Turmoil in Libya

The fight continues

by S.N. | BENGHAZI

MORALE was running high among rebels in Benghazi on Monday. Reports had come in the previous evening that anti-Qaddafi commandos had scored a surprise victory in the oil town of Brega. The rebels said their forces had staged a feigned retreat from the town before sneaking back in and taking the advancing regime forces by surprise. There was no way to verify their version of events: journalists were blocked from going to the front yesterday. Both sides have claimed control of the town in recent days and fierce fighting continues. But if the rebels are right, it would be a major setback for the regime's forces which had seemed to be relentlessly grinding forward using heavy artillery and air bombardment.

Most Benghazi residents appeared to believe the reports of rebel success. The unofficial capital of eastern Libyan is about 230km from the frontline, which has shifted between pipeline terminals in the Gulf of Sirte to the southeast. But they chat regularly on their mobiles with fighters at the front. They are mostly spirited but untrained youths but they have now apparently been stiffened by "commando" units of military veterans organised by colonels who defected from the army. One driver said that if the West were to ground Colonel Qaddafi's air force with a no-fly zone, the rebel army could be "in Tripoli in two days." People in Benghazi say that the rebels have no fear of tanks and artillery, which they can fight with rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons, and can hold their own in street fighting. They are, however, terrified of aircraft circling overhead against which they have little chance, particularly out on the open desert roads. Ajdabiya, the rebels' forward military headquarters, was bombed on Monday, though it seems to little effect. Fighting was also reported in the isolated eastern town of Zuwara.

Meanwhile the interim council which now runs affairs in Benghazi appears to be doing an admirable job of keeping the lights on and the shops full. But trench-digging or any other preparations to defend the eastern capital should Ajdabiya fall conspicuously absence, and police and revolutionary militiamen are thin on the ground. Although rebel spokesmen claim to have warned known Qaddafi partisans to stay in their houses, some are clearly not deterred. As your correspondent drove by a central Benghazi sidestreet, there was a scuffle, followed by a gunshot, and a wounded youth was loaded into an ambulance. Residents said that a Qaddafist, probably a neighbour, had shot dead a fighter who had just returned from the front, then fled. An hour later he came back and shot in the leg a man whom witnesses say was the fighter's brother. A third brother looked scornfully at the militiamen who rushed in to assess the situation. "They call this a revolution? Everyone has guns and there is no control," he said. But a minute later he directed his anger elsewhere, vowing to take revenge on the killer and the dictator who sent him.