Libyan planes attack unruly militias in south, army on alert

Reuters ^ | Sat Jan 18, 2014 4:03pm EST | Feras Bosalum and Ulf Laessing

[Pan_Yan]

(Reuters) - Libyan war planes attacked targets in the restive south on Saturday after gunmen stormed an air force base and the government ordered in ground troops following days of skirmishes between rival tribesmen and militias.

Western powers fear the OPEC producer could slide into further instability as the government struggles to contain heavily-armed militias, tribesmen and Islamists who helped to topple Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 but refuse to disarm.

A lack of border controls and the ineffectiveness of a small army lacking equipment have turned Libya into a weapons smuggling route for al Qaeda in sub-Saharan countries and also a corridor for Islamist fighters heading to Syria and economic migrants heading to Europe.

Prime Minister Ali Zeidan went on national television to announce he had ordered troops to be sent to the south after a group of gunmen entered the Tamahind air force base outside Sabha, 770 km (480 miles) south of the capital Tripoli.

Defence Ministry spokesman Abdul-Raziq al-Shabahi said later that government forces had regained control of the base after air strikes.

"A force was readied, then aircraft moved and took off and dealt with the targets," he told reporters in Tripoli.

He gave no details of the military operation but blamed forces loyal to Gaddafi for the violence. Sabha, the biggest city in the south, has seen days of clashes between rival militias and tribesmen.

[Pan_Yan]

By golly, Boy Blunder deserves another Piece Prize for this one.

[dfwgator]

"Miss Me Yet?"

[Avid Coug]

“Miss Me Yet?”

LOL!!! Funny post of the week in my book.

[TigersEye]

So, the new 0bama-made Libyan government is killing the people that Gaddafi was killing? Time to round up NATO and go bomb Libya back into rubble again.

[Zeneta]

How should you spell Gaddafi’s name?

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/how-should-you-spell-gaddafi%E2%80%99s-name-.html#E54Dbq0

snip

There is no single “correct” way to spell the former Libyan ruler’s name because of the difficulty of translating the Arabic script into our language. It is estimated that there are currently 112 ways to spell his name.

Whether you have seen ‘Gaddafi’, ‘Khaddafi’ or ‘Ghaddafi’ in the press today, here are the most popular choices for the man with many spellings.

snip

So who uses what?

Gaddafi – Al Jazeera, BBC, Yahoo! UK, Sky News, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, The Irish Independent, The Daily Telegraph, Sydney Morning Herald, Irish Independent, Jerusalem Post, Wikipedia, Financial Times, AOL, Reuters, Washington Post, Mirror, Scotsman

Gadhafi – Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, CNN, Ha’aretz, Yahoo! US

Qaddafi - Fox News, New York Times, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, Business Insider

Kadhafi - AFP, San Francisco Chronicle, Sudan Tribune

Khadafy - New York Post, Boston Globe

Gadaffi - ABC

Khaddafy - NBC

Kadafi- Los Angeles Times

While there may be global differences on how to spell the controversial leader’s name, ‘Gaddafi’ seems to be the most popular.

[867V309]

Clean-up on aisle 6.

[UCANSEE2]

"Western powers fear the OPEC producer could slide into further instability as the government struggles to contain heavily-armed militias, tribesmen and Islamists who helped to topple Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 but refuse to disarm who are being re-armed by the United States.

[headstamp 2]

“A lack of border controls and the ineffectiveness of a small army lacking equipment have turned Libya into a weapons smuggling route for al Qaeda in sub-Saharan countries and also a corridor for Islamist fighters heading to Syria and economic migrants heading to Europe. “

Well, that worked out well for the Kenyan and the two GOPe cheerleaders.

[TigersEye]

My favorite spelling is 'Goldencheesenozzle' but I always have to explain
who I'm talking about to everyone who is unfamiliar with that one.

[Zeneta]

I’ve always been partial to “Ka Daffy duck”.