The day the Katiba fell (Libya's turning point)

[pampango]

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/spotlight/libya/2011/03/20113175840189620.html

Over the course of three days, civilians opposed to the 42-year rule of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi managed to outlast and overpower a fortified base guarded by detachments of several Libyan military units, one of them the feared and reportedly highly trained Khamis Brigade - a special forces unit led by Gaddafi's youngest son.

Though activists were preparing a "day of rage" for February 17 to follow successful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, protests actually began in Benghazi on February 15, when hundreds of citizens angry over the arrest of human rights lawyer Fathy Terbil took to the streets. Terbil had been representing the families of thousands of inmates who were reportedly slaughtered by the regime at Abu Salim prison in Tripoli in 1996.

The sudden demonstrations, which evolved into anti-Gaddafi protests, took some young, politically active Benghazi residents by surprise. "We just got talking at school and amongst my peers and friends, and you were asked, 'Are you gonna protest on the 17th,' and people were scared and said, 'If a lot of people come out, then I'll come out,'" said Ahmed Sanalla, a 26-year-old UK resident who has spent the past four years studying medicine at Garyounis University in Benghazi. "Once they hit the ground, we joined, and then everyone else came along."

Gaddafi had apparently had enough. The following day, a Friday, armed men wearing now infamous yellow construction hard hats flooded into Benghazi's streets. Residents say the thugs were ferried into Benghazi's local airport by Afriqiyah airlines from elsewhere in Libya, or from neighbouring countries to the south, such as Chad and Niger.

The tide began to turn for the anti-regime forces on Saturday. Despite an Internet shut down and heavy restrictions on mobile phone communications, protesters still managed to mass in Benghazi. Facing men armed with rifles, the youth threw stones, converging on the building from the north and west. They used homemade explosives to break through outer gates, but under heavy fire from what witnesses identified as 14.5mm anti-aircraft guns, they withdrew.

On Sunday, the anti-regime forces set out to finish the job. Though the day started quietly, protest crowds began to mass in the afternoon. They equipped themselves with "joulateena" - small, homemade bombs that residents traditionally toss into the sea and detonate to kill a dozen fish at a time. ... At some point in the evening, longtime Gaddafi regime loyalist and special forces commander Abdel Fattah Younes defected to the protesters' side.

[joshcryer]

1. A revolution of children, now men.

Please don't be offended by 'men' there, I am aware that girls and women protested (a young 8 year old had her entire brain blown out). But there's no debating that these youths have "grown up" rather quick with the atrocities they have had to witness. It is unfortunate that they could not leave peaceful lives as youth, but it is encouraging and uplifting that they have irrevocably changed their country for the better.