Libya declares emergency law in southern regions

Black smoke billows as fighting takes place in the southern oasis city of Kufra, located in a triangle where the borders of Egypt, Chad and Sudan meet, on June 12, 2012, as members of Libya's Toubou minority and government forces clash’

Libya has temporarily shut down its borders with its southern neighbors and declared emergency law in seven southern regions citing mounting unrest there. This comes as Tripoli struggles to bring the entire country under its full control.

"The provinces of Ghadames, Ghat, Obari, Al-Shati, Sebha, Murzuq and Kufra are considered as closed military zones to be ruled under emergency law," the country’s National Assembly said in a decree released by the official LANA news agency. The assembly ordered to temporally close borders with Chad, Niger, Sudan and Algeria.

"Upsurge in violence and drug trafficking, and the presence of armed groups that act with complete impunity," was cited as the reason for the move by Assembly member Suad Ganurt, AFP reports.

She also said there was an "increase in the flow of illegal immigrants in the expectation of eventual international military action in Mali" against Al Qaeda-linked rebels, who have seized much of the north of the country.

The emergency law gives the defense ministry powers to appoint a military governor authorized to arrest criminals and detain and deport illegal immigrants in the affected areas.

The instability in the south comes as the central authorities in Tripoli still struggle to bring the whole country under complete control, following the ousting of Gaddafi’s regime last year. With a conventional national army still lacking in Libya, many of its provinces effectively rule themselves.

Tripoli also struggles with a separatist movement in the oil-rich east of the country. Earlier this month over a thousand demonstrators rallied for autonomy in the cradle of the last year’s uprising, Benghazi.

18 dead, many more wounded after gunmen attack passenger bus in Pakistan

18 dead, many more wounded after gunmen attack passenger bus in Pakistan

Masked gunmen opened fire on a passenger bus in southwest Pakistan, killing at least 18 people and wounding many others. The bus, which was parked near a petrol station, caught on fire, triggering a massive inferno.

­Senior local official Abdul Mansoor Kakar told AFP that four gunmen opened fire on the van with automatic rifles.

"At least 18 people have been killed in the fire. The dead included seven women and four children sitting in the passenger van," Kakar said.

The gunmen also caused petrol drums standing nearby to ignite, which led to a massive fire.

Eleven of the 18 bodies have been identified, but hospital officials said that some were so badly burned that identification was very difficult.

The incident took place in the outskirts of Khuzdar, around 250 kilometers southwest of Quetta, the capital of the Baluchistan province.

Baluchistan is one of Pakistan's most impoverished and dangerous provinces, despite having the country's largest gas and oil reserves, and it is plagued by sectarian violence as well as attacks by Taliban militants and separatist insurgents.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Siege of Bani Walid: Foreign fighters, phosphorus bombs and nerve gas

The besieged Libyan city of Bani Walid has been plunged into chaos. SW the former Gaddafi regime stronghold is under attack by militias bolstered by foreign mercenaries, and they used banned weapons like white phosphorous.

­The sources denied reports of the last few days that Bani Walid was retaken by the Libyan government. Residents said that militia forces have continued their assault, while preventing the refugees who fled from reentering the city. 

A man who claimed his relatives are trapped inside the besieged city spoke with RT, saying, “There is no food; there is nothing to support the life of people. And the militia does not allow anyone to come back to their homes.”

“They are demolishing homes with machinery and tanks. There is no communication or internet so people are not able to connect with each other,” the source said. He is currently in Egypt, and refuses to reveal his identity over fears of personal safety.

He believes the real reason for the inoperable communications is that many people have been killed inside Bani Walid by the forces besieging the city and now they are trying to prevent information about the killings to be leaked outside. 

The militia attackers have claimed they are battling ‘pro-Gaddafi’ forces, but the source slammed that motive as a “lie and a dirty game.”

“They use foreign snipers, I think from Qatar or Turkey, with Qatar covering all the costs,” he said. He claimed that a ship with weapons and other equipment recently docked in the port city of Misrata, where the assault on Bani Walid is allegedly being directed.

“There is no government in Libya. Groups of militia control everything. They don’t care about Libya, they don’t care about the nation,” he said, adding allegations that the majority of militia fighters have dual citizenship or passports from other countries.

“We ask the envoy [Special Representative] of the Secretary-General of the United Nations [for Libya] Mr. Tarik Mitri – where is he now?” he said. “Where is the United Nations? Where is the EU? Where is the Human Rights Watch? We ask for an intervention now as soon as possible – please!”

In an October 23 UN session, the US blocked a statement on the violence in Bani Walid drafted by Russia, which condemned the ongoing conflict in the city and calling for a peaceful resolution.

Witnesses claim militia used chemical weapons in Bani Walid

“I can confirm that pro-government militias used internationally prohibited weapons. They used phosphorus bombs and nerve gas. We have documented all this in videos, we recorded the missiles they used and the white phosphorus raining down from these missiles,” Bani Walid-based activist and lawyer Afaf Yusef told RT.

“Many people died without being wounded or shot, they died as a result of gases. The whole world needs to see who they are targeting. Are they really Gaddafi's men? Are the children, women and old men killed – Gaddafi's men?” Yusef said.

The forces attacking Bani Walid have been ordered to use “all means necessary” in their assault on the city. “To all parasites and leaches, a message to all of them across Libya, wherever they are: Whoever you are, however strong you are, and whoever your back is – the revolution should win,” a militant said in the TV report.

Looming humanitarian catastrophe in Bani Walid

The humanitarian situation outside Bani Walid is reportedly nearly as dire as that within the besieged city. Those who managed to flee the violence now find themselves stranded on the desert roads outside the city.

