Reply #113: More details; site captured in rebel attack called 'largest arms depot in Africa'

[pinboy3niner]

Rebels, who were equipped with small arms and high-caliber artillery guns mounted on pickup trucks, said they began approaching the site at midnight and then staged a double-pronged attack. One group of fighters was assigned to attack the base while the other cut off reinforcements.


The attack ended in less than half an hour, with about five dozen government soldiers fleeing to the nearby base at Twama. Some of the rebels began heading toward Twama, but appeared to be repelled by barrages of Grad and Katyusha rocket fire that shook the desert.


Some analysts on Arab television networks described the Ghaaa military base as the largest arms depot in Africa. Many of the weapons date back decades, some to 1972. But they were stored meticulously inside dozens of huge hangar-like concrete bunkers covered with dirt.

...


"Let's go to Bab Aziziya," said one rebel fighter, referring to Gadhafi's residential compound in the capital, Tripoli.


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-libya-weapons-20110629,0,2814730.story