SALON

Tuesday, Aug 23, 2011 3:15 PM UTC

The battle for Libya’s not over yet

Despite jubilant celebrations, rebels admit that pockets of resistance remain throughout the nation

By

Topics: GlobalPost, Arab Spring, Libya,

The battle for Libya's not over yetA Libyan rebel fighter celebrates as they drive through Tripoli's Qarqarsh district August 22, 2011

BENGHAZI, Libya — Two days after Libyan rebels marched on Moammar Gadhafi’s once-feared Tripoli stronghold, residents in this de facto revolutionary capital city were still triumphantly celebrating the apparent finale to a six-month, mostly stalemate, civil war.

Thousands of jubilant revelers strolled the streets around Benghazi’s Martyrs’ Square — the epicenter of the February uprising against Gadhafi’s 42-year rule — well into the early hours on Tuesday morning.

Young children and their families sang nationalist songs, launched heart-pounding fireworks from the sidewalks, and waved the ubiquitous red, green, and black “free Libya” flags. Celebratory machine gun bursts tore into the night sky.

Most people in the festival-like square were heartened by news that rebels had captured and detained three of Gadhafi’s sons, Saif, Mohamed, and Saadi, and that the leader’s own Tripoli compound was completely encircled.

“Since making it to Tripoli, it is now all but assured that this is over and that we will be finally free from Gadhafi forever,” said Saif Nasser, 45, sitting under a tent with his friends at Martyr’s Square.

It seems, however, that the party started a little early.

Late on Monday, conflicting reports about the rebels’ military successes in Tripoli began to emerge, leading to much confusion about the veracity of information being disseminated by both sides in the conflict.

Fierce fighting and gunfire was still being reported in several neighborhoods in both Tripoli and Zuwarah, a city west of Tripoli along the coastal route to the Tunisian border. Gadhafi forces were reportedly using grad rockets in Zuwarah, according to rebel leaders in Benghazi.

Meanwhile, Mohamed Gadhafi, who had been apprehended by rebel fighters on Sunday, had already escaped the next day, according to reports.

Rebel claims that Saif Gadhafi was in their custody were also premature. Saif, once presumed to be the heir apparent to Gadhafi’s rule, stepped out of a car in central Tripoli, to flaunt his independence in front of a crowd of journalists.

“We broke the back of the rebels. It was a trap. We gave them a hard time, so we are winning,” Saif screamed on Monday outside his father’s Bab al-Azizia Tripoli compound, defiantly challenging the contradictory reports that he had been arrested, according to Reuters.

Much of what official spokesmen for the Gadhafi regime have said in recent days — that rebel fighters would encounter intense resistance in a heavily guarded capital city — has been largely disproven by rebel accounts on the ground inside Tripoli.

But the conflicting news on Monday has raised some doubts over the credibility of the information coming from the National Transitional Council (NTC), the Benghazi-based rebel administration that has been recognized by the United States and many other countries as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people.

Shamsiddin Abdulmolah, the director of media and communications for the NTC, confirmed to GlobalPost that his government had unknowingly released reports about Saif’s capture based on inaccurate information.

“We should have requested evidence of the detention, but we did not. We took the information on face value,” Abdulmolah admitted. “But the situation on the ground in Tripoli is very fluid, and sometimes commanders on the ground receive conflicting reports from their subordinates.”

Abdulmolah also said that Gadhafi loyalists posing as rebel fighters had helped Mohamed escape on Monday. Mohamed’s request to make a telephone call — which was granted — was most likely used by regime forces to pinpoint his exact location, according to Abdulmolah.

Meanwhile, the NTC reiterated on Monday that 75 percent of Libya was under the control of “liberating forces” on Tuesday, and that only pockets of resistance remained.

Gadhafi’s Bab al-Azizia compound remains one of those pockets, despite being totally surrounded by rebel fighters.

Abdulmolah predicted Gadhafi’s “last hurrah” by Tuesday evening, claiming that rebels would completely overrun his headquarters, once NATO air strikes began to strike the building.

More GlobalPost

More Jon Jensen.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 14 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

Salon is proud to feature content from GlobalPost, an awarding-winning international news site that focuses on original reporting from journalists stationed around the world. GlobalPost combines traditional journalistic values with the power of new media to offer a fresh perspective on global developments.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
241 points242 points | 10 comments
vote
Loaded terminology like "entitlements" and "welfare" skews the debate and alters America. How right-wingers use semantic tricks to kill government.
256 points257 points | 52 comments
vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the persecuted late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
187 points188 points | 1 comment
vote
Obstruction will ruin the GOP: Playing politics and abusing the system can excite the extremes, but it's a recipe for long-term political disaster
55 points56 points | 8 comments
vote
Today in How Did I Miss This: Iowa GOP is pushing to cut the pay of the remaining Supreme Court Justices that voted for legalization of gay marriage.
64 points65 points | 7 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations