Warning

Warning: This site contains images and graphic descriptions of extreme violence and/or its effects. It's not as bad as it could be, but is meant to be shocking. Readers should be 18+ or a mature 17 or so. There is also some foul language occasionally, and potential for general upsetting of comforting conventional wisdom. Please view with discretion.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Video Study: Rebels Attack Libyan Barracks

July 7, 2011
last update November 12

We start with two videos collected at this page of the "Libyan War" blog/site, as showing "peaceful protesters open fire at direction of army compound in Benghazi." The actions described seem accurate. One video (below, posted Feb 22) shows an ambulance leaving a compound, followed by what I believe is an internal security paddy wagon. (Update Nov.11: Reader Felix says "The black "padded wagon" in video 1 is certainly no internal security van,as it is labelled in arabic (of course!) Inna Lillahi Wa inna ilayhi raji'oon : To Allah we belong and to him we return - إِنَّا لِلّهِ وَإِنَّـا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعونَ." This sounds kind of like a "hearse," indicating someone has died.)

They drive at medium speed down a dusty road amid a scattered crowd of apparent protesters, and dense gunfire they're not running from. Its youtube posting idiotically entitles the thing "Libya : Random Shootout Towards Ambulances and Protestors." Looks like the shooting is coming from the civilians, and only might have been towards the ambulance. More likely they're firing in the air, in celebration for the injuries it seems were inflicted on someone else prior to this point.

The next video shown, posted by the same user (LAKOMTUBE) on the previous day (Feb 21), supports those calls. This time, we're seeing "Live Fire between People and Gaddafi Regime." It shows a smaller and denser group of "protesters" hiding from lines of fire inside, while at least one aimed an assault rifle in and fired repeatedly, trying to "express himself." Something they got inside has also started a few of the trees on fire, starting the smoke chaos "non-violent insurgencies" seem to love. (the real smoke, we'll see below)

There was another video once shown at that Libyan War post, called "Protestors gather around a compound," but it has since been removed by the user. But in R. Breki Goheda's half-hour documentary video (part 1 embedded below) is a scene, perhaps the same as the one lost, of what I've decided is clearrly the same site. Shown at 5:40 (by luck with the scene in question chosen as the thumbnail), this is given as a military barrack besieged by hostile and, as we've seen, slightly armed criminals.


The narrator says of the response to thie civilian onslaught:
This video demonstrates that soldiers refused to open fire at protesters. Rather, they retreat into the center of the barrack, and open fire into the air as the attackers were advancing in the barrack.
Indeed, inside we see clustered soldiers and vehicles in the mid-distance. They seem to be armed but only at the ready. He says further the insurgents were later "able to storm" the place, among a list of three places (see below), between them seizing a fair amount of weapons.

Update, Nov. 5: More Views and a Location
The location of this incident, for one thing, vexed me for quite a while. Then recently while skimming videos from al Baida, in a playlist made by molibya, I saw the same scene explored here, in a slightly different video. Was this base in or around al Baida? The title doesn't help:
مشاهد حية للإشتبكات في ليبيا [trans: Vivid scenes of clashes in Libya]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mts_qRO4nLs
Uploaded by brqnetwork on Feb 21, 2011

It's apparently the same video from above with the one rifleman firing into the gate. It's lower resolution, but has some extra footage at the beginning that to me shows something interesting. A military hostage, perhaps, against the wall just on the right side of the gate. In an olive green shirt, fair skin and dark hair, he's facing the opposite way of most others. At first glance, he seems to be being frisked or manhandled somehow by another guy. Then he's briefly seen looking to the side, and putting his hands out submissively.

Then down the list I saw a video that made me jump - a very high-res version of the video I had to cite Goheda's video for above (saved a copy).

Uploaded by hamd95 on Mar 1, 2011, and no further date given.

This helped me see more clearly the interior of the base and forces within, and everything else. I don't see much armed activity here, I have to say. People are bending over to pick up rocks, or throwing them. Some fiddle with other devices, perhaps (guy in trench coat, lower right in the image at the very bottom, for one)... many clues are available here.


The title of this posting is what help narrow down a location: اول كتيبه تسقط فى ليبيا من نظام القذافى ( مدينة شحات) [trans: Down with the first battalion in Libya of Qaddafi's regime (the city of Cyrene)]. I looked up Cyrene, and it's a modern small town as well as archaeological site (and clearly the origin of the whole region's name-Cyrenaica). It's on the northern outskirts of Shahet, just east of al Baida.

The army base at Shahet fell to rebel forces on February 19, I have heard, two days after the Day of Rage. The video location is not at Cyrene, but on Shahat's eastern flank. There I found an expansive walled compound, where an angled road passes a gate, in a heavily-treed area. Matching the video, this area has dense trees on both sides of the wall, making the gate area invisible from above, but with the right-hand-side (when facing in) more open.


Base and takeover details from reader Felix, as submitted in a comment, trumps my sloppy old guesswork:
The military barracks which the commentator around 6.00 in the causes and facts video 1/2 says "Attackers were able to storm Hussein al-Juweifi and Shahat Military Barrack..." Anmesty International, in their May 2011 report actually mentions Hussein al-Juweifi military barracks in Shahat (are they the same, or are there two barracks in Shatat?): In al-Bayda, a resident told Amnesty International that on 18 February, as soldiers inside the Hussein al-Juweifi military barracks in Shahat, east of al-Bayda, were beginning to lose control after protracted battles with protesters, he attempted to mediate to avoid more bloodshed:
“I asked to speak to a senior officer at the compound whom I knew from before… I gave him my word and said: if your soldiers surrender, they will be safe. As the group of soldiers were coming out to surrender, the protesters were very angry and shot dead two soldiers… they were Libyans, not foreign mercenaries… I feel guilty because was it not for me, they may not have come out.”
The barracks were at one time commanded according to this document by Colonel Al-Jarih Farkash. Several nephews of Gaddafi were Captains at the base..Abdul Qadir Saeed and Abdul Rahman Abdul-rahim al-atrash. The battalion was at Al Beida.(1993 data) (Libya's Qaddafi by Mansour O El-Kikhia, University Press of Florida, USA) [...] The barracks are also called Al-Jarah barracks, even though the arabic title says Medina Shahat - Katiba Al Juweifi in this video, Al Jarah Barracks battle (not really). A non-faked video shows it being demolished in May 2011.
It seems to all be the same place, now with a location and a name and, as we'll see, tons of more video views spanning, perhaps, nearly two weeks. But the soldiers were surrendering on the 18th. Why it was later torn down isn't clear.

After The Battle...
So... this is some part of the Shehat campaign, somewhere around the 20th. Earlier in the same Molibya playlist were mentions of a battle of Cyrene. One of them:
"20110218149"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R146AFzeJkc
Uploaded by coffeeaddict99 on Feb 19, 2011.

The title suggests a date of the 18th, Petri Krohn tells me Mediainfo gives its record time as UTC 2011-02-18 14:50:33. The description says, Google translated from Arabic:
This is the return of the al Baida youth after their return from the battle of Cyrene, which Lapid [??], the remainder of the brigade a battalion called the enhanced 32 Thurs [??} [??]
Felix suggests this may mean 32th, or 32nd, and may thus refer top the infamous and ubiquitous Khamis brigade, "otherwise known as the 32nd reinforced Khamis Gaddafi battalion, as noted in this Al-Jazeera interview with General Fatah Younis, Gaddafi's friend turns foe , uploaded early on 1 March 2011." Here on whichever day and after defeating whoever, we see "protesters" in general control of at least part of al Baida, returning from a raid with weapons. We see face-covered militants, machine guns, boxes carried. Rockets for RPGs are held aloft in one passing truck bed to fervent cheers, then tank shells, larger rockets, and strings of heavy bullets. Only a few rifles are fired into the air in celebration, however.

