Showing posts with label Libya Uprising. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Libya Uprising. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

DTN News - SEARCH FOR GADDAFI: Libyan Forces Say They Captured Part Of Sabha

DTN News - SEARCH FOR GADDAFI: Libyan Forces Say They Captured Part Of Sabha
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - September 20, 2011: Libya's interim government said its forces seized the airport and fort in Sabha, one of the last strongholds of forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi which also controls the main route south out of Libya.
"Our forces are there in the airport and in the castle ... Our flags are flying there," Ahmed Bani, a military spokesman for the National Transitional Council (NTC), told a news conference in Tripoli on Monday. It was not possible to get independent confirmation.
Sabha, 770 km (480 miles) south of Tripoli and overlooked by an old fort built by Libya's former Italian colonial rulers, controls the main trail south to neighboring Niger, an escape route used by members of Gaddafi's entourage.
Any advance on the town would be an important boost for government forces who have struggled to contain disunity in their ranks and faced stark reversals on other parts of the battlefield.
Nearly a month after Gaddafi was driven from power, his loyalist holdouts have beaten back repeated assaults by NTC forces at Bani Walid and Sirte, Gaddafi's birthplace. NTC fighters have been sent fleeing in disarray after failing to storm Gaddafi bastions.
NTC forces with huge rocket launchers and artillery gathered outside Sirte on Monday, saying their were preparing for a fresh assault, as hundreds of families fled the town.
NTC fighter Mohamed Ahmed told Reuters the troops were advancing slowly, but holding back their heavy weaponry until civilians were clear.
Rockets fired by Gaddafi loyalists fell near NTC lines, throwing up clouds of dust.
Humanitarian groups have voiced alarm at reported conditions in Sirte.
"There's no electricity, no phone coverage. Nothing," resident Ibrahim Ramadan said, standing by a car packed with his family at a checkpoint.
Residents said homes had been destroyed and cars smashed to pieces as disorder spread through the city.
"People are fed up. There are explosions going off everywhere and you don't know where the bullets will come from next," said Abubakr, a resident making his way out of the city.
"Look at this," he said, pointing to a bullet hole in his windshield. "Bullets are coming down from above. People are just firing randomly."
MERCENARY REPORT DENIED
NTC spokesman Bani denied an assertion by Gaddafi's spokesman that Gaddafi's forces had captured 17 mercenaries, some of them British and French, in the fight for Bani Walid. "There are no British or French prisoners" in the town, Bani said.
The report by Gaddafi's spokesman Moussa Ibrahim could not be verified and no immediate proof was presented.
"A group was captured in Bani Walid consisting of 17 mercenaries. They are technical experts and they include consultative officers," Ibrahim said on Syria-based Arrai television, which has backed Gaddafi.
"Most of them are French, one of them is from an Asian country that has not been identified, two English people and one Qatari."
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said there were "no French mercenaries in Libya," while the British foreign office said it had no information about whether the report was true. Qatar's foreign ministry was not available for comment. NATO, which is staging air strikes on Gaddafi loyalist positions, says it has no troops on the ground in Libya.
Western nations have sent special forces in the past, and media have reported that private security firms have aided anti-Gaddafi forces in training, targeting and with leadership.
Bani said NTC forces on Monday arrested pro-Gaddafi mercenary leader Belqasem Al-Abaaj, who had been operating in the south of the country.
POLITICAL INFIGHTING
The NTC, still based in the eastern city of Benghazi, has faced questions about whether it can unify a country divided on tribal and local lines. A long-promised attempt to set up a more inclusive interim government fell apart overnight.
On Monday, NTC forces were unable to approach the northern gate of Bani Walid, 150 km (95 miles) southeast of Tripoli, to attack the town because of heavy gunfire from Gaddafi loyalists.
"There is a lack of organization so far. Infantrymen are running in all directions," said Zakaria Tuham, a senior fighter with a Tripoli-based unit.
Many fighters spoke of tension between units drawn from Bani Walid itself and those from other parts of the country.
Some fighters openly disobeyed orders. In one incident, an officer from Bani Walid was heckled by troops from Tripoli after he tried to order them to stop shooting in the air.
In Benghazi, interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril failed to name a new cabinet on Sunday when his proposals did not receive full backing from all current members.
Sources familiar with the negotiations said Jibril's own role had been a sticking point. There was also disagreement about whether it was right to form a transitional government before declaring Libya "liberated," which NTC officials say can only happen when all Gaddafi loyalists are defeated.
The political infighting reveals some of the fractures in an alliance that was united in civil war by hatred of Gaddafi but remains split among pro-Western liberals, underground Islamist guerrillas and defectors from Gaddafi's government.
The NTC has its roots in Libya's east, but most of the militiamen who finally succeeded in driving Gaddafi out of Tripoli are from towns in the west.
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Saturday, September 10, 2011

