Strategy! - Libya Edition

[ELVIS]

You're on drugs...

[Blaze]

Gaddafi commander: 'I was forced to fight'
A former commander in Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's army has told how he gave himself up to rebel forces after being forced to take part in last week's invasion of Benghazi.

Unwilling to die for a cause he "was not convinced of", Brigadier Mohamed Aladin Hanesh dropped his weapon the moment he saw rebel fighters on the outskirts of the opposition capital on Saturday.
The 56-year-old then fled his armoured column and headed for enemy lines, preferring to take his chances as a prisoner of war in Libya rather than participate in the fierce battle that followed.

After a beating on the scene from his captors, he was taken into a rebel detention centre, from where he told his story to The Sunday Telegraph.

"I was forced to fight," said Brig Hanesh, who still sported fresh scabs across the temple, chin and nose.

"I didn't even know we were going to be attacking Benghazi that day. When we came in I just left my weapon under a tree and then wandered over towards them. At first they were very angry, so they beat me, but since then the treatment has been fine."

Brig Hanesh, a father of four from Tripoli, was one of around five government troops caught during Saturday's battle, in which Gaddafi's armoured column was eventually forced back by a combination of rebel firepower and French airstrikes.

Clad in shabby military fatigues and looking bewildered and nervous, he spoke from a former military police compound which was partly destroyed during last month's anti-government uprising but is now being used as a rebel detention centre.

Rebel authorities allowed him to be interviewed in order to provide reassurance that captured government fighters could expect decent and humane treatment.

While there was no way of verifying his version of events, his account appeared to corroborate the rebel narrative of much of Gaddafi's armies being demoralised and reluctant to fight.

Mr Hanesh, an expert in mine clearance, said he had been previously doing a desk job before being suddenly told at the beginning of the month to report for duty in the city of Sirte, a Gaddafi stronghold west of the rebel frontlines.

He was then ordered to the oil town of Ras Lanuf, the scene of heavy fighting two weeks ago, and then seconded to an elite Gaddafi unit commanded by the dictator's son, Moutassar, which was heading to Benghazi.

"When I was in Tripoli and they first asked me to come, I refused to take any weapons to fight," he said, clasping his hands nervously as he sat in a white plastic chair in a concrete exercise yard.

"But then I was reported to the security forces and told I had no choice but to come. I thought I would be killed or jailed otherwise."

Mr Hanesh found himself in a separate unit at the rear of the armoured column heading towards Benghazi. He was told he would be needed for mine clearance and mine-laying duties, he said, but was given no equipment for either job and had almost no communication with the elite commanders at the head of the column.

"The Gaddafi forces are divided into two groups, the regular ones who have no privileges, and the others whose main purpose is to act as Gadaffi's personal security forces," said Mr Hanesh.

"They know they have the same destiny as Gaddafi, and you can tell their loyalty because they are the ones who own the big farms and have the wealth."

At the column approached Benghazi, Mr Hanesh found himself in a Nissan civilian car at the rear, without even any soldiers in his command.

At one point, he wondered whether the other soldiers were keeping him separate because they themselves planned to defect or mount a coup against Gaddafi. <<<<< ????

Being at the rear, however, also meant it was easy to desert. "I was alone, and so I surrendered the moment I saw the revolutionaries," he said.

Mr Hanesh, who has been told he is unlikely to face a military court, added: "Gaddafi has never been a good man, he has never convinced me of his cause, and the morale among his troops has never been high.

"But I didn't ever want any kind of fighting between Libyans, I thought that would never happen. I would rather things change in a peaceful way than fighting each other."

[SunisinuS]

New information: Stick that in your pipe and smoke it El Rushbo.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/af_libya;_ylt=AmpZWwhmRftQ6Nr6VJ1h21pbbBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTJzYjU4amZhBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwMzI3L2FmX2xpYnlhBGNjb2RlA21wX2VjXzhfMTAEY3BvcwMxBHBvcwMxBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDc3dpZnRzd2VlcHdl

[Blaze]

1710: We're now wrapping up our live updates on Libya and the Middle East for the day. Thanks for following our rolling coverage. You can continue to get all the latest news developments via the front page of the BBC News website.

