Reply #90: Tripoli witness: The Whistlers on the Roof...

[pinboy3niner]

26 March 2011 Last updated at 12:34 ET

Tripoli witness: fear and uncertainty

The uncertainties and fear over what is to come and what is happening at present remain rife in Libya, as the coalition air strikes on military targets continue. One Tripoli resident - who did not want to be identified for security reasons - describes the mood in the capital.

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Whistlers on roof

A new public talent is on display these days.

Every night in Tripoli, since the coalition air strikes began, people race to the rooftops of their buildings or houses at the first audible sound of anti-aircraft artillery shots or the rumble of an explosion.

A few minutes in, you will start hearing the men whistling, some are close, others from a distance, and - in the otherwise still and silent dead of night - the chorus of whistling echoes across the neighbourhoods and rises up.

No-one really knows what the whistling means - we're left privately assuming that there is an underlying tone of excitement in the choir and not of the type that would impress the regime.

Another new talent being enforced is stone-throwing. I have yet to see it for myself, but my friends excitedly tell me of the scenes they witnessed.

"Some people in Ben Ashour area and in Souk el-Jumaa district have been stoning the pro-Gaddafi, green flag-bearing cars that drivedown their streets; they throw the stones and sprint," they say.

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