And here's another Coffeeaddict99 video from the 19th:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz2ZkHP1s-I
The title, translated by Google: "Young white [al Baida] city Mtugeon [??] to attack the camp of Cyrene This is one of a group of 106 anti-defender." We see a big barrel artillery piece in the bed of a pickup truck, surrounded by wowed, victorious, knife-wielding young militants. There are  no military defectors to be seen in any of this.


All Shahet "Battle" Videos: Feb 16-18
Starting from invaluable comments below, especially from reader Felix, I'll use this space to organize the videos covered above and others, in the hope of establishing what happened and when in Shahet. Reader Petri Krohn has tipped me off to software that will (usually) show the date and time a video was recorded  (if it's raw and converted from Youtube, not a FLV downloaded with Safari). This will be called on when relevant below.

The earliest - and often most fascinating - glimpses I've seen are compiled in this video: 
Sahat [sic] intifada story
Source: ORWA31
duration 9:34. Credited on-screen as: "Cyrenaica for International Production."

Covering only a three-day span, this compilation suggests an "Initifada"of Feb. 16-18. It starts with video from the night of Wednesday the 16th. We see a peaceful march with chanting, but also a bonfire just outside some walled compound, with no one running from live fire, and another building roaring with flames inside it. 

Nothing is shown in this video for the 17th, which is strange. That was exactly the called-for "Day of Rage," where other cities were provoking state violence and reaping the PR windfalls on video. But along with much of what happened in other towns, Shahet's total activity shared on video seems to be zero.

Footage resumes on the afternoon of the 18th, from the angle of sunlight and deducing from the presence of "18" and no other numbers appaearing amongst the Arabic text I cannot read. It shows no clear fighting but sudden control achieved by angry, unarmed civilians. A walled compound has fallen, or at least its walls are vulnerable. A dump truck is backed into it, knocking a hole. To the left are two more rough portals through the wall, one smoke-stained. How many do they need before they can finally get in? 

The following edit makes it seem this is the same wall (and it apparently is) as the compound then shown, the same al Jarah barracks examined here. It's late afternoon, the gates are open, and people are walking in like they would to the zoo. There's some sort of white car to the right of the gate, which I thought seemed burnt. Atop the wall is the guard station, never shown manned, looking to like it was burned and soot-covered as well. Another video below confirms both hunches.

Here's another Youtube video claiming to be "Fighting in the city of Cyrene the first day of the Libyan revolution." It was only uploaded in late April, and mediainfo says April 28 - the date it was stamped in a program I presume. So we cannot say a certain date, but it seems a best fit with early afternoon of the 18th. The white car is seen at the beginning, trashed and tireless if not burnt. It's very shaky, bad camera work, filmed at the gate, panned in too close to give much detail. People are seen both walking in triumphantly, clapping, and also running out, at gunfire as if under attack within the base. Then they feel safe and keep going... There must be hundreds of "protesters" inside by now, burning a truck and piles of junk near the gate. No guns are seen, just clubs and sticks and a whole limb from a tree, held by people continuously running back out (like the masked militant at left). Then an ambulance and a black van drive out, in a clearly different scene from the one we opened with.

Back to the "Sahat intifada" video from ORWA31. The trashed interior is also shown after another cut, presumably some other time on the 18th. Within the expansive lot, rebel types mill about, loot, burn, and film freely. There are trees and green fringes, but it's smoke-filled, junk-strewn and spotted with wildly burning vehicles and buildings. Clearly, this was among the earliest of military mass defection to the side of the people, but none of the defectors are shown (except one, high-ranking, and dead - see below).

Then there's  a view walking down the street outside the base (2:57). Two trucks, their occupants elsewhere now, are seen burning fiercely, as smoke pours from the open gateway of the base itself. Along the way, a rebel flag is seen, chanting about Allah, a man with a hatchet, and just immense amounts of smoke.

Then we see an injured loyalist, it seems, carried out and into a mob that surrounds him. Two middle-aged men finally escort him through, forcing past the hot-heads. Then a bus with a rebel flag, at 5:40 military trucks full of people with machine guns are seen driving by at great speed. Other trucks are shown being filled with as many fighters as possible, and speeding off. A single artillery piece, several masked men, a cheering crowd, and light-hearted dancing with bullets are also seen in the video as it closes its coverage of the 18th. Fascinating work.

Another, more amazing video from ORWA31 shows some events that seem to fit with this day.
إقتحام كتيبة حسين الجويفي بمدينة شحات . [Break into the battalion Hussein Jawafa city of Cyrene]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nPg1YThjdo
Duration 10:09

This densely-packed video compilation starts with a night-time scene, perhaps the 16th or 17th, in front of the main gates. Men are waving knives and chanting. Then a day shot with burned buildings. Various scenes of marches, a funeral, and gate protests are shown quickly, with molotov coctails being dispened in pepsi bottles (1:43). Two swords at least are brandished (1:54, 2:00), then we see the car to the right is burning and belching smoke (2:03). The guardhouse also looks unmistakably blackened at this point (below, stitched from a couple different frames).

The "break into the batallion"video then shows a few brave men walk far into the interior, taunting the apparent security forces still lined across the way. None of them are shown getting shot. But we do see several injured people, civilians mostly, being carried out; one man with a mustache is quite convincing - he has his right foot bloodied and just dangling (3:50).

There's a high-speed bulldozer to the walls, knocking a big hole, perhaps one of the ones we've seen (5:47). Then two dump trucks, knocking two holes side-by-side. Then a man laden with many belts of ammunition.

Feb. 19 is the date I've previously cited as the conquest of the barracks in Shahet. That wasa"no later than," and based on a video posted by Coffeeaddict and perhaps others on that day (not sure who's version I first saw or the name of it). Labeled in Arabic, the title translates to "Cyrene (Shahet) yesterday after the attack on the camp." It has a distance view of the smoke rolling south out of the base, dominating the horizon. In the foreground is a major intersection, the street running up to the base, a large empty dirt lot, and a small, partly-collapsed building. Perhaps security-related, it's got a circular structure on its top, and sits well away from the base, half a mile away. 

The video cited above, "Libyan Crisis: Events, Causes and Facts," says this conquest supplied machine guns used on the 19th in Benghazi. That makes plenty of sense, especially if the base was conquered, as the video evidence suggests, by the afternoon of the 18th. 

Feb 19: Lights, Camera... Stupid!
On the 19th, per the description, occurs another battle! 
48 - al Jarah barracks battle
Saturday, 19 February, 2011
Source: kadekke6
Armed civilian men resist the Gaddafi thugs just outside the base's walls, on a day it's apparently rained heavily. They take turns firing machine guns into at least two holes knocked in the walls. Little sense of urgency is apparent. 

The location seems to be a roughly north-south wall, late morning, on the barracks' east side.The best match I could find, with no visible road next to it, is at the southeast corner of the northern portion of the compound, a more residential-looking part of the base. It's possible loyalists still held out in there,   but I doubt this would be the best way they had of rooting them out. 