1703: The BBC's Ben Brown in Ras Lanuf says: "It's been a remarkable day for the rebels. After seizing Ajdabiya, they have advanced westwards alsong the coastal highway at breakneck speed. Town after town as fallen to them - Brega, Ugayla, Ras Lanuf and Bin Jawad. It has been hard at times for us to keep up with them. The rebels are in a state of high excitement, exhilarated. They can hardly believe the progress they have made. They have been firing their guns into the air in celebration, blaring their horns, screeching their tires and doing wheel-spins. But the truth is that they never would have made this breakthrough if it had not been for the devastating coalition air strikes outside Ajdabiya on Thursday and Friday. They destroyed dozens of Col Gaddafi's tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery pieces. The rebels claim that on Monday they could be in Sirte - Col Gaddafi's birthplace and heartland. Yet, the closer they advance towards Tripoli, the more of a fight the regime is likely to put up. Today may have been the easy part."

--------------------------------

by Marc Burleigh – 1 hr 23 mins ago
BIN JAWAD, Libya (AFP) – Libyan rebels pushed westwards in hot pursuit of Moamer Kadhafi's forces on Sunday, winning back control of the key Ras Lanuf oil site and pressing on towards Kadhafi's hometown of Sirte, a central coastal city.

Along the way they captured Bin Jawad, a hamlet 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Ras Lanuf, AFP correspondents reported.
The rebels, on the verge of losing their eastern stronghold city of Benghazi before the air strikes began on March 19, on Saturday seized back Ajdabiya and Brega, 160 and 240 kilometres (100 and 150 miles) to the west.

Spurred on by the air war, the ragtag rebel band thrust another 100 kilometres past Brega to win back Ras Lanuf, routing Kadhafi loyalists.
"Kadhafi's forces are now scared rats," Mohammed Ali el-Atwish, a bearded 42-year-old fighter, told AFP.

"They are dropping their weapons and uniforms and dressing as civilians. We are no longer concerned about Kadhafi's forces at all."

The rebel fighters marked the takeover of Ras Lanuf with celebratory gunfire and fired a rocket propelled-grenade in sign of victory.
One of them, Attia Hamad, 34, said insurgents were in full control of the town.

"All of it is in our hands," Hamad said of Ras Lanuf, which Kadhafi's forces had overrun on March 12. Loyalists were "retreating so quickly, they are leaving some fighters behind," he added.



Libya: No arms for rebels, UK's Liam Fox says

Coalition countries attacking targets in Libya will not supply arms to anti-Gaddafi rebels, UK Defence Secretary Liam Fox has told the BBC.

There are reports in the Sunday Times claiming plans to supply weapons to rebels are being drawn up.

But Dr Fox said there was a UN arms embargo across the entire country, adding "we have to accept that".



What will be used when gun powder gets low or worse..... gone...... Waste is not a friend.

[Blaze]

A well-informed Libyan source told Asharq Al-Awsat that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has held a number of secret meetings with officials in the French and British governments, discussing the idea of his replacing his father for a transitional period of between 2 – 3 years, in return for a comprehensive ceasefire and negotiating with the anti-Gaddafi rebels.

The sources also revealed that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is pushing for assurances that Colonel Gaddafi and his family will be granted immunity from prosecution, and will not be legally punished in any manner.




Ummmmm.... No

http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=24660

[Blaze]

Gaddafi's lies pushed us into fight: Captured soldiers AFP | Mar 27, 2011, 09.08pm IS

Their bodies are broken -- as broken as their loyalty now to their one-time leader Muammar Gaddafi, whom they say lied to push them into battle against rebellious compatriots in eastern Libya.

Three of them are soldiers in Gaddafi's army, wounded and taken prisoner in different locations a week ago by rebels.

They were lying in beds in a guarded room in a hospital in Benghazi, sleeping, praying and reflecting on how they ended up being cared for by a compassionate enemy that in no way resembled al-Qaida, Israel's Mossad or the foreign terrorists Gaddafi's officers had said awaited them.

Azoumi Ali Mohammed, 25, said he was a reservist taken on March 20 after coalition warplanes bombed his convoy of more than 400 Libyan troops and African mercenaries on a desert road leading from the eastern city of Ajdabiya.

"The planes hit us as soon as we headed out. I saw two people die in front of me. After that I don't know what happened," he said. He showed his bandaged right leg where he was wounded by shrapnel.

Their orders had been to secure the area, and to "fight mercenaries and al-Qaeda," he said.

