By Stephanie Gosk, NBC News Correspondent

TRIPOLI – Libya's Abu Salim prison is one of the world's most notorious. For four decades, Moammar Gadhafi threw "enemies of the state" behind its bars without a trial to languish for years. Stories of torture and months in solitary confinement were common. 

In 1996, guards allegedly killed more than 1,200 prisoners in what is now known as the "Abu Salim Massacre." Last February, lawyers seeking justice for the families of those killed staged protests in Benghazi that eventually sparked the nation-wide uprising.

This week rebel forces successfully battled for control of the feared prison. They opened the doors and let everyone out.  Some of the prisoners, unable to believe that Gadhafi’s reign is over and angry over the years of their lives lost in jail, are now driven by one goal: Find Gadhafi.

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Amid the chaos at Gadhafi's recently conquered compound we met Ali Ahmed Sussi. He was released from the Abu Salim prison on Wednesday. Sussi was born in Benghazi but like many Libyans, he traveled abroad to get his education.  He studied communication at the University of California and lived in Los Angeles with his family for 12 years. 

Driven by hatred for Gadhafi's regime, the father of three returned to Libya to start a revolution in 2004.  But when he smuggled weapons into the country from Yemen, the government caught wind of the plan, arrested him, and locked him up at Abu Salim. 

Now, seven years later, the rebel forces have freed him.

Standing among the hundreds of armed fighters who saved him, Sussi said "I can smell freedom." 

As soon as he was released the 46-year-old asked for fatigues and a gun. His hopes of staging a revolution are over, but he can still take part in the final days of one. 

Fueled by memory of his years in Abu Salim, Sussi has now joined the hunt for the despot turned fugitive.  He told us "I will search home to home, room to room, alley to alley.  We gonna catch you Gadhafi."

By Jim Maceda, NBC News Correspondent

LONDON – Black smoke billowed from parts of the capital. The crack of gunfire echoed off buildings. Rag-tag gunmen manned checkpoints on dozens of street corners, covered in bullet-belts and brandishing RPG launchers. A massive statue symbolizing the dictator’s rule had fallen just two days before. Some were still kicking at his likeness and tearing up his posters.

But many others were keen to withdraw funds from the bank, reopen their shops and put their lives back together. Some were giddy with revolution. Others feared the looting they’d witnessed and warned of worse to come. The people were awash in weapons. The dictator, meanwhile, had disappeared.

This might sound like today’s Tripoli, but this was the scene in Baghdad as our NBC News convoy drove into the war-torn city on April 11, 2003.

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Bagdad? Tripoli?
I find myself flashing constantly back to those heady days as I watch the amazing images of the collapse of the Gadhafi regime. It was a collapse which, as with Saddam Hussein’s, outpaced my own expectations. I’m clearly not alone. Here in London, many British papers have been replete with editorials by “experts” recalling early “post-Saddam” Iraq, and drawing comparisons – and mostly differences – with post-Gadhafi Libya. 

Among them, former British Foreign Minister Malcolm Rifkind neatly laid out the biggest contrasts in an editorial in the Times of London.

First and foremost, Rifkind pointed out that the Libyan people – unlike the Iraqis – fought for and won their freedom. Iraqis, he wrote, had their freedom handed to them. Secondly, Iraqis had to suffer “the humiliation” of a U.S. occupation for years; but there are no “foreign boots” on the ground in Libya, though a small contingent of U.N. peacekeepers may be welcomed to help police Tripoli. Thirdly, the “seeds of civil war” were already planted in Iraq, with deepening bad blood between the Shiite majority, who were suddenly handed power, and Saddam’s Sunnis, who had lost their traditional hold on it.

These differences are real, and Libya is not Iraq for many other reasons. But the rebels, and the NATO coalition that helped them win, are clearly worried about the similarities, and about not repeating the mistakes made in the days and weeks after Saddam’s fall.

Lots of promises
The rebel leadership has promised to include all Libyans in the New Libya. It’s asked policemen to stay at their posts. It claims that Libya will generate enough income through its restored oil industry to pay for its own nation building. And it promises a new constitution, a national referendum, and both free and fair parliamentary and presidential elections.

Encouraging? Of course; but let’s take a step back again in time.

The security vacuum left in Baghdad was filled by over-armed, disoriented U.S. soldiers, who did little more than watch, agog, as anything with value was looted.