Special mention goes to this gem of a same-day video: 
"Shooting at protesters outside the barracks."
Saturday, 19 February, 2011
Source: ahmadkadar
On this more famous side of the barracks wall, a few hundred yards away from the last video, the ground looks much drier than the other video, if still extremely moist by Libyan standards (the region is known for that, BTW). It seems to be afternoon and sunnier, so that could be.

People run and scramble to hide from the sound of gunshots - hundreds of feet away from these ...weaponless attackers? ... clustered on the main street. Some others lay there helpless on the pavement, un-helped, not carried away, but not bleeding either.

One of the victims sits up and looks around, waving at people. Another victims then wanders over and, apparently having been shot, lays splayed-out among them (at right, starting to kneel). As reader Felix describes it "this video clearly shows a "protester" ambling onto set (and it is essentially a film set with actors) then slowly getting down, then lying dead on his back, at about 0.16 onwards. He occasionally pops his head up just to check he isn't dead." Another victim in the struggle!

Indeed, anyone else take a look and see how ridiculous this is. Note also the creepy stiff man in a black trench coat who at the end walks right over to that same jackass and stands over him. As if to say "what the hell was that? Don't you realize what we're trying to do here?" He seems unconcerned that they're failing all around.

There are videos I'll link here soon showing some fighting near or perhaps inside the base, and of tanks being driven through holes in the wall, given as Feb. 19.

Next we turn to a sequel to the Sahet Intifada video, again by Cyrenaica, but this time on Youtube and starting on the 19th.
إنتفاضة مدينة شحات _الجزء الثاني . [Uprising in the city Cyrene _ Part II]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY4JNiq-Aa4
Uploaded by ORWA31 on Aug 3, 2011

Feb 19: a cloudy, rainy, windy day from random footage of the city. Already we see the Aruba School captives, who were captured at the nearby airport and held in Shahet. More of theseblack-skinned Libyan deputized security men seem injured in this view, but the location is the same and one captive at least is identifiable in common between this and the other video. The location, as Felix suggested, might be within the base they just captured. At 3:22 some apparent, alleged, generic viagra is shown, one pill already taken, along with paper (prescription?) and ID (foreign?) plus emphatic explanation of the significance (in Arabic of course). Apparently on day three of "protests," Gaddafi's "African mercenaries" were already coming to rape their women.

ORWA's "break into the battalion" video shows for the apparent 19th more barracks battles inside and out, on a rainy day, armed with the weapons they got wherever, running around, ducking, shooting, amid fire and smoke. We see firing a grenade, driving out tanks belching smoke. An anti-aircraft gun, two burning trucks, an old man injured, being carried. There's a parade with tanks, a hanging effigy, and a large rebel flag. It closes with two black men interviewed, one of whom might be Mohammed, the other the gray old man I recognize from the Aruba school prisoners. Both are said to be from Chad, among the five (2.5%) of these "mercenaries" who were not Libyans.

That they were captive on the 19th is interesting. It suggests the L'Abraq airport battle, starting on the afternoon of the 18th, was shorter than I thought, suggesting more of a mass surrender and capture than a prolonged struggle. 

Endless Struggle: Feb 20 and After
By the 18th they had their base, might've been bringing captives there by the next day as they drove out the heavy weapons. The 20th followed in "break into..." with armed crowds in town, driving over a large, dirty, barely recognizable portrait of Col.Gaddafi (3:42). It seems to be an incredible boring day.

But another flesh-and-blood col. Gaddafi is shown in another video for Feb 21:
Colonel Shahat Brigade
http://www.feb17images.com/50-colonel-shahat-brigade
Description: Colonel Mustafa Al Gaddafi killed by mercenaries while he was protecting civilians
Monday, 21 February, 2011
Source:  ahmedomran80

"Colonel Mustafa Al Gaddafi," killed for trying to save the people allegedly, yields no hits on Google besides the Feb 17 images video and now this article. Some amazing hero, then, this col. Gaddafi must've been. Even translated to Arabic "العقيد القذافي مصطفى" it yields nothing that doesn't actually refer to the villain Colonel Gaddafi. But his dead face is shown up-close (intact but pained, with blood on the chin) in an old rebel video three days or so after his base had fallen. He doesn't look decomposed at all, so one wonders if the video is days old, if he was just holed up until then, or if he was executed after his capture. How many officers under him were killed? By whom exactly and where did the killers escape to?

It's only at this point the videos I opened with were finally filmed, it might seem judging by the time stamps and posting dats suggesting the 21st. The "live fire" video, posted Feb. 22, is time stamped UTC 2011-02-21 07:24:21 - nearly three days after people had first gained apparent control of the whole place. But the time's off - the encoding is in the morning, with the action being afternoon. It's the same with the others: The longer "vivid scenes of clashes in Libya" version of the same video has an earlier encoding: UTC 2011-02-21 06:43:46. "Libya : Random Shootout Towards Ambulances and Protestors" is marked UTC 2011-02-21 08:42:01.

My guess here is these are the times they were processed and stamped with logos, 6:43 to 8:42 am by whoever exactly. The actual events could be from any point in the previous days. Further, the two versions of the same video can be neither derived from the other. The one has extra footage, the other better resolution. So both must draw from a previous version that may still be out there...

Interestingly, the wall-top guard house is seen in neither of these videos. It could well be burned up there out of view. The burnt car as well is kept out of frame with what seems more careful camerawork than used before. The smaller guard shack inside the gate to the left is visible however, with milder soot stains coming from its window.

Finally we have the very high resolution video "Down with the first battalion in Libya of Qaddafi's regime (the city of Cyrene)." This one pans all over and shows smaller fires inside, no rebel guns at all, and the army just inside. It was posted by Hamd95 on March 1, and as with all posting dates, it's only a "no-later-than." The media info timestamp is no different, as we've seen. But this looks like raw video, un-stamped, and it's from only the previous day: UTC 2011-02-28 15:35:38. This could even be the time of filming, judging by the angle of afternoon sunlight. But ten days after they first took the place?

What else stands out is that finally we can see the guardhouse again and it's pristine, un-burnt. Beneath is is what looks from a distance like a new white car resting high on fancy tires, replacing the burnt one we saw later (earlier?). I can't tell if any of the pointless holes they knocked in the wall are present here. That stretch of wall is distant and washed out with sunlight.

So is this really an amazing early video that's only gotten to us by this later re-posting? Or is this a staged re-enactmentafter they cleaned the place up, to cast a more poetic light? Was it the first staged video, aside from the obvious"Shooting at protesters outside the barracks," or the last in an awkward sequence? Why have we still never seen the footage of when the base apparently actually fell - on Feb. 17 and into the early 18th?

59 comments:

  1. The black "padded wagon" in video 1 is certainly no internal security van,as it is labelled in arabic (of course!) Inna Lillahi Wa inna ilayhi raji'oon : To Allah we belong and to him we return - إِنَّا لِلّهِ وَإِنَّـا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعونَ

    ReplyDelete
  2. The military barracks which the commentator around 6.00 in the causes and facts video 1/2 says "Attackers were able to storm Hussein al-Juweifi and Shahat Military Barrack..." Anmesty International, in their May 2011 report actually mentions Hussein al-Juweifi military barracks in Shahat (are they the same, or are there two barracks in Shatat?):
    In al-Bayda, a resident told Amnesty International that on 18 February, as soldiers inside the
    Hussein al-Juweifi military barracks in Shahat, east of al-Bayda, were beginning to lose
    control after protracted battles with protesters, he attempted to mediate to avoid more
    bloodshed:
    I asked to speak to a senior officer at the compound whom I knew from before… I gave him
    my word and said: if your soldiers surrender, they will be safe. As the group of soldiers were coming out to surrender, the protesters were very angry and shot dead two soldiers… they
    were Libyans, not foreign mercenaries… I feel guilty because was it not for me, they may not
    have come out.”


