Libya news

Libya news :

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Aug. 22 Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's grip on power dissolved with astonishing speed as rebels poured in to the capital, declaring victory. Colonel Qaddafiâs exact whereabouts remained unknown and news reports said loyalist forces still held pockets of the city, obstinately resisting the rebel advance. Â We have no idea if they is inside or outside Libya,â Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, the chairman of the rebel government, the National Transitional Council, told a news conference in Benghazi.

Libya, an oil-rich nation in North Africa, spent over 40 years under the firm, if erratic, leadership of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. But in February 2011, the unrest sweeping through much of the Arab world erupted in several Libyan cities. Though it began with a comparatively organized core of anti-government opponents in Benghazi, its spread to the capital of Tripoli was swift & spontaneous. Colonel Qaddafi lashed out with a level of violence unseen in either of the other uprisings, but an inchoate opposition cobbled together the appearance of a transitional government, fielded a makeshift rebel army & portrayed itself to the West & Libyans as an alternative to Colonel Qaddafi's corrupt & repressive rule.

Momentum shifted quickly, however, & the rebels faced the possibility of being outgunned & outnumbered in what increasingly looked like a mismatched civil war. Then as Colonel Qaddafiâs troops advanced to within 100 miles of Benghazi, the rebel stronghold in the west, the United Nations Security Council voted to authorize military action, a dicy foreign intervention aimed at averting a bloody rout of the rebels by loyalist forces. On March 19, American & European forces began a broad campaign of strikes against Colonel Qaddafi & his government, unleashing warplanes & missiles in a military intervention on a scale not seen in the Arab world since the Iraq war.

The assaults prompted of Colonel Qaddafi's sons to float a proposal that would remove him from power, which the rebels rejected. Meanwhile, their ragtag forces surged forward & back, unable to make progress against the army despite the help from above but no longer in grave peril.

In Washington, a constitutional conflict briefly flared after President Obama asserted that American operations did not rise to the level of â hostilities as defined in the War Powers Resolution, & that Congressional approval was therefore not necessary. A measure to authorize the mission for a year was rejected by the House, as Democrats deserted Mr. Obama in droves. But a Republican bill that would have severely limited the American role in the mission, also failed, with lots of Republicans voting against it â reflecting a bipartisan muddle on the issue.

By late May, the weeks of NATO bombing appeared to put the momentum back on the side of the rebels, who broke a bloody siege of the western city of Misurata. By August they were also making territorial gains in the country's east & west. Colonel Qaddafi rejected calls to leave power, defying defections by subordinates, increased economic & political isolation & NATO air assaults. The rebels themselves suffered from internal dissension & lack of training.

Six months of inconclusive fighting gave way within a matter of days to an assault on Tripoli that unfolded at a breakneck pace. By the night of August 21st, rebels surged in to the city, meeting only sporadic resistance & setting off raucous street celebrations by residents hailing the finish of his 42 years in power. Huge crowds gathered in Benghazi, the capital of the rebel-controlled eastern part of the country, as expectations grew that Colonel Qaddafiâ shold on power was crumbling.