NATO-backed rebels free al-Queda linked jihadists in Libya.

[CitizenPained]

Islamic militants among prisoners freed from Libyan jail - CNN.com

 

[Jos]

Islamic militants among prisoners freed from Libyan jail

Hundreds of Islamist militants were among the prisoners freed from a notorious Tripoli prison this week, according to a former Libyan jihadist.

The freed militants had been imprisoned in Tripoli's Abu Salim prison by Moammar Gadhafi's regime during the height of the insurgency in Iraq, according to Noman Benotman, once a senior figure in the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. Benotman said he believes as many as 600 militants may have been among the prison population at Abu Salim.

It's not known how many prisoners were held in the vast facility. Human Rights Watch said Gadhafi's prisons "have been filled to the limit in the last few months with thousands of people who were arrested for taking part in the anti-Gadhafi protests, or because of their suspected support for Libya's democratic opposition."

Islamic militants among prisoners freed from Libyan jail - CNN.com

Here's an Al queda for ya Adam Yahiye Gadahn - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Seems like hes from your tribe

 

[JStone]

Islamic militants among prisoners freed from Libyan jail

Hundreds of Islamist militants were among the prisoners freed from a notorious Tripoli prison this week, according to a former Libyan jihadist.

The freed militants had been imprisoned in Tripoli's Abu Salim prison by Moammar Gadhafi's regime during the height of the insurgency in Iraq, according to Noman Benotman, once a senior figure in the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. Benotman said he believes as many as 600 militants may have been among the prison population at Abu Salim.

It's not known how many prisoners were held in the vast facility. Human Rights Watch said Gadhafi's prisons "have been filled to the limit in the last few months with thousands of people who were arrested for taking part in the anti-Gadhafi protests, or because of their suspected support for Libya's democratic opposition."

Islamic militants among prisoners freed from Libyan jail - CNN.com

Here's an Al queda for ya Adam Yahiye Gadahn - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Seems like hes from your tribe

You are in the banikrupt tribe of spain, muchacho
FT.com / Europe -

Ay, pobrecito

 

[waltky]

Moammar makin' a run for the border...

Gaddafi convoy spotted near Algeria
August 27, 2011 - Six armoured vehicles, thought to be carrying Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his sons, have crossed the Libya-Algeria border, Egypt's official news agency MENA reported on Saturday.

Libyan military sources said the Mercedes bullet-proof cars left Libya for Algeria through the border, without any pursuit from the rebels. The vehicles may have also carried other important Libyan officials. An Algerian border official said the reported crossing was unlikely as no such sighting had been reported by local residents. Nato declined to confirm or deny the reported crossing.

The Sun earlier reported that Gaddafi may have fled on a golf buggy through a network of tunnels under his palatial building in Tripoli. However, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chairman of the rebel National Transitional Council, said they have no concrete information on the location of Gaddafi or his sons.

Rebels take Ras Jdir border post

Rebels captured the Ras Jdir border post on the frontier with Tunisia, which it was feared Gaddafi might use to escape, as the hunt for the fugitive strongman continued on Saturday. While fighting was still under way on various fronts, with the insurgents working to consolidate their hold on Tripoli, focus increasingly turned to a post-Gaddafi era, with calls for reconciliation and a peaceful transition. The rebels claimed late on Friday a new military success with the capture of Ras Jdir.

A Tunisian official said loyalists fled as more than 100 rebels arrived and raised their flag. Algeria declined to recognise the NTC on Friday insisting it would adhere to the policy of "strict neutrality" adopted since the start of the conflict. A foreign ministry statement sent to AFP was the first official comment from Algiers since the NTC took control of the capital in Libya, even as other countries in the region have been quick to endorse the rebels.

Source

 

[shekib82]

yeah a lot of these militants are islamists, not that quaddafi is better. Anyway let's wait and see what happens when they establish their government. I hope it won't be an islamic theocracy. the jury is still out on the kinds of governments that will be established by the free muslim people of the middle east.

 

[Colin]

Islamic militants among prisoners freed from Libyan jail

Hundreds of Islamist militants were among the prisoners freed from a notorious Tripoli prison this week, according to a former Libyan jihadist.

The freed militants had been imprisoned in Tripoli's Abu Salim prison by Moammar Gadhafi's regime during the height of the insurgency in Iraq, according to Noman Benotman, once a senior figure in the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. Benotman said he believes as many as 600 militants may have been among the prison population at Abu Salim.

