Gaddafi snipers driven from roofs of embattled city of Misrata - Polidicks

[quote]Flies were already buzzing over the dead. Three Gaddafi snipers, who had been killing rebels from the tallest building overlooking the city’s main street for three weeks, had finally run out of bullets. Rebels fired rocket-propelled grenades at their lairs, and then ran up the stairs, firing their weapons. At last, the snipers were dead. The strategically important building – at 14 storeys, the tallest in the besieged Libyan city of Misrata – was ‘clear’. The rebels were jubilant. [IMG]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/04/22/article-1379595-0BBC317800000578-905_964x675.jpg[/IMG] Tripoli Street: Seen for the first time since the trouble began, the scale of the damage across the city can be seen from a vantage point formerly occupied by snipers [IMG]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/04/22/article-1379595-0BB95B4400000578-827_964x494.jpg[/IMG] Tall buildings around Misrata have been scenes of violent battles with rebels managing to drive the snipers away But the area didn’t remain clear for long. Amid a squeal of tyres and a racing engine, Gaddafi’s men were back, driving into the new, supposedly rebel-held area, firing indiscriminately. Caught unawares and out in the open, the rebels – along with photographer Jamie Wiseman and me – sprinted in all directions, as the pick-up truck sped through the town’s main square, gunmen firing from the windows. It was a hit-and-run raid. Gaddafi’s men roared off back through a maze of streets into an area less than 500 metres away and still under their control. In Misrata, once Libya’s most prosperous, genteel city, death lurks in all directions. Such is the chaos and anarchy, there is no front line here. Streets and even single buildings swap hands between the rebels and Gaddafi forces in the space of hours, rather than days. [IMG]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/04/22/article-1379595-0BBC41C500000578-649_964x561.jpg[/IMG] Victory: Rebel fighters were today celebrating pushing loyalists out of Tripoli STreet in their makeshift armoured Jeep as they drive past a captured Gaddafi tank [IMG]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/04/22/article-1379595-0BBC3ADA00000578-719_470x423.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/04/22/article-1379595-0BBC3B4A00000578-390_470x423.jpg[/IMG] Denting Gaddafi might: The rebels overpowered Gaddafi troops, forcing snipers to flee and even managing to take control of some tanks The rebel fighters paid the price last night. Convinced they had finally taken Tripoli Street, once a busy shopping thoroughfare, full of cafes and designer stores, they danced in the streets for joy. Across the city, word soon spread of this victory. Other rebels – in reality, shopkeepers, engineers, waiters – fired their guns in the air and sang Arabic victory songs. Again, they had tempted fate. Not everyone was dead. Gaddafi’s fighters were playing a trick. As the rebels sang and danced in Tripoli Street, their ‘dead’ enemies came back to life – and opened fire. By the time the firing had stopped and they melted away again, four rebels were dead and more than a dozen were injured. As the bodies were taken away for immediate burial, the official tally of 1,000 dead – the true figure is believed to be much higher – rose yet again in this murderous seven-week siege. Surrounded on three sides by Gaddafi’s soldiers, the rebels are brave beyond words. Many of them wounded, they have launched wave after wave of attacks against Gaddafi’s much better-equipped forces. Indeed, the uprising began in a square beside Tripoli Street, now littered with burned-out tanks. This is where ten men walked chanting anti-Gaddafi slogans just seven weeks ago. [IMG]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/04/22/article-1379595-0BBB6ABA00000578-278_472x332.jpg[/IMG] Misrata fighting has concentrated on Tripoli Street After years of repression and brutality by the dictator’s hated secret police, nobody else in this city was willing to join them. But Gaddafi’s forces opened fire. Khalid Abu Shahmma, 38, a married man with three children, was the first to die. Enraged, thousands of other civilians poured into the streets. They had no weapons. Instead, they carried knives, sticks and Molotov cocktails, beer bottles full of petrol with a rolled-up newspaper for a fuse. Despite being totally out-gunned, they set fire to the tanks and killed Gaddafi’s men. Taking the dead soldiers’ weapons, they dug in as Gaddafi vowed to unleash the ‘forces of Hell’ against people he described as drug-taking youths and terrorists. The streets are now the scene of grim, seesaw battles for control. But being brave is not the same as being smart. British and French military advisers, expected to arrive in Libya any day, will have their work cut out. Many of the rebels won’t even listen to their own commanders, saying they didn’t start a war with Gaddafi to take orders from anyone else. Allah Hamza, an engineer studying English in Bournemouth until two months ago, came back to Misrata to join the revolution against Gaddafi’s 42-year rule. Showing off his Kalashnikov assault rifle, he told me they had to fight – or die. ‘If we surrender, Gaddafi will kill everyone. He is a mad person. It is better to die fighting than to die after giving up.’ The scale of the devastation was laid bare after we climbed the 14 storeys of the landmark Tahmim (Insurance) Building. Clambering up shattered stairwells, and past chairs beside windows which hours earlier had been used by Gaddafi snipers to steady their rifles, we peered over the roof. Below, the internet cafes, Spanish restaurant, cinema and main supermarket were devastated. Burned-out cars and tanks smouldered in the streets. Rebels and Gaddafi fighters exchanged fire across the street. Amid the chaos, anything that moves is a target. An ambulance driver was shot and critically injured yesterday after his vehicle came under fire from Gaddafi fighters, most of them mercenaries from Chad and Mauritania. At the city’s last functioning hospital – the three others were evacuated after being shelled by Gaddafi’s tanks – women and children are among those being treated in special tents because the wards are too full of the dead and dying. As ambulances waited in line to enter with the latest injured, Khalid Abufalgha, a senior doctor, told me: ‘It’s completely indiscriminate. Any living person is a target. This is Gaddafi’s work. Now the world can see what he is like. How many leaders would kill their own people? He added: ‘We believe that the sick are not guilty for their crimes but he is not sick or mad. He is evil.’ [IMG]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/04/22/article-1379595-0BB6A7D600000578-80_470x423.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/04/22/article-1379595-0BB711AC00000578-661_470x423.jpg[/IMG] Photographers: Tim Hetherington, left, and Chris Hondros died in a blast in Misrata on Wednesday [B]Libya conflict at stalemate says U.S. admiral[/B] America's top military officer has admitted that the conflict in Libya is approaching ‘stalemate’. Admiral Mike Mullen, in a grim assessment for the Western powers whose involvement grows ever deeper, said the war was on the point of deadlock. ‘It’s certainly moving towards a stalemate,’ he said while addressing U.S. troops in Iraq. [IMG]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/04/22/article-1379595-0BBB9FB900000578-160_964x543.jpg[/IMG] High profile visit: Republican senator John McCain, visiting Benghazi yesterday, walks past the wall of the dead and missing with Abdul Haviz Ghoga, spokesman of the National Transitional Council On Thursday, Washington approved the use of unmanned Predator drones to try to tip the balance. The United States planned to maintain two patrols of armed Predators above Libya at any given time, Washington said. The drones have proven a potent but controversial weapon in Pakistan and other areas where U.S. forces have no troops on the ground. They can fly without being noticed from below and hit targets with missiles with no risk to crew. However, they have killed many civilians by mistake in Pakistan. ‘There’s no doubt that will help protect civilians and we welcome that step from the American administration,’ Libyan rebel spokesman Abdel Hafiz Ghoga said on Al Jazeera television. The Obama administration has been anxious not to spearhead Nato’s Libya campaign. It has instead let British and French planes do the bombing and has not deployed low-flying ground attack aircraft, unique to U.S. forces, which military analysts say would be most effective. Analysts said the drones were a way of appeasing French and British calls for more U.S. help but were far from being a ‘silver bullet’ to tilt the conflict against Gaddafi. Admiral Mullen added that there was no involvement of al-Qaeda in the struggle for Libya. Yesterday, in the east of the country, U.S. Senator John McCain praised Libya’s rebels as his ‘heroes’. He was in Benghazi where rebels have been in control almost since the start of the conflict two months ago. Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy intends to make a short trip to Benghazi. The head of the opposition Libyan National Council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, invited Sarkozy to the eastern city when he met the president in Paris this week, telling reporters a visit would boost the morale of rebel fighters.[/quote] Read more: [url]http://bit.ly/fStyll[/url]