    The barracks were at one time commanded according to this document by Colonel Al-Jarih Farkash. Several nephews of Gaddafi were Captains at the base..Abdul Qadir Saeed and Abdul Rahman Abdul-rahim al-atrash. The battalion was at Al Beida.(1993 data) (Libya's Qaddafi by Mansour O El-Kikhia, University Press of Florida, USA)

    this video clearly shows a "protester" ambling onto set (and it is essentially a film set with actors) then slowly getting down, then lying dead on his back, at about 0.16 onwards. He occasionally pops his head up just to check he isn't dead.

    In this video, Sahat intifada story (sic) at 2.00, a tipper truck reverses through the wall on 16 Feb.(that semi-circular entrace gate at 2.51) At 3.51 a guy wielding an axe. At 4.02 someone seems to have been killed.
    From the fall of the barracks, now it can be used as a film set....videos of 19 Feb, for example for world consumption.

    This video of Colonel Shahat Brigade , very dead,is labelled Colonel Mustafa Al Gaddafi killed by mercenaries while he was protecting civilians (!)

    The barracks are also called Al-Jarah barracks, even though the arabic title says Medina Shahat - Katiba Al Juweifi in this video, Al Jarah Barracks battle (not really). A non-faked video shows it being demolished in May 2011

    ReplyDelete
  3. So, to recap, I think the only genuine footage above is from the Intifada story, and the barracks fell earlier than the 19th. There is more footage over the pages relating to the capture of someone , a Gaddafi loyalist called Al Dugari.(videos 38 and 39) The sniper position is probably faked. not sure who the youngest martyr in Shahat is or how he met his end: not faked! The alleged mercenaries suffendering look pretty scared and genuine.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ah, the black van sounds like a "hearse" then. Someone killed as well as someone injured, I guess.

    So many videos...going back to the 16th, valuable. I was trying to make a "fall of Az Zawiyah" type post (if with less detail) for al Baida and Shahet and all between. But maybe I'll have to treat each one separate first... all back-burner stuff anyway.

    Al-Juweifi, that could be it and it yields results. Will update.

    Fell on the 18th and lopsided battles being staged... I had not thought of that yet, but I'm getting a chill. Will consider, as I work on it, back-burner style...

    Off the top of my head however there are two locales at least attacked - the one seen in a short video posted on the 19th with a toppled building is just off the main road (SE corner of town?). This barracks attack might have been taken later, unless all the videos were held back a day or two or, as you suggest, they were just staged later.

    The shooting in and apparent killing doesseem out-of-line with their standard mythology, but then so does taking a base. So maybe that was their softened naarative of "how the battle was won." It does seem small-scale and only lightly-armed, considering what they snagged in Dernah between the 16th and 18th (70 military vehicles, for one).

    The actors laying in the street shows... what? They weren't too afraid of being shot way over there is about all I can gather. They can't be fooling anyone. I don't get it. I saw another video (Ajdabiya?) once where a few lay dead with pools of blood (fake?) but one guy sits up, and I wondered... more so now.

    Too much, man. This'll take years to sort out at this rate.

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  5. The short 19th Feb video in your post above shows a water tower which also appears (from a different direction) in the demolition of Al Jarah Barracks, posted 1 May 2011. (from about 00.52 onwards)

    One does wonder if hearses in Libya were so labelled. One starts to get an idea of what is specially directed for the world media and what is film of spontaneous events. Some of the Shahat barracks footage fills the first category.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I missed that last comment. The "mercenaries" video is invaluable, being apparently an uo-close look at the "Aruba school prisoners." At this point, knowledge of Arabic would really help see what's said. I'll need to either add that to the post on the subject, or maybe a follow-up.

    The Dugari capture, haven't checked out. The youngest victim we've seen, wasn't it supposed to be the 8/10/11year-old girl killed in her room? But that was the 18th... will be trying to sort it out...

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  7. The "mercenaries surredering" seems to be taken on a ship or boat (00.29). what is in that plastic bag which is causing the holder of it to have blood on his left hand (also at 00.20)? There is no further reference on the web to bmatrixtmz. I can't get any handle on Dugari/Dugary/Al-Dugari/y.

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  8. Yes, that youngest victim's wounds seems consistent with what was described, and indeed appears also in the Al Bayda stream of 17FebImages, titled The whole truth of what happened in the city . Strangely this stream has remarkably little about Al Bayda. One from that city does show some badly injured soldiers in the video Soldier sent by Khamis Al Gaddafi

    In Abigail Hauslohner's TIME piece(February) on the Aruba School, "Other prisoners raise their hands when asked if they're members of "Khamees' battalion"

    ReplyDelete
  9. Re the "What happened" pot pourri from Al Bayda, at 6.23 one sees someone being treated wearing army trousers. Otherwise, the injuries and operations are inconclusive. Some perhaps routine operating theatre, some perhaps caused by the insurrection, some perhaps just pure theatre (looks like tomato juice beng pumped into someone's mouth around half way).

    ReplyDelete
  10. The videos from outside the barracks mainly show peaceful protesters trowing stones. However, this set of three videos by TheLibya1 shows the battle to take the central barracks building. All "peaceful protesters" are now carrying AK-47s. Makes me wonder where they got them from?
    http://www.youtube.com/user/TheLibya1

    Now that we have finally found the location and confirmed these are from the same location, it would be time to put these in temporal order. In the Gaddafi murder videos it was pointed out that some of the videos were timestamped October 19, a day too early. True or not, it shows one thing, YouTube sometimes retains the original timestamp data of the video.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I keep meaning to respond more, but get caught up watching videos, seeing something, noting it, double-checking something related, having a smoke, coming back, getting side-tracked again...

    PK: Good point that they seem to have started out throwing stones. I doubt they did, though. I'm leaning to these later vidsof the 20th or so as staged. The soldiers and tanks inside would then be their own, playing in costumes.

    If al Jarah isn't the same place, sure similar. That's an alleged name for the place, thanks. Wonder why they tore it down?

    Also, aside from the posted date (and no time) how do you see the timestamp of the video? Is it just on-screen, or some special trick? I didn't know that about the Gaddafi videos... as you know I'm standing back from that whole huge issue for some reason.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Felix:

    Nicestream "the whole truth of what happened." Yeah... heads were blown open, fighting age men injured... that's it. No context, no villains, nothing else, right? (rolleyes) It all happened inside a hospital, apparently, so has the staff been investigated for crimes against humanity?

    On the Khamis brigade aspect of the Shahet prisoners is something I didn't know how to work in - like what does that really mean, is it true, etc. But I've found a second piece by Hauslohner adding some details I'll be adding, including a well-trained Khamis Katiba guy (self-described), the last prisoner left on the 28th for some reason. That'll force me to address this aspect...

