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http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Finally+promised+uprising+arrives+Tripoli/5287744/story.html
Finally, the promised uprising arrives in Tripoli
Rumour that Gadhafi had fled prompts capital to rise against Libya's strongman
By James Reevell, Daily Telegraph; Reuters August 22, 2011 2:05 AM
Story
Photos ( 1 )
Gunmen loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi flee through the grounds of the Rixos hotel on Sunday.
Gunmen loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi flee through the grounds of the Rixos hotel on Sunday.
Photograph by: Paul Hackett, Reuters, Daily Telegraph; Reuters
For weeks, Libyan rebels promised that opposition groups in Tripoli were just awaiting the word to stage their own move to take the Libyan capital.
Few knew whether their promises were real, or whether they had the strength in numbers or arms to make good on them.
On Saturday night, the promise was put to the test. According to rebel sources in the capital and opposition groups abroad, including those in the Tunisian resort town of Djerba, "Operation Mermaid Dawn" - Mermaid is a nickname for Tripoli - was launched from the Ben Nabi Mosque on Sarim Street close to the heart of the city.
The rebels moved just after Iftar, the daily breaking of the daytime Ramadan fast, after incorrect rumours that ruler Col. Moammar Gadhafi had fled. A group of young men began chanting "God is Great," signifying the start of a new protest at the mosque, witnesses in Tripoli and rebels said.
Prayers were cancelled and all women sent home. The men then locked themselves in and began shouting anti-Gadhafi slogans. They used the mosque's loud speaker system, normally used to call people to prayer, to broadcast their chants across the city.
As shooting and explosions lit up the Tripoli night, Gadhafi's forces arrived and initially opened fire on the mosque with machine guns, also summoning reinforcements armed with anti aircraft guns mounted on pickup trucks. The men inside the mosque were unarmed.
Residents and rebel fighters then converged on the mosque to defend it, using machine guns and Molotov cocktails in a fierce battle. The rebel forces were able to drive the Gadhafi forces back, forcing them to take refuge in the state TV centre on Al Nasr Street nearby.
The TV centre has been previously bombed by NATO but has several underground levels. It was still in the hands of loyalists late Sunday. A woman presenter brandished a gun while launching into an impassioned speech declaring she would fight the rebels to the death if they attacked the station.
From the mosque the uprising proceeded to spread in what, from telephone reports, appeared to be a coordinated movement. Opposition members inside the capital reported that as many as 13 suburbs within the city were actively taking part in the uprising and engaging in gun battles with loyalist troops.
Multiple sources reported that fighters entered Green Square and, in a symbolic moment, raised the outlawed Libyan national flag. Green Square is the epicentre of Col Gadhafi's power and status in Libya, the scene of his great rallies early in the uprising, featuring a giant mural of him.
Locals said Gadhafi's forces had begun to use heavy weapons, including artillery shelling, against the mosque, killing at least a dozen people in the immediate vicinity. According to witnesses one shell hit a home next door to the mosque, killing an elderly woman inside. They also said Gadhafi's forces commandeered garbage trucks as a form of disguise before ambushing opposition members near the mosque.
Later in the day, as the imminence of the rebel advance became clear, opposition forces came out elsewhere.
Prominent opposition members confirmed the rebels had been shipping weapons into Tripoli for several weeks, in preparation for this uprising.
Mass text messages were used to urge residents within the capital to rise up. The rebels have weapon caches along with small numbers of fighters smuggled into the capital, according to sources.
Although rumours swirled among opposition supporters both in Tripoli and abroad that Gadhafi and his family had fled, few gave them much credence.
They were confident, though, for the first time in the conflict that this was the end, and the fall of the Gadhafi regime was near. The question they were asking was not whether Gadhafi would fall, but how many lives he would take with him.
CONFLICT IN LIBYA
Key events since the start of the Libya conflict, as rebel forces take the capital Tripoli:
Feb. 15-19: Inspired by revolts in other Arab countries, rebellion breaks out including in Benghazi, Libya's second city.
March 19: With troops loyal to the Libyan threatening rebelheld Benghazi, NATO forces launch air attacks and push them back.
March 30: Libyan foreign minister Mussa Kussa defects. Dozens of political and military figures follow suit.
April 20: France and Italy join Britain in sending military advisers to assist the rebels.
