INTSUM/OSINT Brief
2/18/11. BBC's sources in Benghazi gave reports that tanks were being delivered to Benghazi from nearby Deriana.Time: 2044
2/20/11. Sayf-al-Islam al-Qadhafi stated in a speechhe gave on February 20ththat many ammunition loads were stolen as well as tanks and were now in control of protestors.Time:2319
2/23/11. After seizing control of the city of Misurata, protestors armed themselves with weapons seized from police stations and weapons depots and occupied the Mediterranean port of Tobruk.Time: 8:51 am
2/24/11. Protestors broke in to the Benghazi army base. Using bulldozers looted from foreign companies working in Libya, protesters raided their vast armouries. The March 28th base, east of Tobruk, was littered with open safes, gas-masks, helmets, cardboard boxes of ammunition (stamped “Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya”) and Russian explosives. At al-Hisha and other bases near Beida, youths captured tanks and anti-aircraft guns and turned them on the few bases manned by katibas—literally brigades, but more closely resembling militias—flown in from Tripoli.
2/25/11. Police and soldiers were deployed in large numbers along the highway linking Tripoli's Mitiga military airport to the capital. A witness reported that the military and police setting up the roadblocks were carrying Kalashnikovs. Time:5:26pm GMT
2/28/11. Reuters reports that Gaddafi's forces control only a small part of a key air force base near Misrata and that protesters control a large part of this base where ammunition is located. Time: 7:10am EST
2/28/11. An arms trade watchdog says it suspects that Libya received a shipment of military equipment from Belarus. Time: 3:50pmET
3/1/11. In exclusive statements to Al-Arabiya, Staff Brigadier General Mansur Muhammad Abu-Hajar, , head of the Armoured Vehicles and Infantry Division, announced that he and his troops and armored vehicles would join the protestors. Time: 1207 GMT
3/1/11. Hundreds of Libyans including, children and elderly men, took over a military air base in southern Benghazi, hoping to begin training to repel attacks by Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi's troops. Time: 11:39 am
3/10/11. Libyan TV showed footage of pro-Qadhafi troops seizing a cache of weapons and ammunition. The seizure, Libyan TV said, belonged to the "Al-Qa'idah-related gangs" who pro-Qadhafi forces were battling in Al-Zawiyah. Time: 12:57 GMT
3/10/11. A rebel source in eastern Libya said that forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi were firing rockets from offshore oil tankers at rebel positions onshore at the oil port of Ras Lanuf.Time: 14:14 GMT
3/16/11. Government troops in Ajdabiya were bringing in a stream of truckloads of ammunition, rockets and supplies, signs of an intensified effort by the Libyan leader to retake control of the country. Pro-Gaddafi forces near Ajdabiya included mercenaries in more than 400 vehicles and hundreds of pro-Gadhafi troops with dozens of tanks and other heavy equipment. The rebels had some antiquated equipment and weapons.
3-23-11 - In Zintan, rebel fighters captured or destroyed several tanks, and seized trucks loaded with 1,200 Grad missiles and fuel tanks. In Ajdabiya,pro-Gaddafi forces attacked a few hundred rebels on the outskirts. The rebels fired back with Katyusha rockets, but found themselves outgunned.
3/27/11. Libyan rebels seized back the key city of Ajdabiya after international airstrikes Moammar Gaddafi'sforces into retreat, shedding their uniforms and ammunition as they fled. There were reports that burned out tanks littered the roads. Rebels captured a rocket launcher and a dozen boxes of anti-aircraft ammunition, adding to their limited firepower.
3/28/11. Rebels state that they do not have weapons able to defeat Gaddafi troops. They stated, “"You know, our weapons are traditional ones; the old ones; the Russian weapons. We need ammunition. We need new weapons. We need anti-tanks.”Time: 2:42 PM EDT
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2044: More from the BBC's sources in Benghazi: Reports are going around the city that more tanks are coming from nearby Deriana.
Al-Qadhafi's son: Tanks driven by "drunken" civilians in Benghazi streets
Source: Libyan TV, Tripoli, in Arabic 2319 gmt 20 Feb 11
BBC Mon Alert ME1 MEPol oy
In the speech he made on 20 February, Sayf-al-Islam al-Qadhafi said: "Now at this very moment, there are tanks going around, driven by civilians, and drunks driving these tanks in the centre of Benghazi. In Al-Bayda now, there are machine guns in the city, held by civilians. Many ammunition loads were stolen."
Libyan opposition reportedly seizes city of Misurata
February 23, 2011, 8:51 a.m.
Reporting from Cairo —
Anti-government protesters claimed control of their first major city in Libya's far west Wednesday, a significant expansion of their popular uprising a day after embattled strongman Moammar Kadafi vowed to defend his regime "to the last drop of blood."
Gunfire echoed intermittently in the capital, Tripoli, and residents said police in some neighborhoods had abandoned their posts. Pro-government militias were roaming through residential streets and shooting from Land Cruisers, they said.