Who will fill a similar security vacuum in Tripoli if those Libyan police are too afraid of pro-Gadhafi snipers – or rockets – to actually police the streets? It would seem that unless Gadhafi and his sons are captured or killed, a pro-regime insurgency may well take root quickly. They could do as much damage in Tripoli as the black-clad Fedayeen Saddam, a paramilitary group loyal to the former Ba’athist government of Saddam Hussein, did in and around Baghdad.

In addition, the rebel leadership says it will move “trained” security forces from Benghazi, in the East, to Tripoli, in the West, to avoid perhaps the biggest mistake made in Iraq, and keep the remains of the regime’s armed forces together. But how would that work, given the historic tension and animosity between the Eastern and Western Libyan tribes?

In Libya, tribal loyalty rules supreme. It can be just as strong – and deadly – as sectarian ties in Iraq. In 1969, Gadhafi overthrew the Eastern tribal King Idris. For more than 40 years, Gadhafi survived by isolating, impoverishing, and sometimes crushing those tribes, near Benghazi. Now, seething with rage and greed, those same tribes want their due. Meanwhile, Western tribes, even those who side with the rebels, want anything but.

It may be as dangerous for a Benghazi policeman or soldier to work the streets of Tripoli as it would have been for a Sunni cop to survive in Sadr City. And if Libyan security forces can’t manage to unite, who then would fill the vacuum? U.N. peacekeepers? The African Union? Or, more likely, French, British and U.S. “special advisors” and troops?

Remember the Bush administration’s vision for post-Saddam Iraq back in 2003? That, after the Iraqi people rose up as one and Saddam Hussein fell, the nation’s rebuilding would be financed by oil money?

What happened? Instead, insurgents sabotaged pipelines, assassinated engineers and managers, and suppressed Iraq’s oil industry for years. That same scenario could play out in Libya if today’s flimsy rebel coalition disintegrates into fighting between Libyan tribes, or between secular Libyans and Islamists.

Thursday’s “London Times” summed up the worry, saying, “complacency would be foolish. Looting, revenge attacks against Gadhafi loyalists or internecine fighting could all make life rocky as any new regime seeks to gain a foothold in the country.” 

Seen this movie before
What is promised for Libya looks like a familiar movie.

Iraq, like Libya, tried to move from decades of dictatorship to democracy almost overnight. It wrote a new constitution, held nation-wide elections – but that didn’t prevent an insurgency from killing thousands of U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians; it didn’t stop Sunni-Shiite bloodshed; nor did it prevent the rise of al-Qaida in Mesopotamia, one of the terrorist group’s most brutal affiliates.

Rifkind, the former British Foreign Minister, said that “there is no evidence that [Libya’s Islamists] have any significant following.” But that was also the case in Iraq in 2003. Islamist radicals emerged there from the chaos and power vacuum left behind.

It’s too early to say if Libya can avoid either, and not repeat history.

Jim Maceda is an NBC News correspondent based in London, who has covered both Libya and Iraq.

Full text and video of President Barack Obama's statement on the rebel advances in Libya:

August 22, 2011

Good afternoon, everybody. 

I just completed a call with my National Security Council on the situation in Libya, and earlier today I spoke to Prime Minister Cameron about the extraordinary events taking place there. The situation is still very fluid. There remains a degree of uncertainty, and there are still regime elements who pose a threat.

But this much is clear: The Gadhafi regime is coming to an end and the future of Libya is in the hands of its people.

In just six months, the 42-year reign of Moammar Gadhafi has unraveled.

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Earlier this year, we were inspired by the peaceful protests that broke out across Libya. This basic and joyful longing for human freedom echoed the voices that we had heard all across the region, from Tunis to Cairo.

In the face of these protests, the Gadhafi regime responded with brutal crackdowns, civilians were murdered in the streets, a campaign of violence was launched against the Libyan people, Gadhafi threatened to hunt peaceful protesters down like rats. As his forces advanced across the country, there existed the potential for wholesale massacres of innocent civilians. 

In the face of this aggression, the international community took action. The United States helped shape a U.N. Security Council resolution that mandated the protection of Libyan civilians. An unprecedented coalition was formed that included the United States, our NATO partners and Arab nations. And in March, the international community launched a military operation to save lives and stop Gadhafi's forces in their tracks. 

In the early days of this intervention, the United States provided the bulk of the firepower, and then our friends and allies stepped forward. The Transitional National Council established itself as a credible representative of the Libyan people. And the United States, together with our European allies and friends across the region, recognized the TNC as the legitimate governing authority in Libya. 

