Monday, October 24, 2011

Misrata fighters, hardened by siege of their city, took out fury on #Gadhafi in the end


ارنوبة بنغازي ♥
Misrata fighters, hardened by siege of their city, took out fury on Gadhafi in the end  

Misrata fighters, hardened by siege of their city, took out fury on Gadhafi in the end

MISRATA, Libya — Ahmed al-Said, a 46-year-old computer engineer, joined the rebels in his hometown of Misrata and fought off a bloody siege by Moammar Gadhafi’s forces in what became one of the turning points of Libya’s civil war. His worst memory, he says, is collecting body parts of young children and women from his city’s streets.
Seething with hatred for the longtime dictator over the 2-month siege, battle-hardened Misratan fighters went on to play a key role in the capture of the capital in August. They made a daring amphibious landing on the shores of Tripoli. And days later, in their signature black pickup trucks, they blasted their way into Gadhafi’s fortified Bab al-Aziziya compound, tore down an iconic monument of a fist crushing an American plane and hauled it back to Misrata as a trophy.
  • ( / Associated Press ) - FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 25, 2011 file photo, Libyan rebels secure prisoners in the back of a pick-up truck during fighting in Tripoli, Libya. The graffiti on the truck, in Arabic, reads, “Misrata steadfastness.” Misrata’s fighters emerged from weeks of punishing street fighting during the bloody siege of their hometown battle-hardened and instilled with a searing hatred for Moammar Gadhafi. In the end, they extracted their revenge, putting the dictator’s body and that of his son on display as a trophy. For Misratans, it was a fitting end to the civil war, and a clear signal that they are a force to be reckoned with in post-Gadhafi Libya.
  • ( Libya Youth Movement via APTN, File / Associated Press ) - FILE - In this file image made from amateur video provided by the Libya Youth Movement and filmed on Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011, Moammar Gadhafi, center, is surrounded by Libyan fighters in Sirte, Libya. Misrata’s fighters emerged from weeks of punishing street fighting during the bloody siege of their hometown battle-hardened and instilled with a searing hatred for Moammar Gadhafi. In the end, they extracted their revenge, putting the dictator’s body and that of his son on display as a trophy. For Misratans, it was a fitting end to the civil war, and a clear signal that they are a force to be reckoned with in post-Gadhafi Libya.
  • ( Francois Mori, File / Associated Press ) - FILE - In this Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011 file photo, Libyan rebels continue to fight inside Moammar Gadhafi’s compound Bab al-Aziziya in Tripoli, Libya. Misrata’s fighters emerged from weeks of punishing street fighting during the bloody siege of their hometown battle-hardened and instilled with a searing hatred for Moammar Gadhafi. In the end, they extracted their revenge, putting the dictator’s body and that of his son on display as a trophy. For Misratans, it was a fitting end to the civil war, and a clear signal that they are a force to be reckoned with in post-Gadhafi Libya.
  • ( Francois Mori, File / Associated Press ) - FILE - In this Sunday, Aug. 28, 2011 file photo, Libyan rebels from Misrata drive their car past the famous toppled fist statue in Moammar Gadhafi’s compound Bab al-Aziziya , into their camp set up in the Gadhafi’s wife Safiah’s summer home in Tripoli, Libya. Misrata’s fighters emerged from weeks of punishing street fighting during the bloody siege of their hometown battle-hardened and instilled with a searing hatred for Moammar Gadhafi. In the end, they extracted their revenge, putting the dictator’s body and that of his son on display as a trophy. For Misratans, it was a fitting end to the civil war, and a clear signal that they are a force to be reckoned with in post-Gadhafi Libya.
( / Associated Press ) - FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 25, 2011 file photo, Libyan rebels secure prisoners in the back of a pick-up truck during fighting in Tripoli, Libya. The graffiti on the truck, in Arabic, reads, “Misrata steadfastness.” Misrata’s fighters emerged from weeks of punishing street fighting during the bloody siege of their hometown battle-hardened and instilled with a searing hatred for Moammar Gadhafi. In the end, they extracted their revenge, putting the dictator’s body and that of his son on display as a trophy. For Misratans, it was a fitting end to the civil war, and a clear signal that they are a force to be reckoned with in post-Gadhafi Libya.
Two months later, it was the Misratans who finally captured Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte, the final bastion of regime loyalists.
And once they laid their hands on the fallen dictator, they did not let him go.
The Misratans hauled Gadhafi’s body back to Misrata, where it was put on display on a bloody mattress in a commercial refrigerator in a shopping center. For four days running, men, women and children in the city of some 300,000 have donned surgical masks to block out the stench and formed long lines to snap pictures of themselves standing next to the rotting body.
By laying claim to Gadhafi’s corpse as the ultimate war trophy, the Misratans are sending a clear message that they will be a force to be reckoned with in the new Libya.
“There is no doubt that because of their capabilities, the Misratans will have a bigger role” in the future, said Abdel-Basit al-Mzirig, deputy minister of justice and a Misrata native.
Misratans have flexed their muscles along the way to show that they will have a say in Libya’s future and perhaps push for a leading role in the country in the post-Gadhafi era.
The have refused to accept old Libyan bank notes — which Gadhafi released in Tripoli during the civil war — despite the fact that they are accepted everywhere else in the country’s west. They have also hauled suspected Gadhafi loyalists suspected of committing crimes during the siege back to Misrata, not believing other revolutionary forces will ultimately hold them accountable.
The city, Libya’s third-largest and its commercial hub, has refused to budge on certain issues, chief among them the town of Tawergha south of Misrata. Used as a staging ground by Gadhafi’s troops during the fight in Misrata, the town is home to black Libyans who Misratans accuse of joining the old regime’s forces and committing some of the worst atrocities during the siege from March to May.
Munir al-Misrati, a 29-year-old fighter, said national reconciliation must take place, but stressed that “it is not going to happen between us and the people of Tawergha.”
Misratans overran Tawergha on their way to Sirte, and virtually the entire population of the town fled ahead of the onslaught.
“They need to find a new home and the National Transitional Council should provide houses somewhere else because they can’t come back to Tawergha,” al-Misrati said. “I personally can’t stand seeing any of them. If I did, it would be the end of his life.”