Misrata

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7 Die in Battle for Libya's Main Airport

Flights canceled as rival militias clash

(Newser) - All flights to Libya's main international airport have been suspended while rival militias battle for control of the facility. In Tripoli's worst violence since November, at least seven people have been killed and dozens injured in battles between militia members from the Zintan region, who have controlled the...

Fighting Breaks Out Between Libyan Ex-Rebels, 4 Die

Misrata, Tripoli fighters battle over prisoners

(Newser) - A street battle broke out in Tripoli yesterday between two militias that had once been allies against Moammar Gadhafi. Around noon a group of fighters from Misrata drove their gun-mounted pickup trucks up to a makeshift prison run by a Tripoli militia, and demanded they hand over two prisoners, the...

Libya: Gadhafi's Killer Will Be Prosecuted

Misrata fighters reject call for investigation

(Newser) - Libya's National Transitional Council says it will try to bring Moammar Gadhafi's killer to justice. A spokesman for the NTC—which until recently insisted that Gadhafi had been killed in crossfire, despite video of the wounded dictator being attacked and sodomized by rebels—told the al-Arabiya channel that...

Bodies of Gadhafi, Son Put on Display in Misrata

Libyans crowd in to take photos

(Newser) - It's going to get harder and harder to avoid gruesome images of Moammar Gadhafi. NPR reports that his unclothed body went on display at a private house in Misrata today, with Libyans crowding in to take photos. (Getty has images here via Huffington Post, but note they are most...

Rebels Arrest People Fleeing Gadhafi's Hometown

National Transitional Council troops pound the city; one elder calls for truce

(Newser) - Anti-Gadhafi forces, backed as ever by NATO air support, bore down on the loyalist-held city of Sirte today, pressing an assault that’s sent dozens of families fleeing from their homes. “The easterners are exterminating everything in front of them,” one man tells the Wall Street Journal . One...

Father Slit Throats of Girls Raped by Gadhafi Troops

Human rights group outlines atrocities

(Newser) - Troops loyal to Moammar Gadhafi committed heinous atrocities and war crimes during the siege of Misrata, according to a new report from the Physicians for Human Rights, but the allegation that’s making headlines is actually against a civilian. The report cites a father who slit the throats of three...

NATO: Gadhafi Is on the Ropes
 NATO: Gadhafi Is on the Ropes 

NATO: Gadhafi Is on the Ropes

Rebels seize key routes into Tripoli

(Newser) - A series of impressive rebel advances have left Moammar Gadhafi’s troops reeling and on the verge of defeat in Libya, NATO commanders told reporters yesterday. “Our assessment, without going into details, is that the Gadhafi regime does not have anymore an effective operational capability,” one colonel said,...

Gadhafi Readying a Bloody Last Stand

He reportedly fired a Scud missile at the rebels

(Newser) - Yet another minister defected . Rebels are just 30 miles from Tripoli. The curtain is falling on Moammar Gadhafi, reports the Telegraph , and the Libyan strongman seems to be prepping for a violent—and "final"—last stand. The paper's proof? Officials tell the Telegraph that a US destroyer...

Libyan Rebels Close In on Tripoli

Pincer attack coming from south and west

(Newser) - Libyan rebels closed in on Tripoli from two sides today, bringing them closer than ever to Moammar Gadhafi’s stronghold. Rebels from the Nafusa mountains, armed with French weaponry, took the desert village of Gualish a scant 62 miles south of the capital, according to an AFP reporter embedded with...

Gadhafi's Murderous Instructions Put on Paper

Bad news for him: The rebels have the files

(Newser) - Could Moammar Gadhafi be done in by a paper trail? The Observer thinks so. The newspaper was given the exclusive opportunity to read some of the files obtained by Misratan lawyers and hidden in the city. The thousands of documents contain orders from Gadhafi, and spell out his instructions to...

Gadhafi Loyalists Launch Mammoth Misrata Attack

Thousands of troops attack rebel-held city

(Newser) - Forces loyal to increasingly cornered Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi launched a major offensive against the rebel-held city of Misrata yesterday. Thousands of troops attacked the city and it was shelled from three sides, a rebel leader tells CNN . Rebel fighters say their defenses held up under the onslaught, but at...

Rebels Drive Gadhafi Out of Misrata

As NATO intensifies air strikes, reports of rebel gains

(Newser) - As NATO steps up its airstrikes in Libya, rebels in Misrata are reporting major battlefield victories, saying they've driven Moammar Gadhafi's troops both out of the city and out of the nearby airport they'd been holed up in. A rebel spokesman tells Voice of America that the...

In Misrata, a Morbid Task: Finally Burying the Dead

Libyan city littered with corpses after months of fighting

(Newser) - After months of street fighting, shelling, and blockades, corpses are one of the few things the battered Libyan city of Misrata isn't short of. Dozens of volunteers from among the rebels seeking to oust Moammar Gadhafi have volunteered for the grim task of finding and burying the dead from...

Libyan Rebels Resort to Secret Weapons Workshops

Ragtag bunch weld makeshift armored trucks, caltrops and more

(Newser) - When Moammar Gadhafi’s troops began the siege of Misrata, the rebels there had almost no weapons. But now they have a motley makeshift armory, thanks to a network of secret workshops where ordinary Libyans work to weld armor plates onto pickup trucks, fashion crude machine gun turrets, and even...

NATO Strike Kills Rebels as Jets Pound Misrata

Rebels say 11 fighters killed by NATO bombing

(Newser) - NATO jets pounded pro-Gadhafi forces moving to attack Misrata yesterday but witnesses say one strike ended up killing rebels. Some 11 rebel fighters in the besieged city died when they were bombed by a NATO aircraft, survivors said. A NATO spokesman says he has not yet received any information about...

NATO Begins New Phase of Anti-Gadhafi Campaign

Airstrikes going after supply lines, important symbols of power

(Newser) - NATO's airstrike against one of Moammar Gadhafi's military compounds in Tripoli appears to be just the start of what amounts to Phase 3 of the anti-Gadhafi campaign. The first phase took out anti-aircraft systems, the second hit tanks on the front lines, and now, as Reuters and the...

Heavy Shelling Continues in Misrata: Rebels

At least 25 dead, dozens wounded in latest round

(Newser) - Heavy fighting continues in Misrata despite claims by Libya’s government that the army has halted operations there , and at least 25 have been killed and 71 wounded in the latest round. Libya’s deputy foreign minister said early today that the army has not withdrawn from the city, but...

Gadhafi Abandons Misrata; Rebels Jubilant

But government forces leave boobytraps as they go

(Newser) - Moammar Gadhafi's troops backed away from Misrata today, reports the AP, as jubilant rebels claimed victory after having withstood nearly two months of shelling. "Misrata is free, the rebels have won. Of Gadhafi's forces, some are killed and others are running away," said a rebel. A...

Chris Hondros: A Slain Photog's Final Images

Getty photographer had been assaulted twice while in Libya

(Newser) - Chris Hondros, the Getty photographer killed in fighting in Misrata yesterday, had a love of chess, opera, and martinis, and he "wanted to show the world what was going on," a fellow photographer tells the New York Times. "He was willing to take the personal risk and...

Restrepo Director Tim Hetherington Killed in Libya

'Restrepo' director is dead after mortar attack in Misrata

(Newser) - Rough news out of Libya today: Acclaimed war photographer and Oscar-nominated director Tim Hetherington was killed today during shelling in Misrata, reports the New York Times . Hetherington is probably best known as co-director of the Afghan war documentary Restrepo. Two other photojournalists were seriously wounded: Getty's Chris Hondros and...

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