Gadhafi was cut off from arms and cash, and his forces were steadily degraded. 

From Benghazi to Misrata to the western mountains, the Libyan opposition courageously confronted the regime, and the tide turned in their favor. 

Over the last several days, the situation in Libya has reached a tipping point, as the opposition increased its coordination from east to west, took town after town, and the people of Tripoli rose up to claim their freedom.

For over four decades, the Libyan people had lived under the rule of a tyrant who denied them their most basic human rights. Now the celebrations that we've seen in the streets of Libya shows that the pursuit of human dignity is far stronger than any dictator.

I want to emphasize that this is not over yet. As the regime collapses, there's still fierce fighting in some areas, and we have reports of regime elements threatening to continue fighter.

Although it's clear that Gadhafi's rule is over, he still has the opportunity to reduce further bloodshed by explicitly relinquishing power to the people of Libya and calling for those forces that continue to fight to lay down their arms for the sake of Libya.

As we move forward from this pivotal phase, the opposition should continue to take important steps to bring about a transition that is peaceful, inclusive and just.

As the leadership of the TNC has made clear, the rights of all Libyans must be respected. 

True justice will not come from reprisals and violence. It will come from reconciliation and a Libya that allows its citizens to determine their own destiny. 

In that effort, the United States will be a friend and a partner. 

We will join with allies and partners to continue the work of safeguarding the people of Libya. As remaining regime elements menace parts of the country, I've directed my team to be in close contact with NATO, as well as the United Nations, to determine other steps that we can take.

To deal with the humanitarian impact, we're working to ensure that critical supplies reach those in need, particularly those who have been wounded. 

Secretary Clinton spoke today with her counterparts from leading nations of the coalition on all these matters. And I've directed Ambassador Susan Rice to request that the U.N. secretary general use next month's General Assembly to support this important transition. 

For many months, the TNC has been working with the international community to prepare for a post-Gadhafi Libya. As those efforts proceed, our diplomats will work with the TNC as they ensure that the institutions of the Libyan state are protected. 

And we will support them with the assets of the Gadhafi regime that were frozen earlier this year. 

Above all, we will call for an inclusive transition that leads to a democratic Libya. 

As we move forward, we should also recognize the extraordinary work that has already been done. 

To the American people, these events have particular resonance. Gadhafi's regime has murdered scores of American citizens in acts of terror in the past. Today we remember the lives of those who were taken in those acts of terror and stand in solidarity with their families. 

We also pay tribute to Admiral Sam Locklear and all of the men and women in uniform who have saved so many lives over the last several months, including our brave pilots. They've executed their mission with skill and extraordinary bravery, and all of this was done without putting a single U.S. troop on the ground. 

To our friends and allies, the Libyan intervention demonstrates what the international community can achieve when we stand together as one. Although the efforts in Libya are not yet over, NATO has once more proven that it is the most capable alliance in the world and that its strength comes from both its firepower and the power of our democratic ideals. 

And the Arab members of our coalition have stepped up and shown what can be achieved when we act together as equal partners. Their actions sent a powerful message about the unity of our effort and our support for the future of Libya.

Finally, the Libyan people, your courage and character have been unbreakable in the face of a tyrant. An ocean divides us, but we are joined in the basic human longing for freedom, for justice and for dignity.

Your revolution is your own, and your sacrifices have been extraordinary. Now the Libya that you deserve is within your reach. Going forward, we will stay in close coordination with the TNC to support that outcome.

I know there will be huge challenges ahead. The extraordinary events in Libya remind us that fear can give way to hope, and that the power of people striving for freedom can bring about a brighter day.

Thank you very much.

 

By Robert Windrem, NBC News investigative producer

Western intelligence agencies believe there is a "treasure trove" of material in Libyan intelligence archives, and they may have already prepared to exploit it once Moammar Gadhafi's regime finally falls.

Current and former U.S. intelligence officials point to the possibilities of what could be found in the files, among them:

• The intelligence service's (and Gadhafi's own) role in the 1988 bombing of PanAm 103 and UTA 772 months later, which killed 430 people in the air and on the ground, as well as their role in the 1986 LaBelle Disco bombing in Berlin, which killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded 79 others.

• Support for various terrorist groups, including Palestinian groups, the Irish Republican Army, the El Rukns street gang in Chicago and individual terrorists like Carlos the Jackal and Abu Nidal.

