The New Dark Age

23 August 2011 — Morning Star

Fierce fighting erupted across Tripoli today hours after Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi’s son Saif al-Islam popped up to rally supporters and rubbish rebel claims he had been captured.

His surprise appearance left Nato chiefs red-faced and was followed by fierce strikes by Libyan government forces and volunteers, who struck back at insurgents who had swept into Tripoli on Sunday night with the support of British special forces and Nato air strikes.

Street battles were reported in several parts of the sprawling city of two million yesterday, prompting Nato officials to promise that the Western military alliance would keep bombing Libyan defence forces until they stopped resisting.

Some of the most intense fighting was around Colonel Gadaffi’s heavily fortified Bab al-Aziziya compound and military barracks, with both sides slugging it out with heavy machine-guns, mortars and anti-aircraft guns.

It was blitzed by several Nato air raids during the day.

Rebels fought their way inside the compound as the Morning Star went to press.

Col Gadaffi’s second son Saif had earlier shaken hands with supporters, saying: ‘We are here. This is our country. This is our people, and we live here, and we die here.’

He claimed that the rebels had been lured into a trap.

‘We broke the back of the rebels. It was a trap. We gave them a hard time, so we are winning.’

It was not clear whether Muammar Gadaffi’s son had escaped from rebel custody or had never been captured in the first place.

His arrest had been announced on Monday by both the rebels and the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court, which has indicted him and his father for alleged crimes against humanity.

Meanwhile the International Organisation for Migration said that a rescue mission to evacuate 300 foreign nationals from the Libyan capital had been delayed by the fighting.

The Geneva-based group says an IOM-chartered ship will remain off the coast of Tripoli ‘until security conditions have improved and the safety of staff and migrants can be guaranteed.’

foreigneditor@peoples-press.com