In eastern Libya, town keeps shaky hold after fighting off forces loyal to Gaddafi & Gaddafi's son denies crackdown; loyalists reportedly continue attacks 24FEB11

MORE on the civil war in Libya from the Washington Post. After reading these reports and others from NPR and other media it is a reminder for Americans that we can not take our freedom for granted, and that democracy is not a spectator sport....
By Leila Fadel
Washington Post Staff Writer


BAIDA, LIBYA - The young men of this idyllic town nestled in the Green Mountain region of eastern Libya took control here in a days-long battle. First they fought their way into a security camp protected by 2,000 mercenaries and other forces loyal to the government of Moammar Gaddafi. Then they took over the streets.
When Awad Mohammed's five sons joined the battle, he stood on the sidelines with his wife. He felt fear and pride.
"They had nothing - just sticks, stones and bare chests. They took the guns from the mercenaries and used them against them," said Mohammed, an Arabic literature professor. "We never imagined the young people could do this. . . . I will die for them. These are all my sons."
Now these sons of Baida - some just 13 and armed with rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and knives - man the lawless roads as they brace for the next possible attack. They are keenly aware that their leader of 41 years has shown no qualms about killing his own people.
Throughout Wednesday, opposition activists stayed in touch with one another through weak cellphone connections, gathering news of defectors, attacks in the distant capital and rumors that Gaddafi would send planes here to bomb the town.
The scenic wonder of Baida - with its pure blue sky and lush mountains - belies the strength of its residents, who are threatening to help put an abrupt end to Gaddafi's reign through a nationwide uprising that has already claimed much of the country's eastern half. Within just over a week, the government has gone from total control here to none. But Baida's liberation came at a steep price.
At least 90 civilians have been killed in the 10-mile stretch from Baida to the town of Shahat, according to doctors and witnesses. In just one neighborhood, there have been 17 funerals, including one Wednesday.
Now, everyone is armed. The police stations and other government buildings have been burned, and pictures of Gaddafi lie shredded along the roads.
Outside the local parliament building in Baida, once controlled by Gaddafi's revolutionary committee, men and women demonstrated Wednesday, chanting "Free! Free! Libya!" Others replaced Gaddafi's green flag with the red, black and green flag that predates his rise to power.
Inside the building, community leaders met to plan for the future of an area that has no government and could easily descend into chaos. The leaders formed four committees: street cleaning, security, food supplies and medical services.
Mustafa Abdel Jalil was among those who had gathered here. Only three days ago, he was Gaddafi's justice minister. He resigned Sunday to protest the "coldblooded" killings of civilians by "tanks, bombs, bullets and mercenaries," he said.
Jalil said the area's residents were prepared to defend themselves.
The government has threatened to cut off water, electricity and food supplies to starve residents out. State television has declared, falsely, that the area is now an Islamic state, in an effort to demonize the popular revolt.
"The fundamental thing that we're committed to today is to prepare for the embargo," Jalil said. "We are going to fight, and if we have to, we'll fast for a few days and depend on our neighbors."
Jalil also said he was concerned, not least about the uncontrolled distribution of weapons in a place where teenage boys have begun driving tanks in the streets.
"Our strategy is to collect the arms and use them for good and keep national unity," he said as men gathered around to thank him for resigning and to give him flowers.
While it is tense, there are no signs of infighting here. Everyone is armed, but the people are united by their contempt for Gaddafi.
Just days ago, the picture was far different, with bloody battles in the streets. On Wednesday, spent ammunition from rifles and antiaircraft weapons littered the streets. Fresh blood stained the ground.
Residents said mercenaries flown in from other parts of Africa had gone on a killing rampage.
The town's young men reacted with grief, and with rage.
One man took a tractor and broke down the walls of the Kitab security base in Shahat, where mercenaries were housed, witnesses and participants said. In a battle that lasted a day and a half, the residents overwhelmed the forces, killing some and taking others hostage. The captives are being held in secret locations throughout the area.
At the local airport, residents have blocked the runways with large rocks, car parts and other debris to keep the government from flying in reinforcements.
This area has a history of resistance to unwanted rulers. Every child knows the name of Omar Mukhtar, a fighter who battled Libya's colonial masters, the Italians. An uprising in the 1990s was violently quelled by Gaddafi.
On Wednesday, the young men celebrated their victory in a local square, with a portrait of Mukhtar hanging overhead.
