Crash course in fighting for freedom

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At a secret location in Benghazi tens of thousands of young men are being trained daily to defend their capital, themselves, their families, neighbours and now their new-found freedom. The site, a former re-education camp run by dictator Muammar Gaddafi, is a hive of activity. Guards, armed with 40mm anti-aircraft guns, automatic rifles and rocket propelled grenade launchers, man the gates. Inside thousands of young men, including teachers, engineers, doctors, journalists and lawyers, stand to attention. Around them are a range of battlefield weapons, manned by retired military instructors.

Their task: To teach the recruits in five days what usually took a month to teach Gaddafi’s regular army.

And time is not on their side.

Within weeks, if not days, a deciding battle, which could determine the fate of Libya, will be fought.

The battle for the strategic road access town of Ajdabiya will take place less than 150km from Benghazi.

Already thousands of fighters have massed in and around the town. Opposing them are equal numbers of Gaddafi’s army as well as thousands of mercenaries from Chad, Niger, Mali, Nigeria and Burkina Faso.

It is do or die, claim members of the Interim Transitional National Council (ITNC) tasked with ensuring the defence of Benghazi.

A petrochemical plant project engineer, who is in charge of the training for Benghazi’s self-defence, has a mammoth task ahead of him.

Refusing to be identified and refusing to divulge the name of the camp, the engineer pleaded for weapons and military support.

“We will succeed. Every day we receive thousands of recruits. In the past 10 days we have trained more than 10 000.

“In the past month we have trained up to 30 000 men who have all been formed into self protection groups for Benghazi.

“Like here, each of our cities and towns have similar training camps where training takes place every day,” he said.

On average the full training cycle – from learning to march to being able to fire Russian-made weapons, such as recoilless 120mm canons, multiple rocket launchers, RPGs, multi-barrel anti-aircraft guns – takes three to five days.

“We have our high morals, our belief in our cause and our desire for freedom that are driving us.

“All that Gaddafi’s war thugs have are their fear and the knowledge that we will overcome whatever they bring to us.

“We will win. We have no other choice but to win.

“If we do not win, we die.”

Describing the training and what the recruits would do, the engineer said they would be taught to obey orders and handle weapons.

“They are paired with weapons and taught everything there is to know about the guns.

“They form our cities’ self protection units. They will be positioned in suburbs, neighbourhoods and city centres.

“They will work in teams of 25 and will be taught how to protect themselves, their families, friends, neighbours and our freedom.

“They are the backbone of freedom. They are the support to our troops on the frontline.”

Outlying the ITNC’s military plans the engineer said time was of the essence.

“Because the army was not strong before the revolution and was not trained properly we have a lot of catching up to do.

“Gaddafi’s army could attack tomorrow so we have to train (the recruits) as quickly as possible.

“While our training is quick we make sure that it is good. We have to because if we do not our forces will be killed.

“We have taken retired army instructors and brought them back to train our forces.”

Speaking about the supply of troops to the frontline, the engineer said that those who wanted to go were sent to other training camps.

“Here their military training is extended. They are taught how to operate tanks, armoured cars, how to attack and how to defend.

“In all we have a lot of men, all of them good,” the engineer said.

Explaining where the recruits came from, he said they came to camp and knocked on the front door.

“We take a big risk, because sometimes we do not know if they are spies.

“But it is a risk that we have to take if we are to win.

“We trust them and they put their lives in our hands.”

He said the biggest challenge facing instructors was the recruits’ desire to go out and kill Gaddafi in their desire for freedom.

“They want to kill him now, without knowing how to use a gun. They want to throw themselves at him.

“They are angry and it is this anger which we want to use to win our fight for freedom.” - Pretoria News