Libya forces losing in battles near Tripoli
Image via WikipediaIn this city 30 miles west of Tripoli, hundreds of people rejoiced in a central square on Sunday, waving the flag of free Libya and shouting the chants that foretold the downfall of governments in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt: “The people want to bring down the regime.”Democracy does appear to be a theme of this uprising. It is one that would make President Bush proud. He always knew the Arab people had the desire and now they are achieving it. My guess is that he is quietly enjoying the developments in Dallas.
Rebels, in control of the city, had reinforced its boundaries with informal barricades, and army units that had defected stood guard with rifles, six tanks and anti-aircraft guns mounted on the backs of trucks. In the central square here, a mosque was riddled with enormous holes, evidence of the government’s failed attempt to take back this city on Thursday. Nearby lay seven freshly dug graves belonging to protesters who had fallen in that siege, witnesses said.
“We are really suffering for 42 years, and people are asking here for the same things as other people of the world — they want the real democracy,” said Ahmed El-Hadi Remeh, an engineer standing in the square. He and other residents told how they had used stones to repel the government’s forces.
Proving how close opposition control has come to the capital, where Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi maintains tight control, the confidence of the demonstrators in Zawiya was remarkable, all the more so because it was witnessed as part of the official tour for international journalists that Col. Qaddafi’s government organized. The public relations effort, apparently intended to show a stable Libya to the outside world, appeared to backfire, as a tour of Tripoli had on Saturday.
Instead, the tour, whose minders were forced to wait at the city’s outskirts, showed a nation where the uprising had reached the capital’s doorstep, underscoring a growing impression that the ring of rebel control around Tripoli was tightening.
But in a sign that the fight was far from over, armed government forces were seen massing around the city.
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At this point the leadership of the rebel forces appears to be pretty diverse with many former military men participating. Back in Benghazi a group of former professionals is trying to make the city and the country work.
While the rig around Qadafi tightens it has not removed him yet.
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