Before the uprising began, it was common for people to disappear for speaking even one word against Gaddafi or his government, residents said.
"The only place you opened your mouth was at the dentist," said Abdul Hamid Gebril, a law professor.
A teacher whose cousin disappeared in 2003 said the fate of those who vanish is widely understood.
"Anyone who enters the prisons of Moammar, we know after a few years that person is killed," she said while speaking inside her home, too afraid to allow her name to be printed. "Even we don't know where they're buried. You say something and the next day the intelligence comes and that's it. You never hear from them again."
The uprising must continue, she said, but it will be bloodier than the ones that succeeded in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt.
"In Egypt, people sat in the square with children, fathers and mothers and slept, and they sang and danced. I saw them on television," she said. "Here our streets are bloody, and our youths are killed."
Gaddafi's son denies crackdown; loyalists reportedly continue attacks

By Leila Fadel, Ernesto Londono and Debbi Wilgoren
Washington Post Foreign Service

BAIDA, LIBYA - Moammar Gaddafi's son denied Thursday that Libya has killed large numbers of protesters through airstrikes and other attacks, while a former top Gaddafi aide said he quit the government to protest its violent crackdown.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, Gaddafi's son, disputed the death tolls that have have been reported since the protests began 10 days ago, saying allegations that hundreds have been killed are a "joke."
"Tripoli is quiet," he said in an interview aired on Libyan state television. "Life is normal."
The junior Gaddafi said Libya intends to provide Western journalists on Friday access to Tripoli, the capital, and other cities, so they can corroborate the government's claim that the country remains under Gaddafi's control.
The U.S. State Department issued a warning to Western journalists who have entered Libya in recent days without government permission. Citing information received from top Libyan officials, the warning said some members of CNN, BBC Arabic and al-Arabiya would be allowed into the country, but any reporters not approved by the government as part of that effort would be considered al-Qaeda "collaborators."
"The Libyan government said that it was not responsible for the safety of these journalists, who risked immediate arrest on the full range of possible immigration charges," the State Department warning said.
Libya appears dangerously fractured, with Gaddafi's regime intent on fighting but its authority beyond Tripoli in doubt. The longtime ruler has tightened his grip on the capital, witnesses say, by flooding the streets with militiamen and loyalist troops who were reportedly roaming the streets and shooting opponents from SUVs.
Rebels who launched an uprising last week have consolidated their control of key eastern cities, however, and continued advancing west across the coastal strip, where most of the country's population is clustered. The opposition has called for a large protest Friday.
In the city of Zawiya, 30 miles west of Tripoli, an army unit attacked a mosque where protesters had been stationed for several days, a witness told the Associated Press. The soldiers opened fire with automatic weapons and hit the mosque's minaret with anti-aircraft missiles, the witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
He told the AP there were casualties, but couldn't provide exact figures. Some of the young men among the protesters had hunting rifles, he said. He said a day earlier an envoy from Gaddafi had come to the city and warned protesters, "Either leave or you will see a massacre."
"What is happening is horrible, those who attacked us are not the mercenaries; they are sons of our country," the witness said, sobbing. After the assault, thousands massed in the city's main Martyrs Square, shouting "leave, leave," in reference to Gaddafi, he said.
The other attack came at a small airport outside Misrata, Libya's third-largest city, where rebels claimed control on Wednesday, AP reported. Militiamen on Thursday attacked a line of residents who were protecting the facility, opening fire with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, said a resident who saw the assault
"They left piles of human remains and swamp of blood," the resident told the Associated Press. "The hospitals are packed with those killed and injured."
In Cairo, a cousin and close adviser to Gaddafi said he had defected from the regime to protest its crackdown on the uprising, the Associated Press reported. Gadhaf al-Dam, who arrived in Egypt several days ago, is a member of the Libyan leader's inner circle, handling Libyan-Egyptian relations.
Dam said in a statement that the crackdown has seen "grave violations to human rights and human and international laws," AP reported. He said he left Libya "in protest and to show disagreement."
Oil prices hit $100 a barrel because of the turmoil in the North African oil exporter, a peak not reached since 2008. In Washington and other capitals, attention turned to the possible responses to the crackdown, including economic sanctions or imposition of a no-flight zone over Libya to prevent the use of aircraft against civilians.
In Washington, President Obama said the United States was developing a "full range of options" and would intensify discussions with other nations to address the violent unraveling of Gaddafi's regime.