"We don't know who is in charge," Najah Kablan, a teacher, said by telephone. "It is very frightening."
The renewed violence came as opposition forces reportedly seized control of Misurata, about 75 miles west of Tripoli. Witnesses said that crowds were honking horns and waving flags from the monarchy that Kadafi overthrew in a military coup in 1969.
Protesters already have seized seaports and other cities in Libya's eastern half, but the apparent fall of Misurata in the west suggests the rebellion is now flourishing in a region where Kadafi traditionally has maintained strong tribal support.
Two Libyan air force pilots parachuted from their Russian-made Sukhoi fighter jet and let it crash rather than carry out orders to bomb opposition-held Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city, the website Quryna reported, citing an unidentified officer in the air force control room.
In a nationwide speech Tuesday, Kadafi offered no concessions to protesters, denouncing them as drunkards, terrorists and "drug-fueled mice" who should be executed.
But Kadafi's tough 75-minute speech may not save a regime that after four decades in power seemed to be quickly disintegrating. With violence flaring in city after city, and key defections from his inner circle, he appeared out of touch and increasingly out of control.
In the speech, Kadafi praised one of his closest and most powerful aides, Interior Secretary and army Gen. Abdul Fatah Younis. Several hours later, however, Younis made clear in his own televised statement that he had joined the opposition, urging "all the armed forces to be at the service of the people … to help them achieve victory."
At least 300 people have been killed in the uprising. Kadafi's regime holds the capital, Tripoli, and crucial oil fields in the west, analysts said. Hundreds of miles to the east across mostly empty desert, opposition forces control the second-largest city, Benghazi, and the equally rich oil fields in that region.
The opposition claimed another prize Tuesday when protesters, arming themselves with weapons seized from police stations and weapons depots, occupied the Mediterranean port of Tobruk, expanding their control to the Egyptian border, according to refugee accounts.
Refugees poured out through border crossings into Egypt and Tunisia.
About a mile from a two-lane crossing at Salum, Egypt, near the Mediterranean coast, the road was clogged with vehicles Tuesday that had come from all parts of Egypt, waiting for an expected flow of brothers, fathers and sons who had been working in Libya and are now fleeing. One convoy of minivans, roofs piled high with clothes, tools, bedding and belongings, came from the same village, El Minya. Many of the men, who had been working in Libya for years, said they had hidden for days until it was calm enough to get out, taking only what they could carry and leaving without getting paid.
The Egyptian army had set up a post and clinic to greet people at the border.
At the Marsa Matruh border crossing into Libya from Egypt, aid convoys with doctors, medical workers and humanitarian supplies waited in long lines. Blood shortages were said to be critical.
Pounding his fist and shouting during his speech Tuesday, Kadafi vowed to die a martyr in Libya, and urged his supporters to help crush the uprising.
He threatened to "cleanse Libya house by house" if protesters didn't surrender. "When they are caught they will beg for mercy, but we will not be merciful," he warned.
The U.N. Security Council condemned the crackdown and called for "an immediate end to the violence. In a press statement supported by all 15 members, the council called on the Libyan government "to meet its responsibility to protect its population," to act with restraint, and to respect human rights and international humanitarian law.
Its action left open how much further the council might go if the violence continues, or worsens, diplomats said. Western nations have been eager to signal to Kadafi that he will be punished if the street battles intensify. But China and Russia, which have been reluctant to intervene in what they view as other nations' domestic matters, may resist.
"The callousness with which Libyan authorities and their hired guns are reportedly shooting live rounds of ammunition at peaceful protesters is unconscionable," said Navi Pillay, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters that the crackdown was "completely unacceptable" and must stop. The White House deplored what it called "appalling violence." The Arab League condemned the violence and demanded an end to restrictions on media coverage in Libya.
Tripoli was reported quiet but tense. Diplomats and witnesses said the military used fighter jets, helicopter gunships and foreign mercenaries to help put down the protests that raged across the city Monday and early Tuesday.
Regime opponents charged that pro-Kadafi militias used mortars and other heavy weapons, as well as automatic weapons, in some areas. Photos transmitted from inside Libya showed corpses that appeared riddled with shrapnel or that had been blown apart.
Numerous reports from inside Libya suggested militiamen and paid African mercenaries had fired into crowds, sealed off neighborhoods and shot from rooftops to quell the protests. Independent Arab media in Libya said militias were guarding access roads around Tripoli late Tuesday to block protesters from outside the capital.
A 27-year-old lawyer in Tripoli who identified himself only by his first name, Muataz, said late Tuesday in a conversation over the Internet that his neighborhood on the outskirts of Tripoli was quiet, but that security forces had established checkpoints and were screening anyone who went out.
"We knew from the beginning that Tripoli would be very tough to take because it's the town of Kadafi," he said. "If you go out, you will be asked 'Who are you?' and 'Where are you going?'"