Mc Cain choice a bad time to laugh when he was walking past the Wall of the dead...

[QUOTE=Thom12255;29370359]Mc Cain choice a bad time to laugh[/QUOTE] Agreed, he could've at least brushed his teeth first. [QUOTE=Thom12255;29370359]when he was walking past the Wall of the dead...[/quote] Oh, that's what you meant.

A shame about those two photographers.

What the fuck is wrong with Gaddafi? I mean seriously. Why the fuck is he being such a dick bag?

[QUOTE=Master117;29370379]What the fuck is wrong with Gaddafi? I mean seriously. Why the fuck is he being such a dick bag?[/QUOTE] You know how there are just assholes at school/work, that no matter what you do they always act like assholes? it's kinda like that except 1000 times worse

Because he is scared, he is terrified to loose his power. So he is trying to do anything to extend the time he has left as a dictator. Once (if) the rebels reach Gaddafi they are going to rip him apart.

[QUOTE=Thom12255;29370359]Mc Cain choice a bad time to laugh when he was walking past the Wall of the dead...[/QUOTE] yeah I noticed that too pretty much instantly the other guys have solemn faces and mccain has such a smug face

This is what you get for CAMPING! I'm glad those snipers are defeated

He also needs to brush his teeth.

[QUOTE=BCell;29370593]This is what you get for CAMPING! I'm glad those snipers are defeated[/QUOTE] It's a legitimate strategy!

Straight thug'n [media]http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/4118/article13795950bbc41c50.jpg[/media]

Guys lets play a game, try find a non-damaged structure from that city picture. Any hole means damaged structure.

Those who gain Power are Always afraid to lose it even if giving up that power was for the benefit of the country and its people.........this can be applied to Every Single Government.

[QUOTE=camacazie638;29370663]Straight thug'n [media]http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/4118/article13795950bbc41c50.jpg[/media][/QUOTE] Wow that other guys goggles could scare the tits off a terminator

this guy looks so manly it's unfucking believable. [img]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/04/22/article-1379595-0BB6A7D600000578-80_470x423.jpg[/img] r.ip. Also if i were to join the army, i'd want to be a sniper, not sure why.

[QUOTE=Careld;29370737]Guys lets play a game, try find a non-damaged structure from that city picture. [B]Any hole means damaged structure[/B].[/QUOTE] oh i guess anything with windows doesnt count then

[QUOTE=Occlusion;29374244]this guy looks so manly it's unfucking believable. [img_thumb]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/04/22/article-1379595-0BB6A7D600000578-80_470x423.jpg[/img_thumb] r.ip. Also if i were to join the army, i'd want to be a sniper, not sure why.[/QUOTE] You and 11,000,0000000,0000000,102302140129421 other people.

[QUOTE=Careld;29370737]Guys lets play a game, try find a non-damaged structure from that city picture. Any hole means damaged structure.[/QUOTE] No shit. It's a war-zone. Buildings in a war-zone tend to be, well, you know, war-torn.

Why can't Gaddafi just admit that he now officially has no allies, and is fucked. Seriously, he's pretty much started saying "If I can't have this country, no one can." He's a big fucking baby.

It looks like McCain both shit himself at full force and started laughing at the same exact time.

[QUOTE=AaronM202;29392048]It looks like McCain both shit himself at full force and started laughing at the same exact time.[/QUOTE] Thank you for putting that thought into words; we've all been thinking it.

[QUOTE=archangel125;29392076]Thank you for putting that thought into words; we've all been thinking it.[/QUOTE] McCain: the adult baby.

[QUOTE=AaronM202;29392094]McCain: the adult baby.[/QUOTE] I think he's old enough to need diapers again.

[QUOTE=archangel125;29392116]I think he's old enough to need diapers again.[/QUOTE] I wouldnt be surpised if he was wearing diapers and shit himself when that pic was taken.

Okay, we're kind of being assholes. Shit, I'd like to visit Libya.

Sweet SHIT. I didn't realize how absolutely fucked-over Misrati looked until I checked those photos out. They've really had the shit bombed out of them, havent they?

[QUOTE=archangel125;29370377]A shame about those two photographers.[/QUOTE] It really is, I saw a page earlier on a site showing some of Chris Hondros's Libyan photos and unsurprisingly I had seen most of them before. It seems most of the (western anyway) media used his photographs. Misrata really looks like a warzone (although without before/after its impossible to know if it looked like that before) more so than photos of other cities have shown. I guess the fighting really was fierce. I do hope (for the people of Misrata) that Gaddafi's withdrawal from the city is a real one and not a tactical retreat. [url=http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/04/photojournalist_chris_hondros.html]Here is the page I was talking about[/url]. By the looks of it he really did get up close to report it.

I have serious fucking respect for war photographers.

[QUOTE=Hellborg 65;29377734]Why can't Gaddafi just admit that he now officially has no allies, and is fucked. Seriously, he's pretty much started saying "If I can't have this country, no one can." He's a big fucking baby.[/QUOTE] He still (possibly) has support from various tribes. If he loses any support he does have from them and they turn against him he could be fucked.