"ANALYSIS - #Libya rebels show new discipline in push to Tripoli" - After a six-month-old conflict when (cont) tl.gd/ce0dsq
"ANALYSIS - #Libya rebels show new discipline in push to Tripoli" - After a six-month-old conflict when inexperience and ill-discipline undermined their offensives time and again, rebels have formed themselves into a more organised fighting force.
That organisation will be crucial if they are to consolidate their latest advances which allow them to encircle#Gaddafi 's stronghold in #Tripoli and, they hope, force his capitulation. The rebels who took #Zawiyah, many of them hardened by months of fighting in the #Nafusa mountain range to the south, were a different proposition.
"During the previous uprising the young people like me, we just attacked on our own free will," said Nagi, a 31-year-old rebel fighter from #Zawiya.
"But now when our commanders speak we do as we are told and we have tactics, it is not just a free assault without thinking."
Rebels are now formed into units, mostly based on their native towns or villages, and each unit has a commander. That may be standard battlecraft, but for the sometimes anarchic rebel movement, it is a novelty.
In contrast to previous offensives, the rebels do not waste ammunition. There is little celebratory gunfire.
The rebels also seem to have at least a rudimentary idea about military tactics.
"We are going to go to Tripoli very methodically," said Murad Badda, a 39-year-old shopkeeper-turned rebel fighter who was driving around the town on Monday in a pickup truck with a group of other fighters."
"We will do what we did during our offensive from the Western mountains. We will attack one area, clear it and then move forward very carefully.""
http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFLDE77E0IZ20110815
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That organisation will be crucial if they are to consolidate their latest advances which allow them to encircle#Gaddafi 's stronghold in #Tripoli and, they hope, force his capitulation. The rebels who took #Zawiyah, many of them hardened by months of fighting in the #Nafusa mountain range to the south, were a different proposition.
"During the previous uprising the young people like me, we just attacked on our own free will," said Nagi, a 31-year-old rebel fighter from #Zawiya.
"But now when our commanders speak we do as we are told and we have tactics, it is not just a free assault without thinking."
Rebels are now formed into units, mostly based on their native towns or villages, and each unit has a commander. That may be standard battlecraft, but for the sometimes anarchic rebel movement, it is a novelty.
In contrast to previous offensives, the rebels do not waste ammunition. There is little celebratory gunfire.
The rebels also seem to have at least a rudimentary idea about military tactics.
"We are going to go to Tripoli very methodically," said Murad Badda, a 39-year-old shopkeeper-turned rebel fighter who was driving around the town on Monday in a pickup truck with a group of other fighters."
"We will do what we did during our offensive from the Western mountains. We will attack one area, clear it and then move forward very carefully.""
http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFLDE77E0IZ20110815
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