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• A purported 1981 assassination plot against U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

• Gadhafi's financial support for the Pakistani nuclear weapons program in the 1980s and the relationship between Libya and Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan a decade later, as well as Western countries that supported Gadhafi's chemical and biological weapons programs.

Obama promises to support Libyan transition

There may also be materials on U.S. intelligence operations against al-Qaida, which began under President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. A steady stream of U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials visited Libya over the last decade as relations between the two countries got better.  

U.S. officials say Gadhafi has one major intelligence service but that there are also "security elements around him" who carry out intelligence and security operations and whose files Western intelligence agencies would also like to exploit.

One former official suspects there may already be planning for that exploitation. He noted that Musa Kusa, the former head of Libyan intelligence and one of Gadhafi's most loyal aides, had defected. 

By Catherine Chomiak, NBC News

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Libyan Embassy in Washington, D.C. re-opened under a new flag on Wednesday, the banner of Libya’s Transitional National Council. 

Friends and supporters of the anti-Moammar Gadhafi rebellion gathered outside the Watergate building where the embassy is housed to sing and celebrate the reopening of the embassy. One woman, who drove all the way from West Virginia to take part in the celebration, called it a "historic day,” while others waved flags and sang the 1951 national anthem.

The new charge d’affaires Ali Aujali gave a speech thanking the United States, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for recognizing the Transitional National Council as the legitimate government of Libya. He also said that the Libyan people "will be forever grateful for the United States coming to their aid in their greatest time of need." That sentiment was echoed by the people gathered as they chanted "THANK YOU U-S-A."

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Aujali is no stranger to the embassy. He was the former Libyan ambassador to the United States but quit the post in February to protest Gadhafi’s violent crackdown on opponents. Returning to the embassy Wednesday, he said "we are born again." He was accredited as Libya’s official representative in the U.S. by the State Department last Thursday.

Aujali said that he is hopeful that the U.S. will move forward and release Libya's frozen assets to the council. State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland said Tuesday that the U.S. is currently in the process of working through the licensing process so that they can return embassy assets to the charge for his use for embassy operations.

By Mike Taibbi, NBC News Correspondent, and Charlene Gubash, NBC News Producer

NEW YORK – Salah went first.  He always did. He had a big man’s walk, his long strides straining the folds of his bright white “haik,” the traditional gown worn over trousers by Berber men.

He walked up to the group of men hunkered down on the ridge, some with binoculars trained on the valley below, and explained he was working with a team of journalists from NBC News. He asked permission for us to approach and shoot video of the artillery battle that had just begun. These were not fighters, they were just watching the fighting, but Salah was always polite. Sometimes, when he led us to the front where the battle was engaged, the answer was “no.” But this time he nodded back at us and gestured us forward with a hand signal telling us to keep our heads down. 

It was daybreak, July 29, on the outskirts of the city of Nalut in Libya’s western Nafusah mountain range. Salah had suggested the day before that we return to Nalut from Zintan, 80 miles to the east, because his contacts among the Nalut rebels told him they were ready to launch a major offensive against two stubborn strongholds of Gadhafi army troops in the valley towns of Takut and Gazayah. 

The Libyan Army troops were massing to attack the one rebel-controlled border crossing with Tunisia, an absolutely critical lifeline.  The government troops seemed to have an endless supply of Grad rockets available to lob into Nalut, sometimes 50 or 60 a night, turning the city into a ghost town. 

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Salah had arranged a briefing with the rebel commander the night we arrived back in Nalut. He took part in the briefing and asked pointed yet polite questions as though he was part of our team.  Of course by then he was, and we learned the particulars of the rebels’ strategy and tactics.  Salah, a proud Naluti with two brothers among the city’s rebel fighting force, knew the lay of the land – the dozen or so ridgeline “fronts” where the artillery barrage would commence before rebel ground units would move into the two towns.

He knew the risks, as we did – that the rebels’ artillery attack would trigger heavy retaliatory fire from below.  We’d seen it weeks earlier, when one of those heavy return rounds exploded a few hundred yards from our position.  But though the risk is minimal that a Grad rocket, an old Russian missile, will actually hit a target as small as an artillery team a dozen miles away, Salah was especially cautious this morning and made sure we were, too. 

