In response to weeks-long Grad multiple rocket launcher system fire aimed at their key supply hub of Nalut, Libya's western rebels finally launched a large scale, logistically sophisticated offensive against the Muammar Gaddafist-held towns of Ghazaya and Takut in recent days.
In the weeks leading up to the offensive, rebels and civilians alike in Nalut, which is located in Libya's Jebel Nafusa mountain range, endured constant and highly irregular Grad barrages, resulting in tens of thousands of the town's residents seeking refuge across the border in Tunisia.
On the morning of July 28, hours before the rebel assault got underway, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces followed through on the promise to conduct air strikes against
Ghazaya and Takut, as rebel leaders refused to send their troops in to battle without NATO's prior "softening up" of the towns with heavy bombardment.
Rebel dependence on NATO forces is a notable development when compared to their original policy of absolutist non-interventionism that dominated at the war's outset in February. However, support from the Libyan rebel's Arab allies in the Gulf are also seen in Nalut as Qatari and Emirati officials vie for influence among the rebels, including a Qatari government representative escorting Jalal al-Digheily, the Transitional National Council's (TNC's) civilian defense minister, on a tour of front line towns.
Five months on, not only are opposition forces in need of Western air power, but also of arms, ammunition and other types of support, most notably from the tiny Gulf emirate of Qatar. After their initial success in this offensive, which combined hi-tech Western air support with crude artillery and locally fashioned "technical" fighting trucks, for the time being the Amazigh and Arab rebels of western Libya have secured for themselves a crucial Tunisian lifeline as well as newfound confidence.
On Thursday, July 28, Libya's western rebels launched a large-scale, logistically sophisticated offensive against heavily dug-in Gaddafist positions in the towns of Ghazaya and Takut in the plains below the Jebel Nafusa mountain range. For weeks on end, forces loyal to Tripoli attacked the key rebel supply hub of Nalut with crudely targeted multiple rocket launch system Grad artillery.
The constant Grad fire, launched at highly irregular intervals and aimed at terrorizing the populace, had several debilitating effects. It sent tens of thousands of Nalutis and those inhabiting surrounding areas into refuge across the border in Tunisia, just less than an hour's drive away.
Nalut, as the gateway to the greater Amazigh-dominated (Berber) Jebel Nafusa region as well as rebel-controlled Arab towns to the east and north, had its humanitarian and military supply under threat from direct fire attacks. Without the Nalut conduit to Wazin, the rebel-controlled post on the Libyan-Tunisian border, Gaddafist forces maintained the potential to cut off supplies to western rebels from the rear which would have isolated and eventually starved towns like Jadu, Yefran, and Zintan, essentially turning them into an island of resistance facing rapidly encroaching enemies on all sides.
Nalut's rebel leadership had been lobbying the top echelon's of the Benghazi-based TNC to sell NATO war planners in Europe on the idea of an all out war against Gaddafi's western-most troops.
While NATO higher-ups deliberated on the notion of attacking another front, ostensibly under its mandate to protect Libyan civilians, Nalut continued to be attacked with aging yet terrifying Soviet-era rocket technology. In one of the worst such incidents, the author witnessed Gaddafists rocketing Nalut for nearly eight hours with an estimated 70 munitions hitting the town and surrounding environs.
Jamestown met with the head of Nalut's military council, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution against family members remaining in Tripoli. A compact, light skinned Amazigh man in his late 50s or early 60s clad in dated American-issue desert camouflage complemented by a matching beige turban, he had an air of confidence that the NATO air cavalry would indeed come but he was as not at liberty to specify when.
Even in Nalut, a place with a high degree of social cohesion, people feared the presence of pro-Gaddafi informants not unlike their peers in cosmopolitan Benghazi. All details about military operations were to stay "top secret" virtually until the moment of kinetic contact.
At 6:30 am on the day of the offensive, this Jamestown analyst rode with a column of refurbished Soviet T-60 tanks as they awkwardly trundled down a petroleum smuggler's route from the Nalut tableland down to the Ghazaya plain in the early morning fog.
The diesel belching T-60s, barely fitting on the ad hoc road, churned up asphalt poured by those who ferried black market oil that was once transported to Tunisia while Libya was subject to international sanctions. The tanks were accompanied by rebel fighter trucks that brought under-armed fighters to the front.
As one groups of rebels advanced toward Ghazaya, another group to the northeast moved down the mountain toward Takut in order to attack the Gaddfists on two fronts concomitantly. The vaguely promised NATO air strikes finally materialized in the hours before the dawn assault.
With the cliffs around Nalut acting like a hulking geologic amphitheater, reverberations shook Nalut for hours in the dark of night. Rebel leaders refused to mount their attack without their NATO partners softening up these towns with a heavy bombardment beforehand.
The rebels estimated there were four Grad trucks in Ghazaya and at least one in Takut. They alleged these vehicle-borne artillery systems were hidden either between or actually inside homes in civilian areas where NATO would be required to strike, perhaps giving Western planners pause in regard to hesitancy about civilian casualties.
Upon spotting an incongruously new, black Toyota HiLux truck on the roadside (virtually all Libyan rebel trucks are white or silver), Jamestown encountered a pair of American intelligence officers on a rocky outcropping along with two TNC officials who appeared to be helping to target and coordinate air strikes on Ghazaya under the searing sun.
On a nearby mesa, rebels loaded a makeshift four tube GRAD rocket launcher technical truck in full view of the intelligence men who appeared indifferent to screams of "Allahu Akbar" as rebels fired wildly from the technical into the valley's parched floor. The Americans present were quietly employing high-powered, military grade binoculars to closely observe the assault on Ghazaya as jets roared overhead.
The objective for the rebels to have NATO eliminate all of the Grad systems possessed by Gaddafist troops was not immediately successful. For even as precision guided munitions from the alliances jets continued to smash targets below, Gaddafists began to fire on Nalut's town center in an incredibly violent quid pro quo.
The covert presence of Americans on the Libyan battlefield would have been immensely controversial at the war's outset in February as its early leaders preached a policy of absolutist non-interventionism. That quickly evolved into pleas for Western air power coupled with a "no boots-on-the-ground" proviso.
Libyan rebels, full of soaring bravado after a series of successful battles against Gaddafist forces in the oil terminal towns of Brega and Ras Lanuf in early March, told the author at the time that under no circumstances would they accept help from non-Libyan nationals on the ground, including help from fellow Arab states.
With the war dragging on for months at the time of this writing and several of the rebels' earliest victories having long since been rolled back by their much better armed and trained opponents, there are now several foreign governments directly involved in the Libyan conflict.
Aside from the Americans encountered during the height of the Nalut offensive, Jamestown was told by an Amazigh rebel official that Qatari and Emirati investment in the war had reached a point to where it appeared the two Gulf states were vying for influence among rebel factions.
When Jalal al-Digheily, the new TNC defense minister, visited Nalut on July 20, he was escorted by a man purported to be an official from the Qatari Ministry of Defense, according to a member of al-Digheily's entourage. The state of Qatar has been involved nearly since the conflict's inception by providing arms, ammunition and many other types of support.
Several pro-rebel satellite channels with expensive looking sets and slick production values have sprung up in recent months with the studios reportedly located in Doha. The degree of United Arab Emirates collusion with the rebels is less clear than that of Qatar but at dozens of rebel checkpoints throughout Amazigh-majority areas the Emirati flag is now flapping alongside its Qatari counterpart.