    And on the Shahet boat... what at 0:29 suggests that? The weaving camera throughout suggests waves beneath, of drink if not water,but otherwise... The sea's a ways away, and the windows look normal. There's a book shelf visible 2:21 with a green book maybe, and matching darker green ones (Korans?). Reminds me of a church around here with pewsremoved, so maybe a mosque? I've got an analysis upcoming... Could really use some translation for this one.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thanks for the Hauslohner article,Adam. Did you see it was written with Andrew Lee Butters of Time who came across from Egypt? He has written several pieces. See e.g. here from Feb 27, when he meets "Peter Bouckert, the emergencies director of Human Rights Watch who is part of a two-person team in the city, said that the opposition’s claims are justified. He estimates that at least 300 people died violently in Benghazi during the uprising, based on actual body counts from hospitals and morgues. “It’s a very conservative figure, and it’s going to rise as the investigation continues,” he said.What happened here was much more serious than what happened in Tunisia and Egypt. We are talking about the government using live ammunition in a systemic campaign against peaceful demonstrations. There’s also pretty clear evidence of the use of heavy weapons including anti-aircraft guns, which were turned against the people. The results were pretty horrific.” (!) Butters also meets the dental professor on Feb 28, Iman Bughahaigis (also Bugahaigis, Bughaigis Bugaighis)

    Betsy Hiel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review was also there, meeting the female dental surgeon:
    By late evening, word spreads that the rebels control Ras Lanuf.

    Then an enormous explosion rocks the airport of Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city and the revolution's heart. A huge weapons depot has blown up.

    'There was freedom!'

    Early the next morning, fires still burn and smoke still pours from the blast site, which looks to be the size of three football fields. Rows and rows of anti-aircraft guns lie charred; flames lick the wheels of flatbed trucks used to haul the guns.

    Trees beyond the blast are uprooted, and parked cars on the nearby road are windowless. Steel rebar juts at angles from flattened buildings, and 6-inch blocks of TNT are strewn among the ruins.

    Hussein Bayu, 35, points to a deep, smoking crater, half the size of a football field, where he says rockets were stored.

    "I'm so glad there weren't any chemicals here, or he would have destroyed Benghazi," Bayu says.

    Bughaighis takes the opportunity nail her colours to the Lockerbie mast for readers back in the US...
    "We want the West to embrace us," says Iman Bughaighis, 50, a lecturer on the dental faculty of Garyounis University.

    She remains wary of the West, too.

    "How can we trust people who forgave somebody who killed their own people in Lockerbie?" she asks. "When there is evidence ... and they forgave him (Gadhafi) just because of the oil, and they released one of his men?"

    Bughaighis was referring to the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people, including four from Western Pennsylvania.

    Libyan intelligence operative Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of the bombing. Released from a Scottish prison in 2009 when doctors said he was dying of cancer, al-Megrahi returned here to a hero's welcome and remains alive, 18 months later.

    Critics -- including many Libyans -- believe the British government released al-Megrahi in exchange for a lucrative Libyan oil deal for British Petroleum.

    "This is against their own people, so how can we trust them when we are second citizens to them?" Bughaighis says. "Politics is dirty everywhere."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This "Lockerbie believer" in the face of all the evidence (or almost total lack of it) also worked at Newcastle-on-Tyne for four years , UK,immediately prior to events of February 2011 in Benghazi, and was at the time of Lockerbie working at the University College Medical School, London, Dept Rheumatology.

      Iman Bughaighis, Provisional National Transitional Council spokesperson and Professor of Orthodontics, may be seen in this Al-Jazeera video talking to James Bays dated March 25 2011.
      man Bugaighis was an original member of the self-appointed “Feb. 17 Revolution” committee of 13 members which ran the city from a courthouse - her quotes here at Sandraoffthestrip, March 7 2011.

      Salwa (lawyer) and Iman (doctor) are sisters apparently.

      Delete
    2. Bughaighis "How can we trust people who forgave somebody who killed their own people "


      NATO el Kikhia
      After two months of airstrikes Col Gaddafi still remains in office.Will the deployment of Apache helicopters change the the balance of power in the conflict.Mansour El Khikia is a profesor of international affairs at the University of Texas,Austin and opponent of the Libyan government.I asked him if he was surprised that Gaddafi was still in power
      http://audioprospector.appspot.com/programme/p00gq5tv



      http://i50.tinypic.com/34qjps4.jpg

      http://i49.tinypic.com/wjxflw.jpg
      http://i46.tinypic.com/2vb7k75.jpg
      http://i47.tinypic.com/35jyn90.jpg
      Letter to President Obama about Libya - Sign Libya Appeal,March 14, 2011
      http://www.twf.org/News/Y2011/0314-CSIDletter.pdf

      Delete
    3. UTSA prof el Kikhia may be Libya's next leader
      http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/article/UTSA-prof-may-beLibya-s-next-leader-2242240.php

      The League was founded in 1989 by Soliman Bouchuiguir, Hussein Raiani, Mohammad Zayyan, and Mansour Kikhia.

      Mansour Kikhia, former Libyan ambassador to the United Nations, had defected to the US in 1980 and, in December 1993, was kidnapped in Egypt and subsequently transported to Libya, where he is believed to have been executed. The current Secretary-General of the League is Hussein Raiani.
      http://libyanleague.org/

      Delete
  14. Actually, Hiel reported too from Shahat on 26 February.
    About 60 Gadhafi fighters are being held in a school, sleeping on blankets spread on the floor. A doctor treats some of the wounded in another room.

    Army Lt. Abdeljalil Faturie, 32, is one of the prisoners. He and the others are from southern Libyan tribes, he says, flown to Tripoli and then sent eastward to halt street demonstrations......Mohammed Salah, a television producer before joining the uprising, says Gadhafi is "trying to create a civil war ... and have the south attack the east."

    He and others here say they invited southern tribal leaders to negotiate for the release of the prisoners. "We want you to understand that we are treating them well," he says. "If they were with Gadhafi, they would be dead."

    Faturie agrees he has been treated well. If released, he says he will fight against Gadhafi or will return to his farm.



    The looks on the faces in the video from the school doesn't quite accord with the words of reassurance from Mr Salah.

    Ms Hiel even finds Pittsburghers in Benghazi on 27 February who have rushed over to join a Muslims without Borders medical team following Saif's speech. Hiel is naturally regaled with the story of the suicide bomber at the Khatiba:
    At a fire-gutted car, Fathi tells how one man drove into the base's gates. Soldiers fired on his vehicle and gas canisters packed inside exploded, enabling protesters to attack.

    Read more: Pittsburgh natives on scene to detail Libya's turmoil - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_724911.html#ixzz1d6CaelSP

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. http://www.videostaringa.com/-17-vid-m7yozallqdOWl6Y.html
      @ 7.08 /7.18 and further

      The interrogator , libiya hurra he keeps saying to the captives ,looks very creepy.
      who is the guy?

      Delete
  15. Oh look, the Dentist / Orthodontic surgeon Bughaigis (or varieties thereof) has become Lawyer, Salway Boughagheis, photographed at the courthouse in Benghazi by 12 March, as photographed by Ivor Prickett., also identified in the Guardian,London , 27 February thus:"We want to see if we can co-ordinate between municipal councils from east and west to form an organising body," said Salwa Bugaighis, a lawyer involved in the Benghazi coalition."One of the aims of the body is to help the resistance in Tripoli through military and other means," she said.
    Also appearing as Salwa Bugaighis at this interview/video for Democracy Now (sic) alongside another lawyer Hanaa Al-Gallal members of the Council of the Revolution or Coalition for the Revolution. Strangely there is also a woman called Salwa el-Daghili, a constitutional law professor who is a member of the rebel national council who ,along with other Interim TNC members met Portuguese Euro MEP Ana Gomes in May

    ReplyDelete
  16. For the "October 19th" Gaddafi video Google for "BD9104905HH1319138306696132".

