Breaking the siege

BENGHAZI, Libya – As fighting rages in the western Libyan city of Misrata, the scene of a bloody siege that has killed as many as 1,000 people and wounded perhaps thousands more, a rebel official revealed that the anti-regime forces in Libya’s east had covertly inserted into the city a team tasked with neutralizing Libyan leader ...

By , Middle East editor at Foreign Policy from 2013-2018.
PATRICK BAZ/AFP/Getty Images
PATRICK BAZ/AFP/Getty Images
PATRICK BAZ/AFP/Getty Images

BENGHAZI, Libya - As fighting rages in the western Libyan city of Misrata, the scene of a bloody siege that has killed as many as 1,000 people and wounded perhaps thousands more, a rebel official revealed that the anti-regime forces in Libya's east had covertly inserted into the city a team tasked with neutralizing Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi's heavy weaponry.

BENGHAZI, Libya – As fighting rages in the western Libyan city of Misrata, the scene of a bloody siege that has killed as many as 1,000 people and wounded perhaps thousands more, a rebel official revealed that the anti-regime forces in Libya’s east had covertly inserted into the city a team tasked with neutralizing Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi’s heavy weaponry.

"We have provided [the anti-Qaddafi forces in Misrata] with 10 people," Kamal Hodaifa, the liaison between the civilian and military wings of the rebels’ Transitional National Council, told me. "We’ve provided them with 164 anti-tank weapons, and they’ve all been trained for only one week."

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David Kenner was Middle East editor at Foreign Policy from 2013-2018.

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