"The suffering and bloodshed are outrageous and unacceptable," Obama said. The Libyan government "must be held accountable for its failure . . . and face the cost of continued violations of human rights."
But enormous questions remained about whether any foreign powers could wield the influence necessary to head off Libya's dizzying plunge into disorder, much less persuade Gaddafi to reconsider his vow to fight to the death in defense of his 41-year-old regime.
The independent organization Human Rights Watch has estimated that 300 people have been killed in a week of clashes, although some Libyan opposition groups and Western diplomats have said that they fear the figure may be much larger.
A 600-passenger ferry chartered by the U.S. government was in Libya to evacuate U.S. citizens to the nearby island of Malta, but its departure has been delayed by turbulent weather.
Residents reached by telephone in Tripoli on Wednesday said Gaddafi's loyalists appeared to have reclaimed control of the capital after several days of skirmishes. Stores and offices were shut down, the residents said, while blue-uniformed militiamen set up checkpoints and regime loyalists cleaned up graffiti calling for him to step down.
But opposition groups appeared to have taken control of cities across a broad swath of northern Libya that stretched hundreds of miles from Tobruk, near the Egyptian border, to as far as Misurata, 120 miles east of the capital. The loosely organized opposition protected key roads and government installations, with men in fluorescent orange vests patrolling the area, armed with sticks or rocket-propelled grenades.
A state-run radio station previously known as Eastern Radio was under the control of opposition groups, which renamed it Free Radio. In and around Baida, along the northern coast west of Tobruk, the once-omnipresent portraits of Gaddafi had been ripped down or burned.
"Oh Moammar, dictator, it's your turn now," people chanted.
There was ample evidence of recent fighting in Baida. Buildings on Revolution Street were pocked with bullet holes. At La Braq Airport, spent ammunition from rifles and antiaircraft rounds littered the ground. Civilians and defected soldiers climbed on tanks and blocked the runways to stop planes from landing - a precaution, residents said, after people were gunned down last week by purported mercenaries flown in from elsewhere in Africa.
The ability of the rebels to swiftly push west suggested that Libya's powerful tribes, long a beneficiary of Gaddafi's patronage, were turning against him. In recent days, tribal leaders have declared their support for the opposition after Gaddafi's use of warplanes and helicopter gunships to kill hundreds of protesters.
Indeed, the eastern tribes have long complained of being denied a share of Libya's wealth and resources, and eastern cities such as Benghazi have been bastions of opposition. Such grievances led to a revolt in the 1990s and underpinned the ongoing rebellion that began in Benghazi last week, in a country of as many as 140 tribes.
The east's al-Zuwayya tribe threatened to shut down oil production unless authorities stopped the "oppression of the protesters." The Warfala, one of the country's biggest and most influential tribes, has also reportedly joined the opposition. The tribe controls areas around Tripoli.
"We are seeing more and more tribal defections. A lot of police and military in Tobruk, Benghazi and other eastern cities defected because their tribal leaders had ordered them," Ronald Bruce St. John, an author and expert on Libya, said in a telephone interview. "I think you will see more and more in western Libya."
So far, St. John said, it appears that the major tribes in and around Tripoli continue to support Gaddafi.
The signs of a widening rebellion in eastern Libya came as more senior military commanders and government officials defected. The Libyan newspaper Quryna reported that an air force pilot bailed out of his Soviet-made warplane and allowed it to crash rather than following an order to bomb Benghazi.
Residents of Tripoli said a sense of fear pervaded the capital.
"We have been indoors for the past three days," said Rahma, a Libyan American reached by telephone, who insisted that her last name not be used to avoid any retribution. "Tripoli is like a ghost town, as if nobody exists here."
She said her father, also a U.S. citizen, had been detained during an anti-government demonstration a few days ago in front of Tripoli's courthouse and was being held at a hospital on a military base. She said she fears for his safety after listening to Gaddafi's speech, in which he threatened to execute anyone going against the regime.
"We don't know what's going to happen to him," Rahma said.
She said two sons of a neighbor were killed at a protest. The next day, Rahma said, the neighbor placed a green Libyan national flag by her house to show support for Gaddafi and avoid being targeted by his loyalists.
fadell@washpost.com londonoe@washpost.com
Londono reported from Cairo. Wilgoren reported from Washington. Correspondent Sudarsan Raghavan contributed reporting from Sanaa, Yemen. Staff writer Howard Schneider in Washington contributed to this report.