    This image seems to be the original source for the claim:
    http://www.hostingkartinok.com/image/01201110/5fa6fe178c64dd1d24a6c05b62e261ec.jpg

    The software used is called MediaInfo. It is available here:
    http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/

    ReplyDelete
  17. I tried out MediaInfo: it works!

    The timestamp can be found in the .mp4 versions of the videos, the .flv files contain no time data.

    The video titled "Darnah (2/23) - Bodies of Libyan soldiers who were killed for disobeying orders" is tagged "UTC 2011-02-22 19:56:31".
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qapcXtU15nU

    I was not able to get any useful information out of the other video from the al Baida massacre site. The versions I have have all been edited later.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Here is the date information from the videos in this article:

    Real videos from the morning of February 21:

    Libya Live Fire between People and Gaddafi Regime
    Uploaded by LAKOMTUBE on Feb 21, 2011
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRozKE0qBAA
    UTC 2011-02-21 07:24:21

    Libya : Random Shootout Towards Ambulances and Protestors
    Uploaded by LAKOMTUBE on Feb 22, 2011
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMvoMeDr6lY
    UTC 2011-02-21 08:42:01

    Possibly staged, February 28.

    اول كتيبه تسقط فى ليبيا من نظام القذافى ( مدينة شحات)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8wPx9pgPII
    UTC 2011-02-28 15:35:38

    February 18:

    "20110218149"
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R146AFzeJkc
    UTC 2011-02-18 14:50:33

    The tree videos by TheLibya1 are tagged around midnight on March 1st. The timestamp must be wrong, as they are shoot in daytime.
    http://www.youtube.com/user/TheLibya1

    ReplyDelete
  19. This still does not add up: on the February 21 videos the sun is coming from the south west, not south east as the timestamps would imply.

    After downloading the videos and playing them in sequence, it now seems that the HD video dated Feb 28 is in fact authentic. Note that the gates are still intact, when they are missing from the Feb 21 footage.

    ReplyDelete
  20. That is awesome work. If they make a free Mac version, I'll be getting it. And I only now realize is had the light direction backwards. The sun's coming from the southwest, not east, meaning afternoon. So coats means it's still chilly there in the afternoon.

    I'd say 15:35 is about right. Now you've got it backwards. And yeah, I think thatwas staged.Why else would they be throwing stones as late asthe 28th? At least a week after the whole area had fallen?It's ridiculous. I didn't realize the date on that before either. Starting the sort-out post now...

    But midnight can hardly be right, even if that GMT and the video'searly morning. Such an error would cast doubt on one video's discrepant date in the Osama, erSaddam, er Muammar death video. Right?

    ReplyDelete
  21. The timestamps are pushing all this earlier by a day or two.

    In many cases the timestamps do not originate from the camera but from some other software. This is the case for the two Feb 21 stamped videos, "Libya : Random Shootout Towards Ambulances and Protestors" and the Arabic titled copy. Both have the same channel identifier overlay but different timestamps, bitrates and filesizes.

    The timestamps are UTC 2011-02-21 08:42:01 and UTC 2011-02-21 06:43:46 for http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mts_qRO4nLs

    What ever the source of the timestamp on YouTube, they give a definite LATEST time for the events.

    I agree with about 15:35 local solar time for the ambulance scene, which would be after 16:30 UTC. (There is an online tool which lets you calculate the exact height of the sun for any location on any date.)

    From the context I think it is clear that the two videos of the parade on the main street in al Baida on February 18 happened after the Cyrene / Shahet barracks fell. In the ambulance scene it has yet to happen. The al Baida parade could not have happened on the same day, it was simply too late and getting dark soon.

    The coffeeaddict99 videos seem to have real camera timestamps:

    "20110218149" is dated UTC 2011-02-18 14:45:09
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R146AFzeJkc

    The other one with an Arabic title is dated UTC 2011-02-18 14:50:32, five minutes later than the previous one.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz2ZkHP1s-I

    Both videos originate from the same "Advanced Video Codec Baseline@L2.2" capable camera. It seems that coffeeaddict99 hitched a ride on one of the pickups for a ride along al Baida main street.

    ***

    Here is a direct Google Maps link to the central barracks building at the Shahet compound that seems to be the focus of all this attention and the last to fall. I find it possible that the "Mercenaries surrender" video was also shot in this building.

    http://g.co/maps/86scb

    ReplyDelete
  22. Re the video subtitled "enhanced 32 thurs", this is a refence to the Khamis Batallion,as in english translations from arabic one sees things like 23th,31th etc:
    The Khamis Brigade was otherwise known as the 32nd reinforced Khamis Gaddafi battalion, as noted in this Al-Jazeera interview with General Fatah Younis,Gaddafi's friend turns foe ,uploaded early on 1 March 2011.
    A daily Kos timeline for the dead General is here,The Assassination of General Abdul Fattah Younis.

    ReplyDelete
  23. YouTube user ORWA31 has also produced a second part to the video,available here.

    Uprising in the city Cyrene _ Part II
    Uploaded by ORWA31 on Aug 3, 2011
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY4JNiq-Aa4

    Most video material on the feb17images site originates from YouTube. No link to the YouTube video is provided, but the name of the YouTube account is provided as the source. It is easy to reconstruct a link to the YouTube user account by appending the user name to the URL:

    http://www.youtube.com/user/ORWA31

    ORWA31 also has some other useful Cyrene videos, like this one. (Note the Coke ala Molotov served at 1:44.)

    إقتحام كتيبة حسين الجويفي بمدينة شحات .
    (Break into the battalion Hussein Jawafa city of Cyrene)
    Uploaded by ORWA31 on Aug 20, 2011
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nPg1YThjdo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Masoud Bwisir

      He made bombs that the rebels used in their six-month revolution against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

      http://img.timeinc.net/time/daily/2011/1108/147_libya_song_0901.jpg
      http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2091497,00.html#ixzz1qjkbCKag

      Delete
  24. When using MediaInfo you need to download the highest resolution .mp4 file from YouTube. The Flash Player .flv videos do not contain timestamps. (It is interesting however that the feb17images .flv videos contain a URL reference to YouTube.)

    ReplyDelete
  25. From the videos we can identify two days based on the weather: a very sunny day, most likely February 17th and a very rainy day, most likely February 19th, as shown in the opening scene of Part II of ORWA31's video.

    I tried to find historic weather information for the week of the revolt. Searching for airport code LAQ gives the weather for Shahat, Libya. Here is the weather for February 17th:
    – Mean Temperature 10 °C
    – Max Temperature 15 °C
    The larger than average temperature variation points to a sunny day.

    History for Shahat, Libya – Thursday, February 17, 2011:
    http://www.wunderground.com/history/wmo/62056/2011/2/17/DailyHistory.html

    Surprisingly there is no weather data for February 18th, or any day after that. Most likely the weather station for Shahat is located at the La Abraq Airport. There must have been heavy violence or other revolutionary disturbance on the airport on the day.