He put on the body armor he’d declined to wear during our previous visits to the front, and slung his assault rifle over a shoulder. Through the hours of the morning and into the early afternoon, the rebel teams who allowed us to join them aimed tank fire and dozens of screaming Grad rockets – the tanks and the rockets seized from Gadhafi’s troops – right back at those same troops.  When we saw the pickup trucks of the rebel ground forces below driving toward Takut, moving fast, Salah led us down the mountain, along winding switchback roads to the checkpoint outside the town. 

By the time we got there a celebration was already under way:  the Gadhafi troops had cut and run, from both Takut and Gazayah.  It didn’t get the rebels any closer to Tripoli, they were still 50 miles away at the closest point, and seemingly stalled, but without a successful offensive to take those two towns on this day, getting to Tripoli might have become nearly impossible.  Now the border with Tunisia was safe, the lifeline intact. The nightly bombing of Nalut was over; families who had fled to Tunisia could come home. 

Salah gave no hint of joining the celebration.  He brought us and our camera into the hospital where the dozens of wounded from both sides were being treated.  Both sides were still counting their dead.  When we got back to our rented house to prepare that night’s report we were discouraged to learn the city was once again without electricity…this time because the night before, as we slept, one of Gadhafi’s last incoming bombs had hit the main generating plant.  Our own small portable generator would only run our BGAN satellite transmitters, a camera and a couple of laptops and lights.  Salah disappeared without a word – his habit – and came back an hour later with a big capacity generator that could keep our whole operation juiced, even a couple of fans to turn the stale hot air into something like a breeze.

Two days later, the rebel revolution still stalled, but intact and invigorated for the next move, Salah led us across the border to Djerba, in Tunisia. Our assignment in Libya was done for the time being. He collected his mother, to bring her back home to Libya.

Then, last Thursday we got the news.  Salah, driving two rebel soldiers to the front instead of a news team, was gone.  One of those Grad rockets, fired from who knows where and targeted only by cursed bad luck, had hit his truck as it sped toward the town of Tigi, halfway between Nalut and Zintan. Salah and the two soldiers never knew what hit them.

A problem solver
Salah Mohamed Askar was 28, and unmarried.  His mother was concerned about that, and last winter talked him into coming home to Nalut from Sweden, where he’d worked as a driver for a multi-national company for three years.  “She wanted me to come home and find a nice Naluti girl,” he told us.  But then, five months ago, the war started.  In Nalut it began with a few dozen men with old hunting rifles ambushing a marauding team of Gadhafi mercenaries.  Salah had fired at two of them, killing one and wounding the other who got away. 

Across Libya a real civil war had started, with the NATO airstrikes greatly enhancing the prospects for a successful rebellion against Gadhafi’s 42-year-rule, and the Naluti men with hunting rifles morphed into the beginnings of an actual fighting force.  Salah’s two brothers joined the rebels fulltime. Salah, armed and ready, was delayed by a family crisis he was obliged to resolve.  When we arrived he became one of our drivers/fixers. A “fixer” is a journalist’s term for a hired assistant whose translation skills, local contacts and other capabilities are an essential part of foreign news coverage. 

In fact, Salah spoke no English, it was on his “to do” list, as he’d quickly learned Swedish when he lived and worked in Sweden (Charlene Gubash, an Arabic speaker, was our principal translator).  But his other skills were immense, varied, and subtle.  He was one of those men who could fix things, a problem solver. 

When the cameramen on our team, Mitya Solovlov and Kevin Burke, sussed out each house we rented, Salah was right there with them, wiring a pump to draw water from the well (when the electricity worked) to fill the rooftop water tanks;  using cinderblocks to mount the air conditioner he removed from his own home so our workspace and sleeping space might be tolerable;  finding fresh bread or eggs or potatoes or a melon, all in short supply, to augment our diet of rice or pasta and tinned vegetables;  finding a hotplate or a skillet; filling our jerry cans with the cheapest gas for our vehicles that he could find from roadside trucks topped off in Tunisia. He cooked for us when we had no time on nights we were filing reports; he enjoyed whatever we cooked for him, usually adding something to spice it up. 

But it was his subtle skills that defined him.  He understood the roles filled by each member of the team – he found the cameramen the best vantage points to shoot from and found us the contacts we needed to stay informed in an environment fueled mostly by rumors and false hopes.  He monitored the Arab language news channels with a critical ear, and kept us constantly updated.  He could read motives and personalities in an instant, and after his nightly forays into town or to the mosque, he’d pass along only the information we needed that was demonstrably or believably true.  He was a driver by trade who in the space of days clearly understood what it meant to be a reporter.