DTN News - SEARCH FOR GADDAFI: Libya Battles Rage After Deadline Expiry

DTN News - SEARCH FOR GADDAFI: Libya Battles Rage After Deadline Expiry
*NTC fighters seek to wrest control of Bani Walid, Sirte and Sabha after Gaddafi loyalists ignore deadline to surrender.
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - September 10, 2011: Heavy fighting is raging for the control of three key Libyan towns after a deadline set for the surrender of loyalists of Muammar Gaddafi expired.

Al Jazeera correspondents reported on Saturday that fighters aligned with the National Transitional Council (NTC) were seeking to wrest control of Bani Walid, Sirte and Sabha from Gaddafi loyalists after the latter chose to ignore the deadline for surrender.

With talks aimed at peaceful handover of the Gaddafi strongholds collapsing, NTC Chairman Mustapha Abdel Jalil, the interim leader of the country, said on Saturday afternoon the situation was "in the hands of [his] battlefield commanders".

Sniper fire

Al Jazeera's David Poort, reporting from the outskirts of Bani Walid, said NTC fighters seeking to advance to the centre of the town, 150km south of the capital Tripoli, were coming under sniper fire from Gaddafi loyalists.

Abdullah Kenshil, the NTC's spokesman and chief negotiator, said the anti-Gaddafi fighters were exchanging fire with gunmen positioned in houses in the town of Bani Walid and the hills that overlooked it. "They are inside the city. They are fighting with snipers ... They forced this on us and it was in self-defence." Kenshil said that Gaddafi forces in Bani Walid had received reinforcements during the night.

Al Jazeera's Sue Turton reported that there seemed to be more pro-Gaddafi fighters in Bani Walid than expected, possibly coming in from Sirte, Gaddafi's hometown. "This is a surprise as it was thought that the rebels had cut off that link between the two towns," she said.

Amid the continued fighting, NATO carried out at least five air raids on the town, the Reuters news agency reported.

Ambulances transferred casualties from Bani Walid, as NTC fighters grabbed crates of rocket-propelled grenades and mortars and raced to the front.

Tariq Zbida, a Bani Walid resident who has joined the ranks of NTC fighters, told Al Jazeera's Poort the fight for the town was "far from over". He said Gaddafi loyalists still holding out inside the town"were tough and would not go down without a fight".

Fierce battles were also being fought over Sirte and the southern desert town of Sabha.

In Teassain, 90km east of Sirte, witnesses told the Reuters news agency they saw heavy rocket exchanges between NTC forces and Gaddafi loyalists.

The NTC had given Gaddafi loyalists until midnight Friday to give up peacefully or face attack, although previous deadlines had been extended to allow more time for negotiations.

Gaddafi's location has been unknown since Tripoli fell to opposition fighters on August 23 after a six-month civil war.

'Worst-case scenario'

Gaddafi insisted in a defiant audio message broadcast on Thursday that he was still in Libya to lead the fight against what he called the"rats" and "stray dogs" who had taken over Tripoli.

But four of his senior officials, including his air force commander and a general in charge of forces in south Libya, were among a new group of Libyans who had fled to neighbouring Niger, according to officials in Niger.

Click here for more of Al Jazeera's special coverage

General Ali Kana, the southern commander, and Ali Sharifal-Rifi, the air force chief, were among 14 Libyans who arrived in the northern Niger town of Agadez on Thursday after crossing the border in a convoy of four-wheel drive vehicles, they said.

A Reuters reporter in Agadez said the four senior men were at the luxury Etoile du Tenere hotel, said to be owned by Gaddafi, who himself stayed there during a holiday in 2007.

Niger, under pressure from Western powers and Libya's new rulers to hand over former Gaddafi officials suspected of human rights abuses, said it would respect its commitments to the International Criminal Court if Gaddafi or his sons entered the country.

"We are signatories of the [ICC's] Rome Statute so they know what they are exposed to if they come," Massaoudou Hassoumi, the head of the Nigerien cabinet, said.

He said the latest arrivals were "under control" in Agadez, through which the head of Gaddafi's security brigades, Mansour Dhao, passed earlier this week en route to Niger's capital, Niamey.

"We are taking them in on humanitarian grounds. No one has told us that these are wanted people," Hassoumi said.

