Chris Stephen: Libya finds itself going back to dark days of towns under siege

The same soldiers manned the same pick-up trucks, mounting anti-aircraft guns, sitting on the same desert hilltop facing a town 90 miles south of Tripoli that they thought they had taken back in October.

“I can’t believe I am back again,” said Nadir, a fresh-faced young soldier. “Now we must fight them again.”

The “them” he has in mind are the pro-Gaddafi fighters who on Monday blasted their way into a commandeered barracks in the centre of town, forcing the garrison to flee.

Now men of that garrison ring the town, augmented by fighters from across Libya. In October they were rebels; now they are pro-government forces. But little else has changed.

It is not quite a front line, because this is not quite a war – townsfolk can come and go. And there is none of the sniping and rocket bombardments that characterised the battle that raged here lastyear.

But the problem inside Beni Walid remains: It contains former Gaddafi officials, soldiers and thugs who’s names are on the Most Wanted lists of rebel units from across the country.

A revolutionary unit inside the town, the May 28 brigade, had been in the process of arresting them when they were attacked, losing four fighters. Now, those they had arrested are free, armed, and in control.

“Our objective is not to empty the town of its inhabitants,” said fighter Hatir Saad Suleiman, from the eastern city of Tobruk. “There are 300 former Gaddafi guys in the town. They have committed crimes.”

Defence minister Osama Jweli has attempted to parlay with leaders of the town’s Warfalla tribe. Such talks have been tried before. Last October, the tribal leaders met with officials of the National Transitional Council (NTC), pleading their case that they no longer supported Gaddafi, but were powerless to stop Gaddafi’s gunmen roaming the streets.

They pleaded the same case again last December, when 12 men from a pro-government unit tried to make arrests and were ambushed.

The Beni Walid uprising is another potential nail in the coffin of an administration already facing nationwide protests against its perceived secretiveness, not least over what is happening to the country’s oil revenues. The good news for the NTC is that the fighting force around Beni Walid is drawn from units from across the country, veterans making a national army in all but name. The bad news is that these fighters are scathing of their own government, echoing the call for more transparency.

If talks fail to get agreement from tribal elders that those on the wanted list will be arrested, a new round of fighting looks inevitable. The town’s forces are lightly armed, with none of the artillery they had in October, but the revolutionaries will be attacking without Nato air support. Hence the caution.

• Chris Stephen covered the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi for The Scotsman. He is currently researching a book on the conflict in Tripoli.