, an attritional struggle unlikely to meet Nato's timetable for an end to the war, especially with a further slowdown expected for Ramadan next month. The rebels are forced to consolidate their incrementalgains before they can think about moving forward.

The young men guarding the frontline post at Qawalish said Gaddafi's troops tried to retake it two days ago and subject them to a nightly bombardment of Grad rockets, peaking from 11.30pm to 4am.

"We are not scared," said a 21-year-old, who gave his name as Ahmed, half-an-hour after another rocket had thudded into the earth nearby. "We are OK, we just take these things, we get used to it. It's the Gaddafi army who's afraid."

Sitting on a wooden crate of ammunition and wearing a Valencia football shirt, army trousers and trainers, Ahmed said he was risking his life for two reasons: "Democracy. Freedom."

Qawalish fell to the rebels a week ago as, mile by mile, they gradually push from west to east along the mountain ridge. On the road to the frontline the Guardian saw a series of ghost towns which were home to thousands of residents during peacetime. There were wrecked shop fronts and petrol stations, abandoned mosques, concrete buildings blackened by fire, cars blown upside down and tanks and rocket launchers apparently destroyed by Nato air strikes.

Government soldiers who were not killed or captured during these battles appeared to have fled, leaving a trail of abandoned uniforms, boots and weapons still visible in the shade of trees where they once camped. Along roads the rebels used to move in on Qawalish, government forces planted 240 anti-personnel mines and 72 anti-tank mines, say Human Rights Watch.

The road passes through checkpoints that consist of mounds of earth and improvised road blocks: a plastic bin, car seat, tyre, gas canister and a dining chair. At one a yellow fluorescent jacket was hoisted on a pole, arms outstretched like a scarecrow. At another, a painted sign said: "Welcome to Freedoom," which may or may not have been a misspelling. Revolutionary graffiti and the red, black and green colours of the rebels are everywhere.

The next major prize, about 30 miles away, is Gharyan, a heavily fortified city 60 miles south of Tripoli along a government-controlled road. A previous uprising in Gharyan was brutally crushed but it is believed that rebel sympathisers remain. Capturing it would sever a crucial supply route to the capital and could potentially break the will of Gaddafi's army.

Colonel Juma Ibrahim, of the military council in western Libya, said: "Gharyan is the capital of the western mountains. When we finish Gharyan, all the western mountains are under our control. There is no other way to Tripoli."

Asked if his men were capable of taking Tripoli, Ibrahim insisted: "It will be so easy, more than Gharyan. We would have a clear road to Tripoli. I have contact with people around Tripoli, in Zawiya, Zuwarah and Al 'Aziziyah, and they are waiting for us. When we get to Gharyan, we can open many frontlines."

He added: "There will be an uprising in Tripoli. When we are near, they will think they can move."

Speaking in Zintan, a town that spent two months under siege but where the streets now bustle with rebel ordnance, Ibrahim gave an upbeat assessment of when the capital would fall. "Less than one month, inshallah."

But just as in Benghazi and Misrata, this is an ersatz army of former doctors, engineers, students, taxi drivers and teachers, in need of training and weapons. They are highly dependent on hardware captured from Gaddafi's forces, some of which they repair or upgrade with the help of technical manuals they find on the internet.

Al-Fitouri Muftah, a member of the local military council in Kikla, one of the closest towns to the frontline, warned: "We don't have enough weapons and bullets to capture Gharyan. We don't have anything except what we capture from the Gaddafi forces."

He estimated that one in 10 of the rebels' rifles had been passed down by grandparents who fought Italians in the Nafusa mountains. "The old weapons work OK," he said. "They're better than nothing."The 60-year-old, previously a government soldier, called on Nato to do more. "Nato's performance is weak. Nato is necessary for us to take Gharyan. If we don't get that support, it will be very difficult."

As Muftah spoke, the rumble of Nato planes overhead indicated that Gaddafi's troops would leave their positions and run for cover, affording Kikla a respite from enemy fire. But shortly afterwards, when it appeared that Nato had left, the boom of another ordnance explosion could be heard from a nearby hill.

Muftah, treading on a dusty doormat that bore Gaddafi's face, said rockets still land on Kikla every day, including around 30 on Monday alone. "Gaddafi just wants to destroy the town," he said. "He wants to kill as many rebels as he can."

quote:

Op dinsdag 12 juli 2011 21:56 schreef Monidique het volgende:
http://atwar.blogs.nytime(...)-western-libya-pt-i/

Libische rebellen plunderen zogenaamd bevrijde stad.

quote:

HRW: rebellen Libi� plunderden ingenomen steden


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(Novum/AP) - TRIPOLI - De rebellen die strijden tegen het regime van de Libische leider Moammar Gadhafi hebben zich in sommige steden die zij op Gadhafi's troepen veroverd hebben schuldig gemaakt aan plundering. Dit heeft de mensenrechtenorganisatie Human Rights Watch (HRW) woensdag gezegd.

Zo werden huizen, winkels en ziekenhuizen geplunderd en werden in sommige plaatsen de huizen van mensen die als Gadhafi-aanhangers werden beschouwd in brand gestoken, aldus HRW.

De opstand tegen Gadhafi's regime brak in februari uit. De opstandelingen wisten al vrij snel het oosten van het land in handen te krijgen. Ze hebben in Benghazi een overgangsregering gevormd. Inmiddels zijn ook de kuststad Misrata en het Nafusa-gebergte en omgeving, ten zuidwesten van Tripoli, in handen van de oppositie.

quote:

Op dinsdag 12 juli 2011 21:56 schreef Monidique het volgende:
http://atwar.blogs.nytime(...)-western-libya-pt-i/

Libische rebellen plunderen zogenaamd bevrijde stad.