It's not known how many prisoners were held in the vast facility. Human Rights Watch said Gadhafi's prisons "have been filled to the limit in the last few months with thousands of people who were arrested for taking part in the anti-Gadhafi protests, or because of their suspected support for Libya's democratic opposition."

Islamic militants among prisoners freed from Libyan jail - CNN.com

Here's an Al queda for ya Adam Yahiye Gadahn - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Seems like hes from your tribe

You are in the banikrupt tribe of spain, muchacho
FT.com / Europe -

Ay, pobrecito

He's a Brit! You're a twat!

 

[waltky]

Revenge!...

Human rights group suspects revenge killings in Libya
28 Aug.`11 – As Libya's capital slowly staggers back to life, evidence is emerging of revenge killings committed by both rebels and the regime army, which could provoke continuing violence.

Outside the Bab al Aziziah compound, the vast complex of military barracks where Moammar Gadhafi lived with his family, bodies lay bloated in the hot sun. Nearby, two dozen corpses lay around a makeshift field hospital. Three of the bodies in those locations had their hands tied, suggesting they were not killed in combat. Human Rights Watch said the evidence it has collected "strongly suggests that Gadhafi government forces went on a spate of arbitrary killing as Tripoli was falling."

In one case, Gadhafi fighters opened fire and hurled grenades at more than 120 civilians huddling in a hangar used as a makeshift lockup near a military base, said Mabrouk Abdullah, 45, who escaped with a bullet wound in his side, the Associated Press reported. About 50 charred corpses were scattered in the hangar Sunday. Though fighting within the city has calmed in recent days, there is concern about a small cadre of hardcore Gadhafi loyalists. "I couldn't trust anyone here in Tripoli, even our neighbors," said Lubna Ali Mohammed, 35, as she drove through the center of town with her husband.

Elsewhere, Libyans were coming to grips with the end of Gadhafi's regime. They wandered around the abandoned bedrooms of Gadhafi's former home, where clothes, medicines and bank statements lay abandoned amid broken glass and charred furniture. Rebel fighter Mohammed Suena, 37, dressed in battle fatigues and a gray turban, was among those looking through the compound. "I am happy, like all the Libyans," he said. "I am smelling the freedom." Some degree of normal life is returning to the city after months of food, fuel and water shortages. Still, life remains difficult for many Libyans as power shortages continue and the water supply regularly runs out.

Hospitals are overflowing with patients and many of the facilities are short-staffed. The streets are filled with piles of trash. Some leaders from the rebels' interim government, the Transitional National Council, arrived in the capital from the eastern city of Benghazi, the de facto rebel capital. Gadhafi's whereabouts were unknown, but he announced through his spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, that he was ready to begin talks to transfer power. The rebels refuse to negotiate until the dictator surrenders.

Some in the city were skeptical: "Gadhafi, he loves blood so much," said Radwan Hasahri. East of the capital, rebels closed in on the city of Sirte, Gadhafi's hometown and the last major stronghold of regime loyalists in the country. Some fear Gadhafi's soldiers there will fight to the death. "They're going to fight because their hands are dirty with the blood of Libyans," said Nosour Bellouz, 21, a third-year medical student working as a paramedic with a rebel brigade.

Source

See also:

Libya Rebel Leader Appeals Against Reprisals as Massacre Sites Found
August 28, 2011 - A rebel leader is asking Libyans not to take revenge as worry mounts over massacre sites.

One week ago, the metal warehouse was a makeshift prison for enemies of Colonel Moammar Gadhafi now it is a death house containing about 50 scorched skeletons. Outside, another eight bodies lie on the grass, one with his hands tied behind his back. This horror scene is in a compound, which was controlled until Tuesday by the Khamis brigade, an elite neighborhood controlled by Colonel Gadhafi’s son, Khamis. A survivor said that, as rebel forces approached, the Gadhafi soldiers shot their prisoners, and then tried to burn the bodies. Almost daily, other massacre sites are appearing around Tripoli.

