Libyan Rebels Fight To Maintain Control Of Gualish

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STEVE INSKEEP, host:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning, Im Steve Inskeep.

MARY LOUISE KELLY, host:

And Im Mary Louise Kelly.

We're getting an update, this morning, on conflict in two countries in the Middle East. First: Libya. In Libya's western mountains, battles are underway for control of dusty villages. The rebels fighting there are a ragtag group who drive to the front in pickup trucks. Yesterday, word spread that the village of Gualish had been retaken by forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi.

NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro joins the rebels as they made their way to the frontline.

LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO: Word spread like wildfire around Zintan, the main garrison town in the western mountains. Gadhafi's forces had retaken Gualish.

(Soundbite of conversations)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Almost immediately, dozens of gars crowded into the only working gas station, young men in bandanas greeting friends and relatives.

(Soundbite of conversations in foreign language)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: The scene is pretty extraordinary here in Zintan. Everyone has come with their cars, sedans, pickup trucks; weapons and people stuffed in everyway they can, to get gas and then head straight to the front.

(Soundbite of engine ignition)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Abdul Fatah has 12 young men sitting on the back of his truck, which also is carrying a mound of Katyusha rockets.

Mr. ABDUL FATAH: (Arabic language spoken)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: We all sleep together and hang out together, he says, and now we go and fight together.

Speeding along heading into battle are also two brothers and their friend. They're all from Zintan but they've studied in the U.K. at some point. Twenty-year-old Khalid is painfully slender. He has black and white bandana raffishly tied around his hair and a long beard. Like many young men heading into danger, he's filled with bravado.

KHALID: Say anything happen in the western mountain. Anything happen here because Zintan, it's like the NATO for western mountains, yeah. They don't fall back, you know, we just move ahead. Where as the Gadhafi forces, there. Kick their butts and kick them away.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: His brother Mohammed, who is driving the car at what feels like warp speed, is pumped up. He says fighting makes him feel more alive than he's ever felt before.

MOHAMMED: I love this life.

(Soundbite of laughter)

MOHAMMED: It's a great thing, you know, to do. It's a great cause to fight for.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Ahmed, the friend, was injured in an earlier battle. His brother is at a hospital in Tunisia recovering from a bullet wound to the stomach. His other brother is already at the front, which is why he's headed there now.

MOHAMMED: It's a shame on me to stay in the house and still in there. I'm just carrying a very light weapon, as you can see. I'll do my best. I mean Ill do my best, even by this gun.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: They get quieter as they get closer to the frontline.

(Soundbite of gunfire)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: While they are heading into battle, others are running away from it. If this civil war in Libya has been characterized by anything, it's the repeated winning and losing of the same dusty tiny villages.

But the blowback of this conflict is being felt, not only by the fighters, but by families, children, old people, women. And today, they are terrified.

Ms. ABDUL SALAM RUAWI: (Foreign language spoken)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Abdul Salam Ruawi has what looks like the entire contents of his home stuffed into his car. He says his village of Gelaa near the fighting is being bombarded by Grad rockets, coming from Gadhafi's army.

In another car, six members of one family huddle. In the back seat, a woman is quietly sobbing.

Unidentified Woman: (Foreign language spoken)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: We never imagined that we would find ourselves in this situation, she says, tears streaming down her face.

Later in the evening, the three U.K.-educated fighters come back from the frontline. The village of Gualish has been retaken by the rebels. They survived but eight people died in the fighting, and at least 20 were injured.

Mohammed is now mournful. Another battle that tread over ground, already won.

MOHAMMED: Eight people is quite a big number, especially for nothing. You know?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: After imparting their news, the young men, head home.

Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, NPR News in the western mountains.

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