In the chaos of Sirte, anti-Gaddafi fighters are killing each other

Fight for last uncaptured ground made more deadly by Libyan government forces’ rivalries and inexperience Death and injury arrive suddenly and randomly on the Libyan city of Sirte’s frontline. Sometimes, however, they come with a gruesome symmetry. On Friday, an rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) fired by pro-Gaddafi forces, defending their last pocket of resistance in the city, caused some of the casualties. But it was a mortar fired by the government’s own fighters that caused the most. Both incidents occurred within a few seconds. The fighters were bunched near the frontline on Dubai Street on the southern front occupied mainly by fighters from Misrata when the two rounds came in. “It was a mistake,” said a passing fighter a few minutes later in the chaos as the injured were treated. “The RPG came from Muammar Gaddafi’s forces. But I was close to where the mortar was fired. They fired it straight into the air. It came down on our men. We are shooting our own people.” There were too many casualties at first for the medics at their open-air field station to cope with. So the Guardian’s driver and translator, both medical students who worked during the siege of Misrata in the intensive care unit, helped treat the wounded, more than 20 of them. One was a young fighter brought in limp and pale from shock, hit by shrapnel in the shoulder that had penetrated his neck. Another older man arrived hanging to the back of a jeep, his lacerated scalp bleeding heavily over his clothes, blood bubbling from his mouth. In the small space that the last uncaptured ground in Sirte provides for assaults, such incidents are escalating. Without proper communications and a dangerous rivalry between the forces from Misrata on the pocket’s southern and western fronts, and fighters from Benghazi and the towns to the east, those fighting Gaddafi’s soldiers are killing each other in increasing numbers. Eastern soldiers said three men they lost on Thursday in an attempt to assault the pocket were killed by Misratan fire. Shells and mortars misfired or falling short have killed others while crossfire is commonplace. Two days ago, a shell fired from behind Sirte exploded close to the Guardian’s car near a column of government fighters. Blame has fallen on “weekend fighters”, who are unwilling to go forward and fire from behind their colleagues towards their backs, or inexperienced government troops, who lack the ability to accurately aim their mortar batteries or are ignorant of their targets. The randomness of the government fighter’s fire was underlined on Friday at a battery made up of odds and ends of improvised rocket systems, a recoilless rifle, anti-aircraft guns and an armoured carrier parked on a rise a few hundred metres from the pocket’s southern edge. The Guardian watched rockets from a homemade system on a pickup truck fly in wildly different directions and distances. “I’ve had too many friends die in this fucking city,” said Mhjurb Ibrahim, a lawyer from Misrata. “Twenty-two of them have died. Five in the first day of the fighting.” It is these problems of co-ordination as much as the fierce resistance of the remaining Gaddafi fighters occupying high buildings in Sirte’s District 2 that have slowed up the advance and forced government fighters to bring up tanks and other heavy weapons to pound the buildings occupied by their foes. Shells flew into the tight packed collection of buildings on Friday at a rate of almost one a minute at times, sending up clouds of concrete and white smoke that drifted across the rooftops. “We cannot go into the pocket yet,” said one of the eastern forces’ commanders, Abdul Salam Rishi. “When we tried, there were still too many snipers. So we’ll bomb with artillery and tanks. Then we will attack.” The difficulties of the government in bringing a final end to the siege of Sirte came as a gun battle erupted between revolutionary forces and supporters of Gaddafi in the heart of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, for the first time since the longtime leader was ousted and forced into hiding. Shouting “God is Great”, anti-Gaddafi fighters converged on the Hay Nasr district of the Abu Salim neighbourhood in pickups mounted with weapons, setting up checkpoints and sealing off the area as heavy gunfire echoed through the streets. Fighters at the scene said the shooting began after a group of armed men tried to raise the green flag that symbolises Gaddafi’s regime. Assem al-Bashir, a fighter with Tripoli’s Eagle Brigade, said revolutionary forces suspected there were snipers in the surrounding high rises after spotting a man trying to raise the green flag. Ahmad al-Warsly, from the Zintan brigade, said several Gaddafi supporters apparently planned a protest but drew fire because they were armed. They fled and were pursued by revolutionary forces, prompting fierce street battles. “It seems like it was organised,” he said. “They were planning to have a big demonstration, then the fight started.” The violence in the capital, which has been relatively calm since it was taken in late August, underscores the difficulty Libya’s new rulers face in restoring order as Gaddafi remains on the run. Libya Middle East Africa Muammar Gaddafi Peter Beaumont guardian.co.uk

Posted by on October 14, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.