On Sunday, Mahmoud Jibril, leader of the Transitional Council, went on Libyan national television to ask Libyans not to take revenge. He said, "Don't seek revenge, or attack private properties, or hurt foreigners, or treat prisoners of war badly.” He promised every prisoner would receive a fair trial. Libya analyst Peter Cole says this anti-reprisal policy is a cornerstone of the Transition Council, which now controls about 90 percent of Libya’s population. “They have been stressing this idea of, ‘Do not go out, do not kill, do not try to seek retribution for someone who might have informed on your family, someone who you might think is pro-Gadhafi, do not take matters into your own hands," he said. "Let us do this.” But this tolerance is being tested as Libya’s newly unfettered media reports on atrocities linked to Gadhafi forces.

On Sunday, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch said it had documented two additional mass executions. In these cases, a total of 35 bodies were found in or around a Libyan internal security building. Human Rights Watch Regional Director Sarah Leah Whitson says evidence strongly suggests Gadhafi government forces went on a campaign of arbitrary killing as Tripoli was falling. For Cole, this may not shake widespread support for the no-reprisal policy. “For the rebels at least, it is no surprise to them that [Gadhafi] security police would do some quite nasty stuff,” he said. Cole predicted the massacre reports would not make for a ‘game changing’ psychological shift.

But a new test looms. Hundreds, possibly thousands of Gadhafi’s political prisoners, may be missing. Transitional Council spokesman Shams al-Din Ben Ali told Al-Jazeera television that of 57,000 people arrested in recent months by Gadhafi forces, 45,000 have not been accounted for. He feared that many prisoners may have been abandoned days ago without food or water in underground prisons hidden around Tripoli. He appealed to prison guards to telephone authorities and to tell them where to find the secret prisons.

Source

 

[waltky]

Cornered like the rat he is...

Libyan fighters say Gadhafi surrounded
Wed Sep 7,`11 – Libyan fighters have surrounded ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi, and it is only a matter of time until he is captured or killed, a spokesman for Tripoli's new military council said Wednesday.

The council's deputy defense minister said, however, that Libya's former rebels had no idea where Gadhafi was, and they were focusing on taking control of territory instead of tracking down the former leader. Figures in Libya's new government have given a series of conflicting statements about Gadhafi's presumed whereabouts since the fall of the capital last month and many reports about his location have proven untrue. Anis Sharif told The Associated Press that Gadhafi was still in Libya and had been tracked using advanced technology and human intelligence. Rebel forces have taken up positions on all sides of Gadhafi's presumed location, with none more than 40 miles (60 kilometers) away, he said, without providing details. "He can't get out," said Sharif, who added the former rebels are preparing to either detain him or kill him. "We are just playing games with him," Sharif said.

NATO said that it had made a number of airstrikes around Sirte — Gadhafi's hometown — on Tuesday, hitting six tanks, six armored fighting vehicles and an ammunition storage facility, among other targets. They also targeted the Gadhafi loyalist strongholds of Hun, Sabha and Waddan. Deputy Defense Minister Mohammad Tanaz told the AP that the former rebels don't know where Gadhafi is, and the fugitive could still be hiding in tunnels under Tripoli. He said the manhunt was not a focus for his men. "Our priority is to liberate all of Libya," he said.

Locating Gadhafi would help seal the new rulers' hold on the country. Convoys of Gadhafi loyalists, including his security chief, fled across the Sahara into Niger this week in a move that Libya's former rebels hoped could help lead to the surrender of his last strongholds. In Niger's capital, Niamey, Massoudou Hassoumi, a spokesman for the president, said Gadhafi's security chief had crossed the desert into Niger on Monday. Mansour Dao, the former commander of Libya's Revolutionary Guards who is a cousin of Gadhafi as well as a member of his inner circle, is the only senior Libyan figure to have crossed into Niger, said Hassoumi.

Hassoumi said the group of nine people also included several pro-Gadhafi businessmen, as well as Agaly ag Alambo, a Tuareg rebel leader from Niger who led a failed uprising in the country's north before crossing into Libya, where he was believed to be fighting for Gadhafi. Since Tripoli's fall last month to Libyan rebels, there has been a movement of Gadhafi loyalists across the porous desert border that separates Libya from Niger. They include Tuareg fighters who are nationals of Niger and next-door neighbor Mali who fought on Gadhafi's behalf in the recent civil war. Niger's foreign minister told Algeria's state news agency that several Libyan convoys had entered his country, but that none carried Gadhafi.

More Libyan fighters say Gadhafi surrounded - Yahoo! News