"I was shocked" to discover the enemy was in fact fellow Libyans, he said, explaining that all their mobile phones had been confiscated in Tripoli to prevent them having outside communications.

Mohammed said that now he had seen the rebellion, and been cared for by its doctors, "I know I want to fight against Gaddafi's forces."

Mustafa Mohammed Ali, a 40-year-old career soldier, survived being shot six times in a rebel ambush as he was driving out of Ajdabiya on March 18.

Three comrades with him, in a four-wheel-drive vehicle flying the green flag of the Gaddafi regime, were killed.

They had been told agents of Israel's Mossad intelligence service had fomented unrest by hiring Tunisian, Egyptian and Syrian fighters on hallucinogenic drugs.

"I was loyal (to Gaddafi). Now I'm not, after finding out the truth about the fighting," he said.

"In Benghazi I found young people making a revolution to escape from the darkness they were living in," he said.

[Blaze]

Libya: Uganda freezes Libyan assets under UN sanction

Uganda will freeze Libyan assets worth $375m (£230m), mainly in the telecommunications, hotel, banking and oil sectors, the government says.

The BBC East Africa correspondent says this is not aimed at putting pressure on Col Muammar Gaddafi but rather to comply with UN sanctions.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has previously called for an end to the Western air strikes.

Oil-rich Libya has used money to buy influence across Africa.

South Africa has already announced a freeze of Libyan assets, although its president has also condemned the military action.

[Blaze]

Agreeing to be photographed, he looked more like a handsome Fifties screen idol than a battle-hardened military leader.
He had been brought to the location by back roads and he would not stay for long.
‘Of course my life is in danger,’ he said. ‘Gaddafi’s men are still in Benghazi and I am their top target. My bodyguard was shot dead in my car as we drove through the city last Saturday when Gaddafi’s tanks were on their way in. I regret that very much.
‘Inshallah my own family is in a place of safety. I have to move around, never staying in one place for more than two days.
‘It is the price to pay for defying Gaddafi.’


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz1Hpe2JDsA

[Seshmeister]

It's remarkable the amount of bullshit that the Daily Mail prints.

The same paper that backed Hitler in the 1930s...

[SunisinuS]

Q-Daffi this is dedicated to you.

[Kristy]

PANIC!

[Blaze]

Reuters/Ahmed Jadallah

To give just a couple recent examples:
* At a mass burial Thursday, Libyan Red Crescent workers unloaded 33 coffins for a public, made-for-TV spectacle that officials said was for victims of allied airstrikes. Hundreds of men and a handful of women prayed and chanted anti-Western slogans.
After the ceremony nearly half the coffins were taken away, ostensibly for burial elsewhere at the request of families.
But as shrouded bodies were removed from their coffins at the gravesite, one coffin was found to be empty. The rest were buried in graves originally prepared – but inexplicably never used – for another, separate funeral ceremony for supposed war victims, witnessed by journalists four days earlier.
* At the funeral Thursday, one of the most colorful characters was a man shouting slogans, waving a green flag with a child sitting on his shoulders who was holding a toy assault rifle. Later he was seen in the lobby of a five-star hotel where journalists are staying, hobnobbing with Libyan intelligence agents and minders tasked with monitoring journalists.
The man, who gave the name Osama Bin Salah, said he was a “taxi driver” whose Qaddafi-loving family was blown up by rebels in Misrata. Four days later he is still in the exclusive preserve of such a hotel, the type of which government officials have stated is “illegal” for ordinary people to enter.

[PETE'S BROTHER]

Agreeing to be photographed, he looked more like a handsome Fifties screen idol than a battle-hardened military leader.
He had been brought to the location by back roads and he would not stay for long.
‘Of course my life is in danger,’ he said. ‘Gaddafi’s men are still in Benghazi and I am their top target. My bodyguard was shot dead in my car as we drove through the city last Saturday when Gaddafi’s tanks were on their way in. I regret that very much.
‘Inshallah my own family is in a place of safety. I have to move around, never staying in one place for more than two days.
‘It is the price to pay for defying Gaddafi.’


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz1Hpe2JDsA

looks like a giant version of the midget father on tlc....

[ELVIS]

It's remarkable the amount of bullshit that the Daily Mail prints.

It makes Faux news seem credible...

[ELVIS]

Pick the woman in this pic and win a prize!!!