Libyan Govt Trains 'Volunteers' To Fight

11:44pm UK, Wednesday April 27, 2011
Emma Hurd, Sky News correspondent, in Tripoli
The Libyan government is arming civilians to fight for Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
Sky News, under the supervision of the government, witnessed men, women and teenage boys undergoing weapons training 70 miles south of Tripoli.
Military officials at the camp near the town of Tarhunah claimed to have trained 400 "volunteers".
"The most important thing is that we are ready," army officer Khaled Musbar said.
"It is our duty to defend our country and our leader."
We were taken to watch the training by government minders, who control the movements of international journalists based in Tripoli.
Under their gaze, we saw grey haired men and some boys as young as 15 learning how to take apart and re-assemble Russian-made machine guns.
"I wanted to learn how to fight after the Nato airstrikes started," Mohammed, a 19-year-old student, said.
"It is my duty to defend my country," he said, echoing the official army line.
At a separate training facility set up at a nearby school, women were being put through similar drills.

Many of the women seemed unprepared to fight
Fatima clicked apart the gun in her hands, her fingernails were polished red.
Another woman wobbled on her kitten heels, her head veiled in shocking pink, as she squatted down to re-assemble the weapon.
"We want to fight the Americans, the British, the French," Fatima said, when asked what she intended to do with the gun she was holding.
"We want to kill any foreigners who come here," she said. All the women agreed that the enemy was Nato, not other Libyans.
"Even those in the east are our brothers," one woman said.
It is fast becoming the official Libyan regime narrative of this conflict: this is a war of foreign aggression - not an internal uprising.
Plenty may disagree, but on our carefully stage managed "reporting" tours we are unlikely to be allowed to speak to them.
The Libyan authorities claim to be arming and training thousands of civilians across the country to defend their towns and cities and head east to the frontlines.

Gaddafi 'supporters' of all ages were at the training camps
If it is a serious attempt to create a volunteer army it could further complicate the Nato mission - with its mandate to protect civilians.
As a serious fighting force though, the volunteers do not appear to much of a threat.
Out in the desert we watched as a group of freshly trained men lined up with sniper rifles and attempted, and largely failed, to hit barrels set up as targets.
Their attempts to fire rocket propelled grenades were equally disastrous.
Out of three weapons, two jammed and one landed just 40 metres away. "God is great," they shouted, apparently relieved that it had fired at all.

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[XxModernDayRaiderxX]

@fslcanuck they will be fighting there own brothers and sisters

[fslcanuck]

these stupid people dont even know who they will be fighting.

[mphello]

I don't mean to laugh, but...

guys on merry-go-round continuously firing mounted machine gun = hilarity

[TheJUNGLESURFER]

this reporter sucks so biased its  crap

[TheJUNGLESURFER]

viva gaddafi

[mtmellin]

alalalala babababaalalalala bang bang fire fire kill kill kill

very crazy and odd people

[amoohjob]

the cycology of LIBYANS is to restore theire national army yes libya is for libyans

[aimenissa10]

gaddafi's goons are messed up

[junoke3]

on the beginning on the video, are they smell drugs ? are they crazy ? are they old prizoners who are been liberated to fight the rebels ? They are odd.