And, in the three and a half weeks we worked with him, we came to know him. He was a kind and gentle man in a rough and cruel environment. A man who lived comfortably in a land buffeted by the scorching Sahara winds, but spoke dreamily of Sweden’s natural beauty.  He was a rules-driven man with a clear sense of fairness. When we’d get a hard time at a checkpoint in Zintan because we were using a “Naluti” as a driver and not a Zintani, Salah said quietly, “I wouldn’t stop any of you from coming to work in Nalut.  It is one Libya.”  Sometimes he would win a smile and a “go” gesture, sometimes they’d still hold us up, poring over our papers.  He sat in on all our interviews, taking part, asking important questions we’d neglected.  The quality of our information – and thus of our reporting – was better because he was there.

In quiet moments he would speculate endlessly about the course the war would take until, in his certain view, it would eventually end in Tripoli with Gadhafi gone.  He didn’t know when that would happen, didn’t indulge in soft-sided claims that it was merely weeks or even days away, as some soldiers (including one commander) kept telling us.
 
Ambition: A free Tripoli
Salah knew, as all warzone reporters know, that death is a big part of the story. At the information and military command centers where we’d solicit updates and alerts from our regular contacts, we’d often be told to come back later because the man we were seeking was off at a relative’s funeral.

But it never occurred to us that Salah would be a casualty.  We assumed he would become part of the new Libya, with some of the old mixed in (he wasn’t sure it was a bad idea to continue having separate schools for young boys and girls, or for some of the other old customs to be retained).

In his truck, barreling to the head of the convoy wherever we went, he played a mix tape of Arabic, Amazikh (Berber) and American music, and seemed to like it all.  We asked about his ambitions:  just a good job in a free Tripoli, he said.  Nothing more elaborate or detailed than that.  Like his truck, a Toyota Tundra with a club cab and a powerful V8 that he drove hard and well, Salah seemed to always have his motor running, ready to go.

And, ready to go again with us. When we left him, after a long and dawdling hotel brunch in Djerba, we traded the usual stay-in-touch-call-us-we’ll-call-you, keeping it light. But, with a man like Salah Mohamed Askar, we needed in the end to say something more: We told him he had our thanks and our respect…and that we’d be honored to work with him again, as the war headed to an end.  “Inshallah,” we all said at once.

He beamed a smile at us, those eyes sparkling with life and human connection. Then quickly turned to leave.

Click here to read more reports from Mike Taibbi and Charlene Gubash during their recent trip to Libya.

By Charlene Gubash, NBC News

NALUT, Libya – The people of Nalut, a quiet town in the mountains of Libya, gathered together to grieve on Friday.  “There is no God, but God and martyrs are beloved by God,” boomed several hundred men standing in long rows, some crying softly. 

They prayed before the bodies of three young men who died in Thursday’s offensive against pro-Gadhafi soldiers. The thin faces encircled by white shrouds were young. 

“One of them was my friend.  I studied with him for two years in Malta.  This is the biggest loss for me,” said Nadar, a fellow rebel.

“They are all under 30,” said another man who recently arrived from Tripoli.  “But all of this is for freedom,” he said.

Nalut has just gained its freedom from four months of almost nightly rocket fire. Gadhafi’s troops had used villages in the valley beneath Nalut to lob deadly Soviet-era Grad missiles into the town and toward the border with Tunisia.  Victory was sweet.  

After less than a day’s fighting, rebel fighters pushed Gadhafi’s troops out of two cities and a handful of hamlets.  The commanding officer in Nalut attributed their success to good planning and the cooperation of rebel fighters from several mountain cities. Rebels mounted a simultaneous attack on Gadhafi forces from several different directions. 

The commanding officer saw the latest operation as a blueprint for success, but one to be improved and refined.  “Next time it will be much better,” he promised. He recalled with a smile, “We had only 20 hunting rifles made in Nalut in our first battle.” 

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Progress
Thursday’s battle showed just how far they had come.  Rebels used sophisticated artillery, captured from Gadhafi’s weapons stores, against his loyalists.  They loaded missile after missile into Grad rocket launchers and fired at government forces in the valley below. Seized T 55 Russian tanks took turns blasting enemy positions. 

Although the primary complaint of military and civilian leaders throughout the region has been shortage of weapons, fighters seemed to have no lack of artillery shells in Thursday’s battle.

