| Revolutionaries Take Control of Tripoli International Airport 27/08/2011 14:06:00 | ||
| Libyans trample on the portrait of Al Qathafi as they celebrate the liberation of their district of Qasr Bin Ghashir in Tripoli (AP photo)While the rebels opposing the Libyan dictator Muammar Al Qathafi move to strengthen hold on the country’s cpaital, Libya, after an overnight battle, others are reported by AP of claiming victory over a suburb near Tripoli’s airport Saturday, Qasr bin Ghashir, about 32 kilometres south of Tripoli. It is an important gain as regime loyalis troops had been shelling the airport from the area.Omar al-Ghuzayl, a rebel field commander now in charge of forces at Tripoli’s International Airport has been quoted saying: “You can say that bin Ghashir has been liberated from Al Qatahafi soldiers,. We’ve been able to push them completely outside Tripoli.Clearing the road from the Tunisian border to Tripoli helps ease growing shortages of fuel and food, particularly in the battle-scarred capital.Mahmoud Shammam, information minister in the rebels’ transitional council, said the rebels already control most of the road, but that regime fighters are shelling it in the area of the city of Zuwara, west of Tripoli.Following this success, the rebels can celebrate as after days of fierce fighting in the capital now appear to have the capital argely under their control. As such, other rebel fighters are now able to foucs on Al Qathafi’s hometown of Sirte, his last major bastion of support.But while fighting has died down, much of the capital remained without electricity and water. Stores are closed, streets are strewn with torched cars and stinking garbage, and corpses crowd abandoned hospitals, while bombed planes sit on the Tripoli’s airport runway, AFPreports.Shortages, particularly of gas, have made it difficult to bake the traditional pastries for next week’s Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that caps the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.Many people are saying that they will start celebrating when Al Qathafi is caught. That will be their Eid, lIbyans are saying.Rebel leaders said Friday they’ll establish a new interim government in the capital within 30 days, moving their headquarters from the eastern city of Benghazi, which fell into opposition hands early in the six-month civil war.Meanwhile, the rebels’ information minister, Mahmoud Shammam, has said that some who worked in the Al Qathafi regime, but were sympathetic to the revolutionaries, would be welcome in the interim government, which could make the transition smoother. “The only people we are going to exclude are the people who killed others and stole money,” Shammam said.In the parking lot of an abandoned, bombed out fire station in Tripoli, Associated Press reporters saw rebels guarding four injured men they said were Al Qathafi loyalists.Eventually, a rebel agreed to take as many wounded as he could fit in his pickup truck to a hospital, but was stopped repeatedly at checkpoints, where some kicked the prisoners, spat on them and tried to stop their transfer to the hospital.However, Mohammed al-Egely, the rebels’ ‘justice minister’, said he has visited detained Al Qathafi fighters and that they were being treated according to international humanitarian law. He said the rebels are doing the best they can under the circumstances.While international organisations have expressed concern about treatment of detainees on both sides, al-Egely went on to say: “We are in a state of war. Do you expect the fighters to bring them (prisoners) flowers? They are all fighting – and so there will be victims from each side.” | ||
Revolutionaries Take Control of Tripoli International Airport
Abdullah Al Asadi is a Libyan journalist and writer at TripoliPost, covering politics, society, and culture across Libya and the wider region. With a passion for independent storytelling and a commitment to accuracy, he brings readers in-depth reporting and thoughtful analysis on the issues shaping his country. He can be reached at abdullah.asadi@tripolipost.com
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