    ReplyDelete
  26. 5 degrees is larger than average? I'm not used to celsius, obviously. Around here we can have days that vary from 70 deg Fahrenheit to 30 at night.

    I don't find the cut-off of weather records surprising at all, actually. Weather is usually measured at the airport here, in Malta I know (I've looked at Nov. 23 1988 compared to Dec. 7), and presumably in Libya too. Then it was conquered and left inoperable,on the 18th. So we'll have no record-keeping there, perhaps up until now even. Maybe Allah doesn't want people measuring things, just accepting and moving on...

    I'm gathering this Jabal al-Akhdar is the rainiest part of Libya, with strong southerly winds prevalent (the smoke all blows south, and the trees in front of the base lean heavily to the south). Further I guess Feb. is part of the rainy season. It's safe to say the 19th was rainy, early on at least, probably overnight before that. The other days not so much.

    As for video dating, thanks for the tip. I've got media info working, and as long as I change Arabic titles to English, I can do the thing. The results are mixed, with many videos being processed later and timed by that. But in spots it will be a handy tool. What do you think of the Feb. 21 morning videos? I think someone uploaded at least the two raw videos shortly before this, and a couple different people downloaded them quickly and made their own stamped versions. The closeness in time suggests the original wasn't up lone before this, so I'm guessing original postings late at night on the 20th, of events filmed that day. Unless that doesn't make sense based on other things...

    ReplyDelete
  27. As I said in my other comment here the min-max difference for February 17 was 9 degrees C, while all other days – save the 6th – have a min-max difference of 2 to 5 degrees. The weather on these rainy mountains in February is more like Britain than Sahara or North Africa; rain and clouds with only a few sunny days. February 17, 2011 just happened to be one of those lucky days!

    ReplyDelete
  28. In the video by brqnetwork, there is also a fleeting image of an African at 0.14 next to the chap in green, who also doesn't seem to be fitting in with the action, also perhaps in green.

    Incidentally, in the "yesterday" video of Shahat, you can see the water tower in the distance which is also seen on the demolition video.

    Youtube user Cyrenaican has uploaded some vivid footage of the assault on the Shahat Katibaاقتحام كتيبة الطاغية بشحات الجمعة 18فبراير وتوارد قوافل الشهداء "Storming battalion tyrant Shhhat Friday, February 18 and confluence of the caravans of martyrs" and "Interrogation of a soldier",داخل الجامع الكبير بمدينة شحات احدى افراد الكتيبة الامنية يوم سقوطها 20 فبراير 2011 "Inside the Grand Mosque city of Cyrene one of the members of the battalion security fall on February 20, 2011",both clearly contemporary with other February videos, although uploaded in June.
    At 0.14 of the storming video one sees, amid the crowd rushing back out of the barracks a chap who has certainly been shot in the leg. At 0.23 he is carried away. Certainly not killed. There is certainly some tension, fires have been started in the gatehouse, people start appearing in the gateway again, someone is carried out at 1.54

    In another video, a a tank emerges, the walls having been blasted with a shoulder mounted missile. This is clearly a subsequent day as it is cloudy rather than sunny.

    ReplyDelete
  29. The Mohamed2011Libyan video of April 28 قتال فى مدينة شحات اول ايام الثورة فى الشرق الليبى looks a bit like a battle re-enactment, with scattered fires and the ambulance and black meat wagon driving out.
    However, the ORWA31 video,
    إقتحام كتيبة حسين الجويفي بمدينة شحات . Break into the battalion Hussein Jawafa, city of Cyrene.certainly shows live action...at 03.44 did you also notice that a protester has been shot through the hand - no acting here. My feeling is that there were some live rounds fired, perhaps at limbs (a barracks was being stormed, but how did the protesters gain entry? This I think is the real thing.
    That crazy production by Ahmadkadar was uploaded to YouTube on 2 March,his only upload,after a suitable time interval for producing the film. Dates on the Libyan Revolution series, a useful compendium, can be safely ignored.

    ReplyDelete
  30. There are some long distance shots of an attack on the base in a YouTube compilation by ahmedroman80, from 1.10 onwards.It seems to be a TV clip dated 18 February, titled,I think, "Shahat,Downfall of the Katiba known as Katiba Jarah"(not Juweifa). One can see the water tower. Looks like it might be late afternoon on a sunny day. Is subsequent footage - 2.55 onwards - inside the barracks compound? The rest of it is like a film,"injured being rushed out (no smoke/fires) cut to hospital...town in rebel hands ...smiling faces..

    ReplyDelete
  31. I think, in Coffeeaddict's video description Labid is some kind of auto translation error بيد فيها translates as where,however but my dictionary says yabeed is to perish or wipe out. regarding فيها Fee is "in" and "ha" is a possessive ending for her..oh dear. I think the gist is that the Al Bayda returnees had killed the remainder of the Khamis brigade.. eg. in the title of a video
    القذافي يبيد حتي الماشية - Gaddafi kills livestock as well (!!!) I need some more arabic...

    ReplyDelete
  32. I have collected 48 videos of the storming of the barracks into a YouTube playlist. I now believe I have them in approximate temporal order.
    http://www.youtube.com/user/PetriKrohn?feature=mhsn#g/c/5D55D0B637D8C501

    The events at the barracks happen on two days, Friday, February 18 - a sunny day and Saturday, February 19 with torrential rain. On February 18 we see no arms in the hands of the protesters, except Molotov cocktails. Part of the battalion leave the barracks in Toyota pickups and a bus at around 4 pm. Just before sunset the rebels start tearing down the walls.

    On Saturday February 19th we see heavy fighting for arms. The central barracks building is overrun and the day ends with a parade of two BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles.

    On February 20, the captured "African mercenaries" are displayed inside the "Grand Mosque city of Cyrene."

    ReplyDelete
  33. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  34. I'm not sure what the Tendmir Batalliion is here in Al Bayda, or when it was photographed.
    http://www.youtube.com/user/annssaann#p/u/20/eRXR-p5hoek

    There is also another video on the stream of the barracks after heavy rain...
    http://www.youtube.com/user/annssaann#p/u/24/X0h_km22jqc

    ReplyDelete
  35. re the "Mtugeon" title in the Coffee addict video of the 19th, I think the word relates to متوجه i.e. heading. I get the impression that, from the subtitle, which I roughly translate as
    Al Bayda Youth heading to attack the camp of Cyrene This is one of a group of 106 anti-tank guns used in the battle the weapons were not plundered from Shahat but used on it..

    ...which, if this is a correct translation, puts a completely different complexion on things.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Felix, you are right, they are heading toward Shatat.

    The first Coffeeaddict video at UTC 14:50:33 is filmed in a street corner on Msah Rode, just north of the Othman bin Affan Mosque (Google maps) – the same place from where the February 17 funeral march started. The rebel cars are coming from the east.

    The second video five minutes later is filmed on Msah Rode 1 kilometer to the east, near Hotel Loleat Alkhalij tourism (Google maps). The car is heading east and passes a small mosque on the northern side of the street.

    ReplyDelete
  37. This and this source state that the most important battle of the 1969 Al-Fateh Revolution was disarming the Cyrenaica Defense Force (CYDEF) in Gurnada (Qarnadah). Could this be the same compound or same unit?

    In fact this source says it is!

