Heavy fighting breaks out in Libya as troops storm militias in Benghazi
Source: Guardian
The heaviest fighting in Libya since the Arab spring revolution broke out in the eastern capital of Benghazi on Friday as forces led by a retired general attacked militias on the ground and with jets.
Air strikes pounded militia bases at dawn and 6,000 troops converged on the city, storming a series of bases and checkpoints.
Eyewitnesses described a city in chaos, with jets streaking low over rooftops, tanks on the streets, heavy detonations and aggressive fighting.
"The fighting is close to my house," said one resident in the Hawari district. "Planes are going very low, there are explosions, there is fighting around the February 17 (militia) base."
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/16/heavy-fighting-libya-troops-storm-militias-benghazi
Voice for Peace
(13,141 posts)Iliyah
(25,111 posts)B E N G H A Z I!!!!!!
Cryptoad
(8,254 posts)ctsnowman
(1,903 posts)everything worked out so well after our intervention.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)jakeXT
(10,575 posts)(CNN) -- His story reads like a political thriller. Once a confidant of Moammar Gadhafi and then his sworn enemy, he led a band of Libyan exiles trying to overthrow the Libyan regime before being spirited in secrecy to the United States when things went bad. His name is Khalifa Haftar.
He has lived in Virginia for 20 years but now he's back in Libya, trying to knock the rebel force into some kind of shape.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/04/04/libya.rebel.leader/
Bosonic
(3,746 posts)Troops converging on and Jets attacking Benghazi ; that does ring a three years old bell...
bvar22
(39,909 posts)The IMF and Global Banks are 1st in line to pick up the pieces.
Gaddafi was the only thing holding Libya together,
AND blocking the IMF from the RICHES of North Africa.
There was NO "Arab Spring" in Libya.
It WAS an ongoing Civil War.
It was NONE of our business.
The Global Banks and IMF Piggy Backed on the legitimate civilian uprisings in the Arab World to
enter a Civil War and remove the biggest impediment to the Western "Interests" in North Africa.
How many would DIE was not a part of their Business Plan.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MD27Ak01.html
If you don't have a disaster,
the Western Banks and the IMF will be glad to get NATO to create one for you!!
jamzrockz
(1,333 posts)about the terrorists in Bengahzi, we thought he was crazy and bombed him instead. I guess the incident in Benghazi and what is going on now is proof enough to vindicate him even in death.
bvar22
(39,909 posts)Last edited Fri May 16, 2014, 11:27 PM - Edit history (1)
No telling how many will die because of the greed of OUR 1%.
jamzrockz
(1,333 posts)It really saddens me that some crazy people can come together to call the US and NATO for help and they show up. What happened to Libya is a great tragedy to the whole of Africa. Its used to be Libya, South Africa and Nigeria as the economic powerhouse, now Libya is no more.
ballyhoo
(2,060 posts)Iraq.
JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)was precisely the pretext for the U.S. intervention.
I guess it doesn't matter when one of our guys does it?
ON EDIT:
Who the fuck knows what's going on over there!
Another country destroyed by the intervention to free it.
brush
(53,792 posts)that night and why the CIA has or had such a presence there.
Also why much of the details of this are classified and can't/won't be released to the general public.
But the repugs Boner, McCain, Issa, Graham, Gowdy, all know the details and know they are classified and can't/won't be released so they keep up their serade of yelling and claiming "cover-up" to score political points against Obama and Hillary.
They can keep this going for forever because, like I said, the actual details can't/won't be released.
BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! The repug gift that keeps on giving 'cause they've got nothing else as Obama has run just about a scandal free administration.
Not mistake free, mind you, but over time we'll see the pluses outnumbered the mistakes.
JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)In the real city, people are now dying in the chaos left by the U.S. intervention. The Republicans put on a show scandal about the hit on the consulate because they have no problem with the real scandal of this "scandal-free" administration: the imperialist intervention that destroyed Libya in the first place.
brush
(53,792 posts)quadrature
(2,049 posts)Libya should really be two countries.
JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)Read the reports of what's going on. After the NATO powers' war, Libya seems to be more than two countries. One for every militia armed by the West.
Harmony Blue
(3,978 posts)expect conflicts there to ratchet up and intensify.
MisterP
(23,730 posts)President Jesus that we don't have a warmonger in the WH anymore!
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)A paramilitary force uses choppers and planes to attack an Islamist militia base.
Local media says government forces joined the assault.
The government in Tripoli calls it an "a coup against the revolution," but seemed to concede units of the air force were involved.
Libya hasn't had an effective government since the glorious revolution.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)http://rt.com/news/159548-libya-benghazi-militias-clashes/
Oh, and the Benghazi airport is now closed, or it's a no-fly zone or something like that.
Bosonic
(3,746 posts)Heavy gunfire has been heard outside the Libyan interim parliament in the capital Tripoli.
MPs fled the building after gunmen attacked it. There are reports that supporters of a rogue officer, Khalifa Haftar, carried out the assault.
Col Haftar's forces were involved in violence on Saturday in Benghazi in the east. This prompted the government to impose a no-fly-zone there.
Authorities are struggling to contain militias that control parts of Libya.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-27462921
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)<snip>
Since the end of Gaddafi's one-man rule, Libya's fragile democracy has hobbled from crisis to crisis with the country on its third prime minister since March, its new constitution unwritten and parliament deadlocked by infighting.
Just hours before the attack, new Prime Minister Ahmed Maiteeq announced he had formed a government pending parliamentary approval this week, after the country went nearly two months without a functioning government.
Complicating Libya's transition, the most powerful brigades of former rebels -- such as the Zintans, the Misratans and the Operations Room of Libya's Revolutionaries -- have loosely allied themselves competing political factions.
Former rebel commanders and protesters have also taken over key oil ports and pipelines, cutting Libya's oil output to 200,000 barrels per day from 1.4 million bpd to demand more autonomy and a greater share of oil wealth.
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What a foreign policy success!
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,036 posts)Drink