As rebel forces prepare to attack Gaddafi's home town, they say his men are dragging civilians into the firing line
David Smith in Sdada bridge, Libya
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 31 August 2011 21.13 BST
Article history
A rebel fighter rests 100 miles west of Sirte. The rebels accuse Gaddafi's troops of using civilians as human shields. Photograph: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters
Troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi are holding children as human shields on the frontline as they prepare to make a desperate stand in the deposed leader's hometown, rebel fighters have claimed.
Pro-Gaddafi loyalist forces are still fiercely defending Sirte, where the final major battle of the war is set to take place on Saturday. With total victory in their grasp, the rebels say they are prepared to sacrifice their lives to see the uprising through to the finish.
The fighters from Misrata have advanced to a bridge about 140km (87 miles) west of Sirte. From there, they make reconnaissance patrols into the desert of no man's land, probing the enemy's defences and regularly exchanging fire. Their most advanced foray so far came within 70km of Gaddafi's birthplace.
In an incident on Monday, the rebels were surprised when 15 of Gaddafi's pick-up trucks with mounted machine guns appeared on the horizon and opened fire. There were between 10 and 15 families lined up at gunpoint, they claimed.
"They put the families between our guys and theirs so we can't fire," said Mohammed Abobaker, 26, who was in the rebels' lead vehicle.
"I saw a man, his wife and a boy through the telescope. They were less than a kilometre away and they looked scared. If the families move, they will be shot, so they don't have an option to run away."
Abobaker said the tactic put him and his comrades in a terrible dilemma. "Gaddafi's men are cowards. I'm so sad about this situation. I can't fire on them because I might kill innocent people. But then I might die because Gaddafi's men are firing. You are in the middle of a crisis."
While the rebels have swept through vast swaths of Libya, including Tripoli, the regime loyalists who still control Sirte have spurned all attempts at negotiation. They are being pounded by Nato airstrikes and have been given a deadline of Saturday to surrender or face invasion from both east and west.
In the meantime, rebels say they are attempting to rescue families from nearby villages to minimise civilian casualties. Abobaker, 26, a former crane operator, said: "We are trying to get the families out. They are prisoners in their own homes. Gaddafi hopes to use them as human shields to stop us attacking. But on Saturday we will."
The rebels estimate that anywhere between 3,000 to 6,000 diehard loyalists may be in Sirte, their last coastal stronghold. They believe food and weapons supplies may be reaching the town through the desert from Algeria. But they are also convinced that many soldiers are being fuelled by drugs.
Asked why Gaddafi's troops are still fighting for a seemingly lost cause, Adel Benjesi, a rebel brigade commander, said: "These guys believe in the Green Book written by Gaddafi and that kind of bullshit and propaganda. They are fighting for money and they are stoned. We find drugs in the pockets of all the guys we capture.
"Around 90% of the guys we capture say bullshit about loving Gaddafi.
"Then after three days they wake up and say, 'Where am I?' They all say it was the effect of the drugs."
Benjesi sits in a makeshift military headquarters in Tawarga, captured from Gaddafi two weeks ago, where fighters play table tennis and a broken disco ball gathers dust on a bench. Bald and bearded, he wears a floppy sunhat, sunglasses, a white Adidas T-shirt stained with juice, khaki trousers and a bandage on his left wrist. The 39-year-old former customs official does not fear becoming one of the last casualties of the war.
"We are not going to give up," Benjesi said. "From the start of the revolution we expected to die, so we do not mind if we die now. We are not going to give up until we catch him.
"When we head to Sirte, we are not going to fire. But if they attack us, we have no choice. We are ready for anything. We are confident. We are going to nail them. I expect the battle will last for four hours, inshallah. [God willing]"
His wounded comrades include a man with an arm and a sling and another leaning on a crutch. Yet all are determined to fight on Saturday, along with around 4,000 other volunteers.
"I am not afraid of death," said one.
Along the flat motorway, an effigy of a hunchbacked Gaddafi in green uniform and boots hangs from the awning of a checkpoint and gently twists in the breeze. Further on there are ghost towns with abandoned cars, a smashed up caravan, groups of camels and clusters of spray-painted tanks and armed pickup trucks, set amid a seemingly limitless expanse of bushy desert.
But beyond the last rebel base at the Sdada bridge, there are still political as well as military battles to be won. Loyalist green flags still fly from houses in the town of Heisha, where elders are reportedly ambivalent about the change that has come to Libya. Rebels claim the flags are merely an expression of fear in the Gaddafi heartland.
"I am 100% sure no one likes Gaddafi," Benjesi said. "There is nobody who likes the devil."
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What do you think ?
Các anh chị nghĩ thế nào, có ý kiến phê bình gì qua bài viết "Rebels accuse Gaddafi of using human shields as showdown in Sirte looms" ?
Và các anh chị nghĩ gì về nhận xét, suy nghĩ của Benjesi, đã chắc chắn rằng không ai thích độc tài Gadhafi . Benjesi còn ví độc tài Gadhafi như ác quỉ và không ai thích ác quỉ cả qua kết luận của bài viết :
"I am 100% sure no one likes Gaddafi," Benjesi said. "There is nobody who likes the devil."
Nhìn cảnh Người Dân Libya đã ĐỨNG LÊN LẬT ĐỔ cầm quyền ĐỘC tài Gadhafi, họ đã làm cho "ác quỉ" Gadhafi đã từ trên ngai vàng trở thành một tội phạm, phải trốn chui trốn nhủi như một con chuột một cách NHỤC NHÃ, mà cảm thấy hổ thẹn cho những tên "vịt kiều yêu nước", những "trí thức hải ngọai" miệng hô hào đấu tranh cho tự do dân chủ nhân quyền cho người dân VN nhưng lại lòn trôn khấn gấu tội đồ dân tộc là những tên ác quỉ cộng sản VN, đội những con ác quỉ này lên đầu "chống tàu xâm lược", hết "thỉnh nguyện thư" rồi thì là "kiến nghị" van xin và lại càng NHỤC hơn nữa khi chính những con ác quỉ vô lọai Việt cộng này là lũ súc sinh BÁN NƯỚC cầu vinh, đội giặc tàu lên đầu, hủy diệt giang sơn Việt, nô lệ dân tộc, lăng nhục Tổ Tiên , nòi giống .
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog"
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
01092011
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CSVN là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
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