The Great Swordfight of Sabratha: How Libyan freedom fighters clashed with Gaddafi's army with 2ft scimitars



To the anti-Gaddafi protesters, it has already acquired the title The Great Swordfight of Sabratha.

On Friday afternoon 40 rebels brandishing 2ft swords and scimitars spearheaded a group of 1,000 men who clashed with army troops in Sabratha, a coastal town 40 miles west of Tripoli.

It made for a bizarre spectacle. While Colonel Gaddafi has the most modern of arms at his disposal, his civilians were relying on weaponry that hadn’t been used in anger since the days of Lawrence of Arabia.

Victory: Libyan army defectors who helped free Benghazi celebrate yesterday

‘Some said the swords belonged to their grandfathers in the First World War,’ said Egyptian waiter Mahmoud El Masri, who witnessed the fighting.

‘It was a crazy sight, all these swords being wildly swung in the main street. I was hiding in a cafe but I saw them connect with the soldiers and I heard blood was spilt.

‘The men with swords were at the front of the protesters, leading them. It scared me but they are brave to take on men with guns.’

Speaking at the Tunisian border after fleeing the chaos in his adopted homeland, he added: ‘Soldiers were firing into the air trying to disperse them but I am not sure if they deliberately aimed at the protesters as well. I don’t know how many died.’

Such is the confused picture emerging from western Libya that it is often not clear who is fighting whom. ‘In the past few days we saw some army units helping the protesters,’ said Mr El Masri.

‘The African mercenaries employed by Gaddafi have been robbing people in their houses and cars, taking their money and valuables. But when they see the army coming, they flee.’

Deadly: Scimitars like this were used in Sabratha

Sabratha is emerging as one of the key battlegrounds. If it falls – already its security and police bases lie in ruins – then it is thought Gaddafi’s grip on power will slip further.

Yesterday it was reported by the Quryna newspaper that dozens of people had been ‘severely wounded’ after a pro-Gaddafi battalion opened fire on protesters near Sabratha.

Elsewhere at the border, fleeing migrant workers, mainly Egyptians and Tunisians, brought further tales of horror. Volunteer doctors and nurses tended to the new arrivals in medical tents, and volunteers from the Tunisian Red Cross handed out soup and sandwiches.

A few miles from the border, Egyptian men lined up to wash their faces with water gushing from a pipe at a camp set up by the Tunisian army. The camp, which houses about 5,000 people, was built after shelters at the border couldn’t handle the large numbers coming across.

Get out: Egyptians rush to take buses at the Libyan and Tunisian border crossing of Ras Jdi

Scramble: An Egyptian refugee clambers into a bus through the window at a refugee camp after crossing into Tunisia

Volunteer doctors and nurses tended to the new arrivals in military field hospitals, like this one at Ras Jdir, and volunteers from the Tunisian Red Cross handed out soup and sandwiches

Last night it was also claimed helicopters carrying Gaddafi’s machine gun-wielding mercenaries opened fire on a crowd of thousands of Libyan protesters, leaving up to 250 dead. Ten helicopters carrying gunmen are said to have rained bullets on a crowd of 10,000 demonstrators in the town of Tajura, eight miles east of the capital Tripoli.

A survivor of the alleged massacre has told how they arrived without warning and fired indiscriminately at those who had assembled peacefully to chant ‘Down with the system’ in the town’s main street.

Among the dead was a pregnant housewife, who was killed as she stood on the balcony of her home, and children and pensioners who had gathered on the streets.

When the shooting ended, a fleet of Toyota pick-up trucks arrived in the main square carrying dozens of armed mercenaries who loaded about 200 bodies on to their vehicles before speeding off. Many had their faces covered as they waved guns at protesters and erased the evidence of the massacre.

Grief: The mother of one Libyan who was killed in the recent clashes, mourns at his grave in Benghazi. It was claimed up to 250 people were killed when Gaddafi mercenaries opened fire on civilians from helicopters

Devastation: A man walks through roadblocks made by residents in the Tajoura district of eastern Tripoli

The horrific events allegedly took place last Tuesday, but they have emerged only after a survivor spoke to this newspaper after being smuggled over the Tunisian border.

Aquela El Mezoghi, a wealthy Libyan businessman and a leading opponent of the regime, told The Mail on Sunday he had been appointed by the protesters as their spokesman and had travelled out of his country so the story could be told. Mr El Mezoghi, 39, said: ‘All we were doing was marching and shouting, “Down with the system”.

‘At first about seven helicopters came over, with three then coming up behind them.

Mourners: Libyan mourners chant slogans against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi during the funeral of Anwar Elgadi, 44, who was killed the previous day by security forces according to his brother Mohammed

‘The men in them were not from the Libyan army. They entered Tajura and attacked all the people with machine guns. They were shooting everywhere. Not just at the people in the streets but in their homes. I saw lots of people die. There were 250 killed in just a few minutes.’ Two days later Mr El Mezoghi, who runs a food-importing business and has helped fund the uprising, says he witnessed further carnage, this time in Az Zawiyah, 30 miles away from Tripoli.

‘Again we were protesting peacefully, in the centre of the town, when two Toyota Landcruisers turned up with six black men, with scars down their faces.

‘The men opened fire again with machine guns. This time about 40 were killed and 150 injured. It was another massacre.’