Rockets and rhetoric from pro-Gaddafi PR offensive

LAST weekend, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s regime sought to show it was in control of parts of the country’s Western Mountains and will defend territory against further rebel advances there. It was not convincing.

Journalists based in Col Gaddafi’s stronghold of Tripoli were taken by government minders to the mountain gateway town of Gharyan and the nearby town of al-Assabaa, where they were shown armed civilians and government troops who vowed to defend their land.

“We are ready to fight to protect our land, our leader … our children. Nato cannot scare us,” Hamooda Mokhtar al-Salem, a senior government official in al-Assabaa.

A portrait of Col Gaddafi was perched on the table in front of him, and a Kalashnikov rifle rested against the wall. A crowd outside the government building where he spoke chanted pro-Gaddafi slogans and shot bursts of automatic fire into the air.

Still, there were signs of resistance in Gharyan, which lies 50 miles north of Tripoli. In numerous spots, graffiti appeared to be hastily painted over – apparently covering anti-government slogans.

Fragments remained though. The words “Libya free” were visible, scrawled in Arabic and English in at least two locations.

Several residents who agreed to talk with journalists appeared nervous because of the presence of government officials.

Less than two miles away, rebel opposition fighters watched the enemy. From behind rocky outcrops at the front line town of Al-Gualish, rebels spied regime forces through binoculars.

“When they come to the top of the hill to fire the rockets, we can see them,” said a rebel fighter who called himself Man of the Mountain. The rip and boom of the incoming rocket came as he spoke, sending an abandoned village home up in flames.

An idyllic mountain village, Al-Gualish, and the string of hamlets around it stand battle-scarred and abandoned from weeks of fighting. Elderly men, women and children have long fled.

Only men of fighting age travel the roads that have been cracked by the weight of rebel tanks, and potholed by rockets. The checkpoint to Al-Gualish invites passers-by to “Free Doom”, an ironic misspelling by graffiti artists.

Fighting units at Al-Gualish are led by a commander from Gharyan.

Among the ancient stone villages and cave systems, volunteers train alongside the indigenous Berber tribesmen and have now fought in pitched battles against the regime.

The Berbers themselves, their culture and language long suppressed by the regime, are enjoying freedom as the grip of Tripoli weakens.

Even the Berber name of the Nafusa mountain range was banned. On Col Gaddafi’s maps, the region is known only as the Western Mountains.

Rebels say they have growing numbers of supporters inside both Gharyan and al-Assabaa.

“There are rebels inside the towns who pass us information, we are sure that when we reach the town many people will join us. We are in contact with regime army officers inside Gharyan, they are just waiting for us to come,” said a young rebel fighter, riding a horse along the front line.

Leaked intelligence dealt a blow to regime forces on Sunday, when rebels cut off oil supplies from one of the last remaining fuel sources to the capital.

Rebels captured the territory around a key section of the pipeline that runs close to the Nefusa mountain town of Zintan. They blocked the flow of oil which was being refined into fuel at Zuwarah. It is the second pipeline to be cut by the rebels in just over a week.

l A court in Egypt has ruled that its main satellite network should no longer show 14 Libyan state TV channels after they broadcast inaccurate news about Col Gaddafi’s opponents.

Nilesat is the dominant commercial satellite network for the Middle East and North Africa.