    ReplyDelete
  38. P.S. – Qarnadah seems to be a misspelling of Qamadah, a town 5km south of Shahat. (Or is this the other way around, with Google Maps making the mistake?)

    ReplyDelete
  39. Here is a photo by MARCO LONGARI/AFP of a bottle crate full of "Gaddafi Cola" bottles turned into Molotov cocktails. The Atlantic claims the photo shows Molotov cocktails rest in a rack as Libyan rebels prepare for battle in Ajdabiya on March 2, 2011.

    ReplyDelete
  40. about the rebel vids :

    http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/as-gahdafi-closes-in-citizen-journos-learn-to-film-libyas-uprising/
    As Gahdafi Closes In, Citizen Journos Learn to Film Libya’s Uprising/17 feb


    now expanded to the capital, along with a new bureau in Zintan.
    http://smallworldnews.tv/featured/growing-alive-in-libya/



    Here are examples of video's shot by Small World News' citizen journalists.
    http://storify.com/ajestream/telling-the-libyan-story?awesm=sfy.co_36x&utm_campaign=ajestream&utm_content=storify-share&utm_medium=sfy.co-twitter&utm_source=direct-sfy.co

    See another stream like this one!
    This story was created by The Stream, a new TV show on Al Jazeera English. The project is the first of its kind, more of a social network than TV show. Our show is still under development so we look forward to your participation and feedback. *Al Jazeera is not responsible for the content of external websites.

    ReplyDelete
  41. some vids not designed by small world news :

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=KAUgATeftv4
    Benghazi Libya At The Eve Of NATO Intervention (2) بنغازي عشية عدوان الناتو


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2wLCK5WMpk&feature=autoplay&list=UUtszrxjix3Zcj0ERCwK4HxQ&lf=plcp&playnext=2
    Libya : L'envers de la Libye partie 1



    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtGYTb41TZg&feature=share
    Libyan Crisis: Events, Causes and Facts (Documentary)

    ReplyDelete
  42. more free press :

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=KAUgATeftv4
    FREE PRESS @ 6.10


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRdBkkbVkOQ&feature=bf_prev&list=ULMS-zGlY1Z8M&lf=mfu_in_order
    knives @ 0.50/Younis army inside
    Video of Libya Army troops joining anti-Gaddafi protesters in Benghazi

    RT vid :
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7-3wbyN_Ns&feature=bf_prev&list=ULVX9Y2TxVAFw&lf=mfu_in_order
    Video of abandoned Libya military base in Benghazi

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Some BRQ Lightning gathered :

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cqG0B14ErjY
      شبكة برق : هروب أتباع القذافي من الثوار في 18-2بنغازي
      Gaddafi followers escape from the rebels in Benghazi, 18-2

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5axDRA45Msw
      أصوات الرصاص والإشتباكات ليبيا
      Voices of Sawat lead and clashes near the battalion headquarters and security Libya 1
      time stamp?

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EcurFHx7888
      Heroic scene of the rebels in front of the battalion liberated the holy Benghazi[rainy day]
      مشهد بطولي للثوار من أمام كتيبة الفضيل المحررة ببنغازي

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qGslrEykyEE
      إعتقال 22 من المرتزقة على يد ثوار قبيلة غريان"جيش غريان"
      The arrest of 22 of the mercenaries at the hands of rebel tribe Gheryan "Army Gheryan"

      Delete
  43. @caustic : are my comments removed or am I not good in my head?

    ReplyDelete
  44. @hurriya
    The post you made about an Al-Farjani in Sirte speaking English was made on 1 January on this page

    ReplyDelete
  45. @ Hurriya: Your posts are all there now, so you must be crazy. Kidding! Stupid spam filter. It happens sometimes, and I was slow to notice and approve some comments by you and one by Felix.

    Nothing to add, didn't look at the links, but thanks for them.

    ReplyDelete
  46. قتحام كتيبة حسين الجويفي بمدينة شحات
    .
    http://www.videostaringa.com/-vid-luCDyqOMt9qdx+E.html

    Guetham battalion Hussein Jawafa city Cyrene.
    @ 0.35 a skull?

    I see the sodiers who did refuse to kill here :

    the captived soldiers @ 8.45

    involved person @ 8.48

    never seen this before:
    more captured @ 8.50

    http://i50.tinypic.com/15u0id.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  47. ORWA31

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=BE&feature=related&v=l1w7ceUvGy4
    مدينة ليبية تفوز بجائزة أفضل معلم أثري‎ - YouTube
    19 كانون الأول (ديسمبر) 2009‎ – إنتفاضة مدينة شحات _الجزء الثاني .by ORWA31 203 views · Thumbnail 3:23. Add to تقرير إن بي سي الأمريكية عن مدينة شحات الأثرية ...by ...

    "Al Shahat Cyrene 2009" , google gives ORWA31 for this vid, when open the vid ,
    it seems to be uploaded by Mr01aziz12 on Dec 19, 2009.

    Anyway it looks like in 2009 players were inside who are familiair with the treasures & AJE is reporting

    www.youtube.be/watch?v=l1w7ceUvGy4... -
    http://i45.tinypic.com/2q8ajq1.jpg

    In the east, the city of Cyrene holds a thousand years of history -- Roman general Mark Antony once gave it to Cleopatra.
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2055283/Libya-Robbers-loot-priceless-Treasure-Benghazi-bank-vault.html

    although the ORWA31 channel gives :
    Latest Activity Sep 21, 2011,Date Joined Jul 13, 2011 ,Age 20

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=UG&feature=related&hl=en-GB&v=fvo2JuCYEJk

    ReplyDelete
  48. http://www.videostaringa.com/ORWA31.html
    http://www.videostaringa.com/-17-vid-m7yozallqdOWl6Y.html
    ثورة 17 فبراير المجيده .

    uprising in a nutshell , inclusive the beheaded victims
    & the black skinned person, shot by unknown sniper, whose picture was 1 of the first sent into the world
    http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lh06mrXEeV1qcqumto1_500.jpg

    http://i39.tinypic.com/iviyp1.jpg
    this guy was shot by a .50 caliber with a 5 inch foot bullet

    @WyldDarkHeart the Head of Libiya Doctors association talked about total destruction of the bodies in a way he had never seen before

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ooh yes, the brain kid... Man. Wouldn't say darks-skinned, but his hair is kind of Afro-curl. That, just like the mosque massacre, looks a bit more like a cloven head then a shot one. A powerful ax stroke, pulling the brain out... if shot out, would be further from his head.

      I'm no expert. Maybe it was a shooting. Point is, we have no solid proof who did it.

      That was Benghazi, right? See-that's a big city with lots of criminal gangs, hardcore separatists, Islamists, terrorists, nihilists... hoping to provoke mass rage and hysteria. THEY, not any wicked security forces hoping only to keep order, stand the most to gain spilling blood and brains across the street.

      What post are we at? Ah yes. Off-topic. Oh well.

      Delete
    2. GRAPHIC- Ruqaya Fawzi Al-Hasi, the first to be killed by a mercenary in Shahat #Libya http://pic.twitter.com/9juH9Ujq

      Delete
  49. Hussein Jawafa Shahat

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTTyaWDh938

    خفايا تعرض لأول مره ...شحات ليبيا libya revelution


    Sri Forest .. Shahat Friday morning 18-2-2011 -top secret libyan revelution

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHyvJWry3G8

    ReplyDelete

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