Niger, which only this year returned to civilian rule and is fighting al-Qaeda-linked groups in its desert north, fears the Libya conflict might spill over, Hassoumi said.

"We have prepared for a worst-case scenario. For example, if Bani Walid and Sirte were to fall by force, it could cause a massive stampede of armed groups into Niger," he said.

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Sunday, September 04, 2011

DTN News - RACE FOR POWER AMONG LIBYAN REBELS: Can The NTC Unite A Divided Libya?

DTN News - RACE FOR POWER AMONG LIBYAN REBELS: Can The NTC Unite A Divided Libya?
**A senior commander of one of Libya's most powerful rebel brigades has made an outspoken attack on a key rebel minister in the latest sign of growing divisions in the rebel ranks.
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - September 4, 2011: Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph from his Tripoli headquarters, the commander of the Misurata Brigade, Suleiman Swelhi, hit out and instructions from the country's new interior minister that his fighters should now return to the western port city from which they take their name.
The brigade, who fought some of the fiercest street battles against government troops when Misurata came under siege, travelled to the Libyan capital to assist with this month's uprising that finally toppled Colonel Gaddafi.
But their motive was not just to lend an experienced hand to the rebellion - they were also concerned at the presence of prominent Islamists within the rest of the movement, and were anxious to ensure that they did not get a stranglehold on the instruments of power once the capital fell.
Now, however, the instructions from the National Transitional Council's interim interior minister, Ahmed Darrad, have left them on a potential collision course with the country's de facto new authorities.
"Mr Darrad's declaration that we should leave touches the dignity of the revolutionaries," he said. "It shouldn't be done like this and it's not the way to talk to us. We still have a job to do here, the battle is not finished yet. There are still threats from pro-Gaddafi forces. It is not right, only five days after the fall of Bab al-Aziziyah (Gaddafi's main compound), to announce something like this."
Mr Darrad had given the Misurata Brigade and other provincial units their marching orders in what was seen as an attempt by the NTC's civilian leadership to exert control over the fissiparous rebel forces.
He said: "Tripoli is free, and everyone should leave this town and go back to their own towns. Starting Saturday, there will be a large number of security personnel and policemen who will go back to work. Now the revolutionaries of Tripoli are able to protect their own city."
That his commands have not yet been obeyed underlines the fact that the despite their efforts to portray a commont front on the international stage, the rebels have never had a unified army.
Their forces are made up of about 40 independent brigades, or katibas, each privately financed, independently commanded and based on a particular town.
Misurata, the only place in western Libya which never fell to the regime and which withstood a two-month siege by Gaddafi's forces, is seen as the toughest and most prestigious brigade.
A source of tension within the rebel factions is the role of Islamist elements of the revolutionary forces.
At a barracks in Sabratha, to the west of the capital, Omar Mukhtar al-Madouni, assistant head of the Sabratha Brigade, was greeting his men this week as they returned from the front with the traditional kiss on both cheeks.
Most of the men were bearded - a regular if not infallible sign of Islamist tendencies - and many wore the more reliable indicator of being followers of Salafism, Saudi-style absolutism, the beard worn with no moustache.
They referred to Mr al-Madouni by the religious honorific, "Sheikh".
He himself had spent eight years in jail under Col Gaddafi until pardoned along with many other Islamist prisoners in 2008-9 under a deal brokered between Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and the Libyan Islamic Fighing Group, a group that once had ties with al-Qaeda.
Like other Islamist leaders, "Sheikh Omar" insisted that he had long broken with al-Qaeda and wanted a democracy in the Libya. "I don't think Libya will be run by Islamic groups," he said. "I want Libya to be free and democratic. We want to be like Dubai or Qatar.
"We are used to living side by side. We are welcoming people from the past regime. We have churches. We don't have a problem with foreigners."
But not all Libyan revolutionaries appear to accept these assurances.
Masud Buisir, a rebel fighter that The Sunday Telegraph first met in February, said: "I am happy, but I am afraid of the Islamic groups. On the front lines there are a lot of them, they are jihadists, dangerous, militant in their beliefs and they want to rule. The Islamists say they made this revolution. They didn't. We made it, these young men made it," he said, pointing to the youthful khaki-clad rebels sitting behind him.
Mr Swelhi's response to the demand may be ominous for the future of rebel unity, although many observers agreed that he had a point.
"The police and other security forces here in Tripoli are not ready yet," Mr Swelhi said. "Your enemy, when he sees you have a good force, he will be afraid. But Gaddafi will exploit weakness. If we give up or weapons or withdraw from Tripoli, that will help Gaddafi."
On Saturday the NTC announced that Mr Darrad's interior ministry would run a new supreme security council tasked with protecting Tripoli.
Ali Tarhuni, vice chair of the NTC, admitted that not all the revolutionary groups in the capital had joined the new body, but said it included the "majority" of them. He said the new council would incorporate the other groups as well, insisting that there would be "no problems" about this.
Divisions are also emerging over the increasingly pressing task of restoring basic services. Members of the NTC's own Stabilization Task Force lost their first fight with hardline members of the NTC and the Tripoli Council over something as mundane as the city's rubbish collection.
In the days after the revolution, garbage continued to be collected, albeit on a less efficient basis than before. But in the last few days it has begun piling up along main roads in the city, sending a powerful stench over the suburbs as the city suffers a late summer heatwave.
One key official said that the NTC had insisted that the company which ran the garbage collection on behalf of the city be sacked, as it was run by Gaddafi loyalists who had been favoured with the contract.
"I was flatly disappointed," the official said. "There was a power struggle over the garbage. My approach was for whoever is managing something to be left there if he's doing the job properly, and deal with him at a suitable time.
"The Tripoli council felt the manager was a Gaddafi crony and he should not be managing the garbage collection company."
Since the start of the war, NATO leaders have pledged that Libya would not "turn into a new Iraq", where attempts to remove all Ba'ath Party officials led to a power vacuum from which the country has still to recover.
"But now they are saying Libyan "debaathification" is OK because we are not Iraq," the official said, saying that many members of the council were keen to remove as many Gaddafi-era officials as possible.
*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Andrew Gilligan, Richard Spencer and Ruth Sherlock in Tripoli - Telegraph UK
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Saturday, September 03, 2011

