Fighting Continues in Libya Despite Rebel Successes

Fighting is continuing in Libya, despite the dramatic rebel entry into the capital, Tripoli, Sunday. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with the BBC’s Jonathan Head in Misrata, east of Tripoli.

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Marco Werman: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World, a coproduction of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH Boston.  At this hour Libyan rebels are fighting troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi for control of Tripoli.  The rebels say they’ve taken over most of the capital, but they’re facing resistance in some areas.  The rebel forces streamed into Tripoli overnight.  They took over the city’s central square and thousands of residents joined them in celebration.

Libyan man: I feel so, so [inaudible 0:33], I can’t explain what I’m feeling.  I feel there is… [speaking Arabic]…

Werman: Libyans are celebrating around the country.  We reached the BBC’s Jonathan Head near a mosque in the city of Misrata.  He says people there are ecstatic about the news from Tripoli.

Jonathan Head: I remember this city here, Misrata, has suffered more than any other in Libya throughout the six month long conflicts.  They were besieged for four months by Colonel Gaddafi’s forces.  They’ve lost around 1,200 of their inhabitants in the bitter street-to-street fighting that took place here two to three months ago.  And only two weeks ago that she broke the siege and pushed his lines back, but I don’t think of any of them, although they’ve been moving much faster against his forces, none of them really expected that the opposition forces would get into Tripoli as fast as they have. And you know, they knew this uprising was gonna take place at the weekend in Tripoli.  They knew that this was a carefully planned operation.  But in all of the past, operations by the opposition were all with support they got from NATO.  They’ve often taken heavy losses.  They’ve often found it very difficult to get around very well-fortified positions by Colonel Gaddafi’s forces.  But this time the progress has swept them away and they are absolutely ecstatic. That’s tempered a little bit by the fact that the road here from Misrata to Tripoli is still blocked off by Colonel Gaddafi’s forces.  The fighters who’ve gone from here and were hoping to push through to Tripoli have not been able to do so.  They’ve been fighting very fiercely in a town called [inaudible 2:14], about 20 miles to the west of here, but up to now they can’t get past that opposition. Some of them have gone by boat.  Several hundred have made boat rides through to join the uprising in Tripoli, but the main forces here from Misrata are still trying to open that road.

Werman: Now, you talk about the pockets of uprising in Tripoli.  Can you describe whether this kind of assault on Tripoli is more of an uprising as you’ve been describing, or has it been an incursion of rebels?

Head: It’s been both and I think most strikingly it’s been a markedly better organized operation than anything we’ve seen the opposition military — I should call them paramilitary, they’re volunteer forces — mount up until now.  Remember, at the beginning of this conflict the opposition rose up against Colonel Gaddafi and made extraordinary gains.  They swept through the east of the country and took over Benghazi.  And they were able to really rouse Colonel Gaddafi’s forces.  But they were unable to hold those positions. They were very disorganized, they’ve got no military training.  And we’ve seen that really throughout this conflict.  Then the last month they realized they had to shape up because they were taking very heavy losses.  They weren’t gaining any ground.  There was a sense of inertia that nothing was moving.  They’ve coordinated very closely with NATO, that’s been absolutely clear. They say that whenever they encounter stiff opposition from big tanks or heavy guns used by Colonel Gaddafi’s forces, and they don’t have many of those, they’ve been able to call in NATO aircraft to destroy those obstacles and move on.  But this uprising in Tripoli was carefully planned. They’ve been smuggling weapons in for many weeks.  They’ve been discussing it with local community leaders inside Tripoli and there was a code word on Saturday night that set it off.  It came in two waves –  Saturday night and then the middle of Sunday, where local people rose up, literally barricaded off their neighborhoods and took them over, and have been running checkpoints ever since. But that coincided with a rebel push from the west and although they encountered some resistance at first, by late last night they were fully into the center of Tripoli.  They don’t hold it yet and I think there’s still going to be quite a bit of fighting.  I mean nobody can count Colonel Gaddafi’s forces as down and out, they’ve been fighting with remarkable tenacity, but certainly at this stage the momentum is very firmly with the opposition forces.

Werman: The opposition leadership there has urged cooler heads to prevail in any sort of reprisals.  What are you hearing from the rank and file rebels there in Misrata.  What are they saying about reprisals?

Head: People are very angry, very, very angry with Gaddafi.  I mean not just over what’s happened the last six months, but they’re sick of 40 years of his rule.  And that’s not everybody.  He still has supporters, but certainly in Misrata it’s very few.  And you know, the losses here, this city was pulverized.  I mean there are something like 8,000-9,000 seriously injured people, amputees, people who are traumatized, every family has been affected.  And you do hear some very strong language, people talking about vengeance saying the only thing he’s fit for is to be killed.  And you hear it from the fighters too. The National Transition Council in Benghazi is, at least its leader, is adamant that there must be no reprisals, that they must show this is a democratic transition.  In fact, the chairman of the National Transition Council has said he will resign if anybody is killed in retribution.  We’ll have to see whether that holds.  Up to now I have to say when the opposition has moved in there’s no evidence we have of any mass reprisals.

Werman: The BBC’s Jonathan Head spoke with us from the Libyan city of Misrata, 100 miles east of Tripoli.

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