The Libyan rebels watched in awe, some with a creeping admiration for their foe, as the narrow plumes of thick black smoke rose one after the other.
Each time it was the same. The very distant sound of an unseen plane. The smiles and waving of fingers in a V for victory. Then the wait.
A couple of minutes later came the sound of explosions and rising black smoke, very different from the sand thrown up by the ground artillery explosions. With each attack also came the hope among the rebels that Muammar Gaddafi’s forces holding the insurgents at bay on the edge of Ajdabiya would finally crack and flee. Perhaps this time, they reasoned, the air strike would put a stop to the shelling and they could finally push forward.
But each time it was only a matter of minutes before the alarming din of a shell being fired by government forces swept across the rebel front line followed by the whistle of the explosive tearing through the air as the insurgents dived for cover. What might now be called the battle of Ajdabiya continued in this vein for much of Tuesday as Gaddafi’s forces held the rebels at bay. On Thursday there were reports of continued fighting in the town.
The revolutionaries had seen the effects of the first of the allied air strikes on Gaddafi’s heavy weapons along 135km of desert road from Benghazi. It offered its own vision of hell, with the burnt-out carcasses of tanks, armoured cars and lorries with dead soldiers littered among the charred hardware. “We don’t understand why they are still fighting. They will be killed from the sky,” said Salim Ayab, an accountant for a construction company turned rebel fighter.
“They were bombed yesterday [Monday] and today [Tuesday]. We thought they would be scared just at the sound of the plane and run away. Perhaps they are more scared of Gaddafi.” Rebel commanders have their own theories about why the government forces in Ajdabiya have not been destroyed or have not capitulated. Perhaps the tanks are dug in in the town and the air crews are afraid of inflicting civilian casualties. Maybe the enemy is moving around.
Knocking out the forces
They were also trying to decide what exactly it was that the air strikes were hitting. What was that burning on the edge of Ajdabiya? Tanks? Guns? The uncertainty only added to their caution about attempting to surge in and take the town after Monday’s ill-considered charge towards Ajdabiya when the rebels assumed that an air strike had knocked out Gaddafi’s forces. They immediately came under a rain of shells. Eight of the insurgents were killed during the attack.
Later in the week they hunkered down and waited for evidence that the enemy was finished. Each volley of shells was ample warning that it was not.
The regime was on the attack elsewhere. Four children were reported to have been killed on Tuesday in fighting in the besieged western town of Misrata and more than 40 were killed on Monday. The government is using tanks and snipers in a battle for control of the town, which houses a major oil refinery. Gaddafi’s spokesperson claimed that Misrata had been “liberated” three days previously and said the regime is now hunting “terrorist elements”. The rebels described the assault as creating “carnage” and said they are in need of help.
“The bombardment is focused on the town centre and what is going on in Misrata is a massacre,” said Saadoun, a spokesperson for the rebels in Misrata. “The bombardment continues.” On Thursday tanks were continuing to shell the besieged western town of Misrata after having withdrawn on Wednesday under an assault by international forces, according to a BBC report.
The revolutionaries also claimed that Gaddafi’s forces bombarded the rebel-held town of Zintan, about 100km south of Tripoli, earlier this week with tank shells, killing about a dozen people. The insurgents claimed to have forced the regime’s military to the edge of the town, but said they feared another attempt to invade it is coming.
Concern over the plight of civilians in Ajdabiya has brought some of the rebels to the front. Yousef al-Bazejy’s mother and two sisters are trapped in the town. He spoke to them regularly until the mobile phones ceased to function last week. He has had intermittent contact on a land line since then.
“They were very frightened. There was fighting and they were too afraid to leave the house. They can hear the explosions and they have no electricity, there is no water. There is a problem with food. I have to get there and help them,” he said. Much of Ajdabiya’s population fled as Gaddafi’s army approached. Other civilians slipped away through the desert during lulls in the fighting. But some were simply unable to get away, including al-Bazejy’s mother.
While some Libyans endure the conflict, people in Benghazi, who have seen the threat of attack recede since the air strikes began and the no-fly zone took hold, have taken to sightseeing the war.
They have turned out in their thousands to view the wreckage of Gaddafi’s army, strewn along the road to Ajdabiya, posing for photographs and carrying off bits of metal as souvenirs. — Guardian News & Media 2011
Western forces have carried out air strikes on the capital, Tripoli, as well as an air base in the interior and the town of Sebha in the south of the country, according to reports.