DTN News - SEARCH FOR GADDAFI: Over 800 Killed In Battle For Gaddafi's Home Town Of Sirte In Libya

DTN News - SEARCH FOR GADDAFI: Over 800 Killed In Battle For Gaddafi's Home Town Of Sirte In Libya
**‘We know where Gaddafi is’: Libyan rebels
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - September 3, 2011: Libya's transitional leaders believe hundreds of their supporters have been gunned down in Colonel Gaddafi's home town of Sirte by desperate regime loyalists, even as they try to negotiate its surrender.
The town is Gaddafi's biggest remaining Libya stronghold and rebel commanders know his forces are dug in for a bloody battle.
For now opposition forces have held their positions to the east and west as they wait for tribal elders to negotiate with Gaddafi fighters.
But Shamsiddin Ben-Ali, a spokesman in the rebel city of Benghazi, said 800 people had been killed in the past three days.
"Many of the people of Sirte are on our side now and want to be part of the revolution," he said. "The people with guns though are still resisting."
The death toll raises a bloody conundrum for the country's new leaders: rushing in could spell a military disaster but waiting is costing a very high price in civilian casualties.
Rebel leaders know that Sirte's long association with Gaddafi – he was born just outside and went to primary school in the Mediterranean town – make it difficult to win over.
Many government departments were moved to Sirte during his 42-year reign and money was showered on its roads and architecture.
Gaddafi had a tented complex built at the seafront to entertain foreign dignitaries, as he transformed a quiet fishing village into Libya's capital in all but name.
Opposition fighters at the eastern front line, about 80 miles outside, are impatient to march on the key strategic target.
"We can be in Sirte within a day," said Ibrahim Ahmed, who had been a student before buying an AK-47 and hitching a ride to the battle.
Privately, commanders know that any battle would last a lot longer.
Instead they are working with the Firjan tribe within the city to try to convince the Gaddafa to renounce their tribemate.
At a meeting close to the front line on Thursday, rebel commanders besieging the city agreed to extend a Saturday deadline for negotiations by a week.
It is understood that tribal elders want guarantees that they will not loot or search private properties and will leave checkpoints to locals.
In the meantime, said Mr Ben-Ali, the RAF will continue to soften up Sirte's defences.
"We know that armoured columns that fought in Brega, under the command of Gaddafi's son Mutassim, and those that fought in Misurata pulled back to Sirte. So we know they have very strong defences."
And the longer the siege continues, the more he believes the city will look to surrender.
Much of the Sirte is already without electricity, cooking gas or petrol.
"The population know the way to end these conditions is to join the revolution," said Hasan Droy, Sirte representative on the National Transitional Council.
"The problem is that many people in the city don't have TV or radio and don't understand what has happened to the rest of the country."

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