LIBYA: Ill-equipped and poorly-trained rebels learn to handle weapons to bring down Gaddafi on western front
Record ID:
1532670
LIBYA: Ill-equipped and poorly-trained rebels learn to handle weapons to bring down Gaddafi on western front
- Title: LIBYA: Ill-equipped and poorly-trained rebels learn to handle weapons to bring down Gaddafi on western front
- Date: 15th May 2011
- Summary: KABAW, LIBYA (MAY 11, 2011) (REUTERS) ARMED LIBYAN REBELS MARCHING BEHIND REBEL FLAG ARMED REBEL CHANTING AND MARCHING ANOTHER ARMED REBEL CHANTING ARMED REBELS MARCHING ON DESERT MOUNTAIN ROAD BEHIND THE FLAG CHANTING SLOGANS 'We wont give up until the system falls' AND ' Libya is free' (Arabic) REBEL WITH HEAVY GUN REBELS LYING DOWN ON THE GROUND REBELS ON THE GROUND AIMING GUNS MORE OF REBELS AIMING GUNS AS PART OF TRAINING TRAINING SHOWING REBELS HOW TO HOLD THEIR GUNS (AUDIO OF GUNFIRE) (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MUSTAPHA, THE INSTRUCTOR FROM KABAW SAYING "All these youths are volunteers joining the revolution. And they are prepared to get training and holding weapon against the tyrants" MUSTAPHA WITH TRAINEES ON THE ROAD REBELS ON THE GROUND (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) REBEL, HAFED, SAYING: "We are getting trained to attack the tyrant's troupes. They are here to rape our women, and attack our children, and destroy us. They want to do many things. We want this tyrant to get out of the country. Him and his troupes TRAINEES CRAWLING (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HAFED, STANDING UP, SAYING "and God willing we will get him off our lands" COLONEL SALEH ECHAOUCHE, CHIEF INSTRUCTOR IN FRONT OF TRAINEES LINED UP INSIDE BUILDING COURTYARD REBEL WITH GUN LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) COLONEL SALEH ECHAOUCHE, CHIEF INSTRUCTOR SAYING: "All the youths in training are volunteers. We don't have trained youths so thank God now they are getting good training, with a high spirits, and everyday they progress" REBELS LEARNING TO DISMANTLE KALASHNIKOV REBEL LOOKING AT KALASHNIKOV (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) REBEL TRAINEE, GUACEM, 22-YEARS-OLD SAYING: "We will train and get our revenge, because the tyrant destroyed our families and our Libyan brothers everywhere in Libya, and many of them died cause of this tyrant." MAN RAISING THE REBEL FLAG IN FRONT OF TRAINEES TRAINEES STANDING IN FRONT OF REBEL FLAG AND COLONEL SALUTING
- Embargoed: 30th May 2011 00:38
- Keywords:
- Location: Libya
- Country: Libya
- Topics: War / Fighting
- Reuters ID: LVABA16XOJA31W8KB418RHSX9PA6
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3
- Story Text: It is mostly the men that are left in Libya's western mountains - a vast and bleak plateau of sand and scrubland some 200 km from the capital Tripoli.
Families have crossed the nearby border with Tunisia to escape the fighting between ill equipped and poorly trained rebels and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's troops.
Rebels seized the border crossing last month opening a vital artery for food, fuel and medical supplies and they want to hold on to it.
Gaddafi's forces have tried to recapture the crossing, occasionally shelling Tunisian land in the process.
The loyalist army has limited itself to lobbing artillery at the mountain tops from positions in the plains below. One ill-fated operation to retake the border crossing that was quickly reversed.
NATO has grounded Gaddafi's planes and, unlike the flat lands to the east which make it easier to target exposed rebels, it is hard for them to retake the chain of hardscrabble towns that sit atop these western mountains.
As one colonel on the rebel side says "geography is with us".
In Kabaw, some 230km southwest of Tripoli, the rebels are made up of a band of men that are hardly the most formidable. But their ambitions are modest.
Armed with Kalashnikovs their training is aimed at strengthening their defensive skills in order to secure the corridor and push back Gaddafi's forces.
"All these youths are volunteers joining the revolution. And they are prepared to get training and holding weapon against the tyrants" says one of the training instructor, Mustapha.
They have few skills and basic weapons but their determination and their hatred are strong.
"We are getting trained to attack the tyrant's troupes. They are here to rape our women, and attack our children, and destroy us. They want to do many things. We want this tyrant to get out of the country. Him and his troupes," says Hafed, one of the rebels in training.
The fight in the Western Mountains has been overlooked by all sides in favour of the eastern front centered on Benghazi, and the besieged port city of Misrata to the west of Tripoli.
Strategically, both appear to pose a more direct threat to Gaddafi's hold on the capital, though the two-month-old conflict, after see-sawing repeatedly, has now settled into a violent stalemate.
In the Western Mountains shelling by Gaddafi forces has hit residential areas, and in Zintan an unexploded rocket is lodged in the grounds of the hospital. Like the rebels, the loyalists are holding the line.
NATO planes, meanwhile, enforce a no-fly zone which prevents loyalist forces bombing the rebels from the air, and are pounding government weapons depots near Zintan. But rebels say NATO is doing little else to help.
Fighting, however, has picked up in recent weeks around Zintan, which is surrounded on three sides by pro-Gaddafi forces and rebels say they frequently come under artillery fire.
Around 12 rebels were killed last weekend in fighting with loyalist troops.
Without further NATO incursions or better weaponry or more professional soldier, these men need to strengthen their ranks.
"All the youths in training are volunteers. We don't have trained youths so thank God now they are getting good training, with a high spirits, and everyday they progress" says Colonel Saleh Echaouche, the chief instructor.
The rebels appear to be trying to push back the loyalist forces so the town of Zintan is no longer within range of their artillery. But if they are to keep supplying the front, control of the border crossing down in the plains will be key.
On Saturday (May 14), Tunisia turned back a column of around 200 pro-Gaddafi soldiers in 50 vehicles at the Gare Ayoub crossing, said the Tunisian news agency, TAP, adding there was no violence. The Libyans were apparently trying to attack a rebel-held frontier post near the Tunisian town of Dehiba.
The rebels were quick to raise the flag of defiance when rebellion erupted in February seeking an end to Gaddafi's 41-year-rule.
Then the men of Kabaw drove his army from its cliff-top position outside the town.
Now, the rebel flag flies from everywhere but thousands of people have been killed in the fighting throughout Libya.
And rebels have failed to achieve their main military target of toppling Gaddafi and taking Tripoli and the war has reached a virtual stalemate. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2020. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None