Late into the night on Thursday, young men fired automatic weapons into the air in celebration.
Women, rarely seen outside the home, marched through town and cars screeched through the otherwise orderly streets. Families that had fled Nalut for the safety of Tunisia began to flood back across the border to their now-safe city on Friday.

What’s next?   
The latest rebel advance secured Nalut, but has it moved the rebels any closer to the ultimate goal, Tripoli and the overthrow of Gadhafi?

The answer is a qualified “yes.”  Rebels have achieved some critical strategic aims. 

They have now secured their border with Tunisia and the only supply line for fighters and civilians alike in the arid hills and plains of western Libya.  The rout of enemy forces from the border area is part of a broader plan to allow rebels to push up through the desert to Zawiyah, cutting the regime off from its western supply line, and bringing them within a half-hour drive to Tripoli.

Newly victorious rebel fighters are already working their way up north. Whether success can be duplicated in the critical city of Garyan, Tripoli’s supply line to weapons and mercenaries from the south, remains to be seen. 

Attempts to advance appear to be stalemated to the untrained eye.  But military commanders suggest plans are in place and an offensive, possibly an all-out offensive, is imminent. “Zero hour” has not been determined yet, an officer in Zintan said.  

Although weapons are said to be in short supply, optimism and determination are not. 

When asked if rebels can reach Tripoli before the end of Ramadan, the minister of defense, Omar Hariri, responded, “Maybe before Ramadan.” The Muslim month of fasting begins next week.

 NBC News’ Mike Taibbi has been reporting from Libya’s western mountains for three weeks and provides an account of a battle he witnessed between rebels and pro-Gadhafi forces.

NAFUSA MOUNTAINS, Libya - More than five months into Libya's civil war, rebels in the western mountains who've seen their advance on Tripoli stall 50 miles from the capital dealt with a new challenge Thursday. 

They launched an all-out assault on Moammar Gadhafi’s forces to protect strategic ground won months ago, an offensive that had been rumored for days. 

Nalut is one of the cities the rebels controlled almost from the beginning of the war, but Gadhafi’s army continued to bomb it nightly.  Government forces have also threatened to try and retake the nearby border crossing with Tunisia, the only such crossing rebels control. 

At around 4:30 a.m. today we saw a convoy of 30 or 40 heavily armed trucks roll out to join the forces already in position.  Our first visit was to a spot overlooking the valley just north of the mountains.  The rebels’ objective was to push Gadhafi forces out of two towns where, protected by landmines and human shields, the government’s guys continued to send scores of grad rockets into Nalut where casualties were increasing. 

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The Gadhafi forces were also rumored to be planning a move on the border crossing at Wazin.  In the two Gadhafi-held towns of Takut and Gazayeh we saw the smoke puffs of rockets fired toward Nalut and toward suspected rebel positions. Answering artillery was fired off at a fast pace.

We then went to a rebel position where they'd amassed dozens of Soviet-made grads from seized Gadhafi stockpile armaments and we watched as they were fired at targets on the approach to the towns to clear the way for ground forces to move in. 

What was apparent to us was that the rebels (in the mountains at least) are not only improving in terms of training and numbers, but they are also leveling the playing field by deploying Gadhafi’s own most fearsome weapon – grad rockets with their 20-mile range – right back at his own troops.

We then went to the most forward position, where we were told no other journalists had been allowed to go, and watched supplemental tank fire going off as part of the task of plowing the road for ground forces.  We saw those forces moving in and then went down the mountain into the valley where.

The rebels have retaken the town of Takut and were on the way to Gazayeh today.  At the time of writing, they'd suffered 19 wounded and three killed.  We couldn’t confirm what the losses were among Gadhafi’s forces but we saw some brought back as prisoners.  By the time we worked our way there, a sort of victory celebration was underway. 

The rebels clearly scored a victory today and afterwards morale was high.  They cheered each other on, gave each other the high-five signs and shouted Allahu Akbar, or “God is Great,” when their missiles hit their targets.

Still, it's a good news-bad news story. 

First the bad.  Four months after supposedly asserting control over this part of the country, rebels find it necessary to win control over the same ground again (losing the border would be a disaster). 

The good news is that they pulled off a coordinated artillery and ground attack in a matter of eight hours, and just like they planned it.

This was a victory although not THE victory, of course.  That would be Tripoli.