May 1: Gadhafi escapes a NATO air strike, which the regime says kills his youngest son and three grandchildren.
June 9: An International Contact Group on Libya meets in Abu Dhabi, and finalizes a fund aimed at helping the rebels.
June 20-21: Gadhafi's regime says 24 civilians have been killed in NATO airstrikes.
June 27: The International Criminal Court (ICC) issues an arrest warrant for Gadhafi for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
June 29: France says it has airdropped weapons to rebels.
July 14: The rebels consolidate their positions in the west, and begin an offensive on the oil town of Brega. NATO dismisses accusations that its attacks have killed more than 1,100 civilians.
July 15: In Istanbul, the Contact Group designates the rebels as Libya's legitimate rulers, paving the way for the release of frozen Gadhafi regime assets.
July 25: NATO says it supported rebels by hitting a military facility, armoured vehicles, tanks and light military vehicles around Brega.
July 28: Rebel military chief General Abdel Fatah Yunis is assassinated as insurgent fighters pound forces loyal to Gadhafi in the west.
Aug. 5: The regime denies the death of Gadhafi's son Khamis in a NATO raid, as announced by rebels.
Aug. 6: The western town of Bir al-Ghanam falls to the rebels.
Aug. 8: Rebel leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil sacks the entire executive office of his government.
Aug. 9: Libyan authorities accuse NATO of a "massacre" of 85 villagers in air strikes south of Zlitan in western Libya. NATO insists it has no evidence of the civilian deaths.
Aug. 10: EU widens sanctions against the regime.
Aug. 15: Rebels say they have seized "most" of Zawiyah, the final hurdle on the road to Tripoli as Gadhafi calls the insurgents "rats" and predicts their demise.
The UN chief's special envoy visits Tunis for talks on Libya's future. Gadhafi's deputy interior minister flies out to Cairo.
Aug. 20: Fighting erupts in Tripoli as rebels close in on the capital after claiming the oil city of Brega, a day after seizing Zawiyah and Zlitan.
Aug. 21: Libyan rebels enter Tripoli from the west, greeted by cheering crowds, witnesses say, and launch an offensive.
Gadhafi vows he will not surrender and boasts he will "emerge victorious" in the battle for the capital. NATO says the regime is "crumbling".
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
Finally, the promised uprising arrives in Tripoli
Rumour that Gadhafi had fled prompts capital to rise against Libya's strongman
By James Reevell, Daily Telegraph; Reuters August 22, 2011 2:05 AM
Story
Photos ( 1 )
Gunmen loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi flee through the grounds of the Rixos hotel on Sunday.
Gunmen loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi flee through the grounds of the Rixos hotel on Sunday.
Photograph by: Paul Hackett, Reuters, Daily Telegraph; Reuters
For weeks, Libyan rebels promised that opposition groups in Tripoli were just awaiting the word to stage their own move to take the Libyan capital.
Few knew whether their promises were real, or whether they had the strength in numbers or arms to make good on them.
On Saturday night, the promise was put to the test. According to rebel sources in the capital and opposition groups abroad, including those in the Tunisian resort town of Djerba, "Operation Mermaid Dawn" - Mermaid is a nickname for Tripoli - was launched from the Ben Nabi Mosque on Sarim Street close to the heart of the city.
The rebels moved just after Iftar, the daily breaking of the daytime Ramadan fast, after incorrect rumours that ruler Col. Moammar Gadhafi had fled. A group of young men began chanting "God is Great," signifying the start of a new protest at the mosque, witnesses in Tripoli and rebels said.
Prayers were cancelled and all women sent home. The men then locked themselves in and began shouting anti-Gadhafi slogans. They used the mosque's loud speaker system, normally used to call people to prayer, to broadcast their chants across the city.
As shooting and explosions lit up the Tripoli night, Gadhafi's forces arrived and initially opened fire on the mosque with machine guns, also summoning reinforcements armed with anti aircraft guns mounted on pickup trucks. The men inside the mosque were unarmed.
Residents and rebel fighters then converged on the mosque to defend it, using machine guns and Molotov cocktails in a fierce battle. The rebel forces were able to drive the Gadhafi forces back, forcing them to take refuge in the state TV centre on Al Nasr Street nearby.
The TV centre has been previously bombed by NATO but has several underground levels. It was still in the hands of loyalists late Sunday. A woman presenter brandished a gun while launching into an impassioned speech declaring she would fight the rebels to the death if they attacked the station.
