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#Libya: FFs rescued 105 hostages from behind enemy lines http://bit.ly/p4vxtg #Misrata
Chris Stephen in Misrata
The Guardian, Wed 27 Jul 2011 14.28 BST
Rebel forces in the besieged Libyan city of Misrata have announced the rescue from behind enemy lines of 105 civilians kidnapped by pro-Gaddafi forces.
Commanders said the rescue of families on Sunday was planned in co-ordination with Nato.
The captives were seized in the Ghiran district of Misrata on 24 April while fierce fighting raged in the city.
Art student Hawa Ahmed, 20, said she was woken that morning by government soldiers banging at her door.
"They told us we had 10 minutes to leave, we had no time to take anything," she said.
The troops said they had orders to evacuate the city and ordered families into their own cars. Ahmed's mother and father were not at home so she, her younger sister and brother were taken in her uncle's car.
"We drove out of the city, there were nine people in our car," she said. "The soldiers were very rude, shouting at us. They gave us no food, no water."
The journey ended 50 miles south at the small desert village of Garara Qataf, where the army told them to find their own accommodation.
Local families took them in but conditions were crowded, with 24 people sharing the house Ahmed was assigned, and 50 in a neighbouring property.
Men in the group were subjected to interrogations by government troops, who also set up checkpoints at either end of the village.
"They called us in many times, asking us pointless questions," said one of the kidnapped men, Amran Jusef, 55.
"When Nato [planes] came all the Gaddafi soldiers would run and hide, they would run away from their vehicles. One group hid in the mosque."
Back in Misrata, the missing were assumed to have been kidnapped but nothing more was known. City officials say more than 1,000 people have been abducted from Misrata's suburbs by government troops.
Then came a breakthrough. Although phone networks in Misrata have collapsed, the government mobile phone network is still functioning.
One of the younger men in the kidnapped group had spent time with the Halbus brigade, one of the groups of rebel fighters in the city, and remembered the satellite phone number of a commander.
A mobile phone was obtained and the number dialled – to be answered by a surprised Halbus brigade soldier.
Commanders of the brigade – the best equipped formation in the city's rebel force, armed with tanks, artillery and pickup trucks carrying anti-aircraft guns – immediately formed a rescue plan.
"At first it was impossible to fetch them," said operations officer Elabed Ben Taher. "But then we pushed eastwards and the families contacted us."
The rebels say Nato has told them not to advance beyond current front lines, allowing bomber jets to strike any military target they see beyond it.
"We informed Nato so they knew our positions – we told them we're going to get some families," said Taher.
At dawn on Sunday morning the raiding force drove through a lightly defended part of the frontline. One bonus was that the kidnapped families had been left their cars, so a rendezvous outside Garara Qataf was arranged.
The families were woken by a phone call at dawn. "I didn't know we had the possibility to escape, but the rebels planned it for many weeks," said Ahmed.
"We were told to get ready at six in the morning. We were very scared."
Then came a final hitch, when the Halbus column came across a patrol of three government jeeps. A short gun battle ended in the destruction of two jeeps with the third one fleeing.
At 9am the Halbus units met the refugees, filming the encounter, then pulled back to the Misrata front line.
For the city's rebels, it was a small victory in a bitter campaign.
For Ahmed and her two siblings, there is joy at being reunited with their parents.
"We are over-happy to be back," she said. "I don't believe I'm here, it was a nightmare. A nightmare."