Muataz said that on Sunday he had joined about 200 other lawyers in a protest outside the main courthouse in Tripoli, which was dispersed. Security forces shut down the courthouse and nearby streets. A friend described to him on Tuesday seeing protesters shot the previous day by security forces in the capital's Fashloom district.
Reports of security forces using helicopters, warplanes and foreign mercenaries had frightened people in other parts of the capital, he said. Schools and offices were closed Tuesday, he said, but food and water were still available and prices had not gone up.
Outside Libya, some of the nation's top diplomats rushed to distance themselves from Kadafi. Tripoli's ambassadors to the U.S., China, India, Malaysia and Bangladesh have resigned, and the deputy ambassador to the U.N. denounced the attacks as genocide.
"We have never seen a government bomb its own people like this," Ali Essawi, who quit as envoy to India, told Al Jazeera.
It was impossible to confirm many details of the turmoil inside Libya. The regime has cut most Internet access, telephone lines, cellphone service and other communication to the outside world.
The regime released its first official death toll from the unrest, saying 300 people, including 58 soldiers, had been killed. Nearly half were in Benghazi.
That tally was consistent with outside estimates. Human Rights Watch said at least 295 people were killed, and the International Federation for Human Rights put the toll between 300 and 400.
Whatever the final figure, the rebellion is the bloodiest so far of the uprisings that have swept across the Middle East and North Africa, toppling autocrats in Egypt and Tunisia, and challenging others in Bahrain and Yemen.
The speaker of Libya's parliament said the body would start working on a permanent constitution and set up a commission to investigate the violence. But Kadafi's speech was a vintage performance in a theatrical setting. Swathed in brown robes and turban, he spoke from the ruins of his former Tripoli residence, which was hit by U.S. airstrikes in 1986 and left unrepaired as a monument of defiance.
He played the role of a besieged warrior leading a lonely battle against foreign enemies and internal conspirators. He paused often for effect, switched his glasses, wagged his finger, gave confused history lessons, and read from the penal code.
He blamed Arab media, America, Britain, Italy, and hallucinogenic drugs for inciting the protests. He called those who oppose his rule "greasy rats" and "sick people."
"These gangs are cockroaches," he shouted angrily. "They're nothing. They're not 1% of the Libyan people."
He chastised Libyans for not being more grateful for his heroism, and warned that America would occupy Libya "like Afghanistan" if he was forced out.
Libyan independent media said crowds in Benghazi and the nearby city of Baida were so infuriated by Kadafi's speech that they hurled their shoes, the ultimate insult in Arab culture, at screens where it was shown.
Although far more melodramatic, the address echoed former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's emotional appeals for public support before he finally was overthrown. Both men used vivid language to extol their patriotism, and vowed never to surrender.
But the man in Bedouin robes has done what Mubarak would not or could not do — deployed a modern army against his own people.
"As long as liberation is not achieved, fighting will continue street by street until Libya is liberated," he said.
Building a new Libya
Feb 24th 2011 | BEIDA AND BENGHAZI | from the print edition
IN A parliament building that predates the Qaddafi regime, the founding fathers of a new Libya have gathered. In this Green Mountain town, perched above the coastal sand-flats, they plan to write a new constitution and restore civilian rule. A week after their uprising against 41 years of dictatorship, lawyers, doctors, tribal leaders, colonels, university professors and even Muammar Qaddafi’s justice minister are preparing for power. Inside and outside the assembly hall, crowds of men, women and children cheer and cry for their “monkey king” to leave.
Along a 600km stretch of the Mediterranean, from the Egyptian border west to Ajdabiya, Mr Qaddafi’s rule has been sloughed off. All across eastern Libya, youth committees of the February 17th revolution have sprung up to try to fill the vacuum. At former checkpoints, now burnt-out hulks, and at the border, youths joined by army deserters wearing vests saying “No to tribalism, no to factionalism” stop cars to ask for donations of blood.
In Tobruk, an eastern port town of 120,000, volunteers with red berets have occupied the mataba, the headquarters of Mr Qaddafi’s local militia, and turned it into a storehouse stacked with donated supplies for the thousands still camped in the central square. These “cockroaches”, as Mr Qaddafi called them in his speech on February 22nd, include lawyers and university lecturers. Other volunteers guard the port, local banks and oil terminals to keep the oil flowing and ward off looters. Teachers and engineers in the foyer of a local hotel have set up a committee to collect weapons, and another committee in Sattah, near Beida, has collected clothes, food and blankets for hundreds of captured government troops held in a school.
Omnipresent only a week ago, the emblems of the cult Mr Qaddafi fostered lie shattered. A statue of the Green Book, his manifesto, has been reduced to rubble. “There were so many billboards of Qaddafi, he used to appear in our dreams,” says Idris Hadoth, a schoolteacher. No longer. The tricolour of King Idris, the monarch Mr Qaddafi overthrew in 1969—beyond the memory of most—flies across the east, and where that is unavailable red cloth flutters. Anything to erase the emblem of the regime’s all-green flag.