From the mosque the uprising proceeded to spread in what, from telephone reports, appeared to be a coordinated movement. Opposition members inside the capital reported that as many as 13 suburbs within the city were actively taking part in the uprising and engaging in gun battles with loyalist troops.
Multiple sources reported that fighters entered Green Square and, in a symbolic moment, raised the outlawed Libyan national flag. Green Square is the epicentre of Col Gadhafi's power and status in Libya, the scene of his great rallies early in the uprising, featuring a giant mural of him.
Locals said Gadhafi's forces had begun to use heavy weapons, including artillery shelling, against the mosque, killing at least a dozen people in the immediate vicinity. According to witnesses one shell hit a home next door to the mosque, killing an elderly woman inside. They also said Gadhafi's forces commandeered garbage trucks as a form of disguise before ambushing opposition members near the mosque.
Later in the day, as the imminence of the rebel advance became clear, opposition forces came out elsewhere.
Prominent opposition members confirmed the rebels had been shipping weapons into Tripoli for several weeks, in preparation for this uprising.
Mass text messages were used to urge residents within the capital to rise up. The rebels have weapon caches along with small numbers of fighters smuggled into the capital, according to sources.
Although rumours swirled among opposition supporters both in Tripoli and abroad that Gadhafi and his family had fled, few gave them much credence.
They were confident, though, for the first time in the conflict that this was the end, and the fall of the Gadhafi regime was near. The question they were asking was not whether Gadhafi would fall, but how many lives he would take with him.
CONFLICT IN LIBYA
Key events since the start of the Libya conflict, as rebel forces take the capital Tripoli:
Feb. 15-19: Inspired by revolts in other Arab countries, rebellion breaks out including in Benghazi, Libya's second city.
March 19: With troops loyal to the Libyan threatening rebelheld Benghazi, NATO forces launch air attacks and push them back.
March 30: Libyan foreign minister Mussa Kussa defects. Dozens of political and military figures follow suit.
April 20: France and Italy join Britain in sending military advisers to assist the rebels.
May 1: Gadhafi escapes a NATO air strike, which the regime says kills his youngest son and three grandchildren.
June 9: An International Contact Group on Libya meets in Abu Dhabi, and finalizes a fund aimed at helping the rebels.
June 20-21: Gadhafi's regime says 24 civilians have been killed in NATO airstrikes.
June 27: The International Criminal Court (ICC) issues an arrest warrant for Gadhafi for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
June 29: France says it has airdropped weapons to rebels.
July 14: The rebels consolidate their positions in the west, and begin an offensive on the oil town of Brega. NATO dismisses accusations that its attacks have killed more than 1,100 civilians.
July 15: In Istanbul, the Contact Group designates the rebels as Libya's legitimate rulers, paving the way for the release of frozen Gadhafi regime assets.
July 25: NATO says it supported rebels by hitting a military facility, armoured vehicles, tanks and light military vehicles around Brega.
July 28: Rebel military chief General Abdel Fatah Yunis is assassinated as insurgent fighters pound forces loyal to Gadhafi in the west.
Aug. 5: The regime denies the death of Gadhafi's son Khamis in a NATO raid, as announced by rebels.
Aug. 6: The western town of Bir al-Ghanam falls to the rebels.
Aug. 8: Rebel leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil sacks the entire executive office of his government.
Aug. 9: Libyan authorities accuse NATO of a "massacre" of 85 villagers in air strikes south of Zlitan in western Libya. NATO insists it has no evidence of the civilian deaths.
Aug. 10: EU widens sanctions against the regime.
Aug. 15: Rebels say they have seized "most" of Zawiyah, the final hurdle on the road to Tripoli as Gadhafi calls the insurgents "rats" and predicts their demise.
The UN chief's special envoy visits Tunis for talks on Libya's future. Gadhafi's deputy interior minister flies out to Cairo.
Aug. 20: Fighting erupts in Tripoli as rebels close in on the capital after claiming the oil city of Brega, a day after seizing Zawiyah and Zlitan.
Aug. 21: Libyan rebels enter Tripoli from the west, greeted by cheering crowds, witnesses say, and launch an offensive.
Gadhafi vows he will not surrender and boasts he will "emerge victorious" in the battle for the capital. NATO says the regime is "crumbling".
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