Thousands of Bani Walid residents have reportedly tried to reenter the city, but were stopped at makeshift militia checkpoints composed of pickup trucks armed with mounted machine-guns.

“Look at the people over there, they got a gun and they’re shooting at people with it,” a Bani Walid resident said, pointing in the direction of a checkpoint. He claimed that those who fled the city had been forced to stay in the desert for more than a week.

“Where is the government?” he said.

'600 killed in Bani Walid fighting in one day' – source

Amid conflicting reports that the Libyan city of Bani Walid was captured by army forces, RT has learned that 600 people were allegedly killed in Wednesday’s fighting, and over 1,000 have been hospitalized. Locals are appealing for international aid.

Libyan officials claimed that government forces conducted a 20-day siege before capturing Bani Walid, the last stronghold for supporters of the Gaddafi regime, and seized the city. Sources in the town gave conflicting reports, saying that local militias were responsible for the siege and now control of the area.

“We continue to receive conflicting reports. From sources on the ground, we’re hearing that the army is withdrawing from the city, although we are hearing of widespread killings. Government sources say the city has fallen,”

An individual in Italy who allegedly has relatives in Bani Walid spoke to RT about the current state of the city. Calling himself ‘Alwarfally’ – referring to a tribe from Bani Walid – he asked to remain anonymous for the interview.

He said he contacted his family in the besieged city, who told him that the situation there has stabilized: The militia retreated, but only after kidnapping a local member of the ‘Council of the Elders,’ which was tasked by Bani Walid’s tribal leaders with governing the city after the fall of Gaddafi.

 “Bani Walid’s people got the control of the city again,” Alwarfally told RT. “[The] situation in Bani Walid is better now. Militia fell back after the fight that happened yesterday, and everything is good.”

“Militia kidnapped the consul of Bani Walid, his health is poor,” he said. “They will take him to Misrata and I don’t know what will happen to him. He is a very good man. He didn’t have anything to do with what happened, he is just a council member in Bani Walid.”

The Misrata militia that allegedly laid siege to Bani Walid was the same group accused of war crimes by Human Rights Watch last week.

Alwarfally also claimed that at least hundreds of people were killed during the 20-day siege.

“The number is really big,” he said. “One the first day that [the militia] came, there were about 70 bodies from the fighting. Yesterday night there was 600.”

“The number of people in the hospitals is over 1000,” he added.

Whether government forces or militias are behind the violence, video footage from the town paints a very graphic picture.

“Some of the photos and video we’ve been receiving show dismembered bodies and children who have been killed. Some of that footage is coming from Bani Walid television,” Slier said.

Militias blockaded the town for the past 20 days in an attempt to locate those responsible for the death of Omran Shaaban – the man credited with capturing Muammar Gaddafi last year. The Warfalla tribe controlling Bani Walid was accused of kidnapping and torturing Shaaban.

The people of Bani Walid have been appealing for help from the international community – but Moscow's aid efforts were stopped by the United States.

Washington blocked a draft statement, proposed by Russia, on the resolution of violence in Bani Walid earlier this week. The statement called for a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Rail wars? Russia ponders new railroad-based missile systems

Plans are underway to create combat railway-based missile systems designed to give Russia a more flexible means of defense.

­The system consists of a train with two or three diesel locomotives and specialized railcars, which look like refrigerator or passenger railcars, but carry intercontinental ballistic missiles, together with command posts, Col. Vadim Koval, the Russian Defense Ministry's spokesman for the Strategic Rocket Forces (RVSN)the Russian Defense Ministry, told reporters.

Although the last railway-based missile unit was decommissioned almost a decade ago, the system is getting a second look as a means of protecting Russia’s vast landmass as global threats become more diversified.

"A final decision, however, has not been taken on the issue," Koval added.

The idea of using railroads to move around missiles is not new. Koval noted that the first unit of railway-based missile systems was put on combat duty in Kostroma in October 1987, and removed from service in 2005.

However, with the nature of warfare changing and the global situation increasingly volatile and unpredictable, military leaders argue it may be a good time to give some versatility to Russia’s missile defenses.

Meanwhile, Russia is looking for ways to counter the US missile defense system, which is being deployed in Eastern Europe. Despite Moscow’s warning that the technology has the potential to spark a new arms race, US and NATO officials remain adamant and refuse to cooperate with Russia. Washington has even rejected Moscow’s request to provide it with legal assurances that the system will never be activated against Russian territory.

Railway-based missile systems are designed for use along special military patrol routes, as well as railway lines used by the public.

Formerly, three missile divisions – near Kostroma, Krasnoyarsk and Perm – were deployed. Employing 12 trains, the system transported 36 missiles, each with 10 nuclear warheads.

Russian military experts say that with technological advances made in missile technology, the use of railroad-based systems could be an effective means of protecting Russia.

UK to double number of drones in Afghanistan

The UK military reportedly aims to double the size of its armed drone fleet in Afghanistan to ten by purchasing five US-made Reaper drones, which for the first time will be controlled from a UK base. The first five were controlled at US stations.

The Royal Air Force (RAF) announced the expedited purchase of the US-made unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), with operations set to begin in six weeks, AFP reported. The drones will be flown and operated from a tech hub built 18 months ago in the British region of Waddington in Lincolnshire, a leap forward in technological prowess for the UK.

The other five drones the UK operates in Afghanistan were controlled from a US Air Force base in Nevada, and target suspected insurgents in Afghanistan’s southwest province of Helmand.

"The new squadron will have three control terminals at RAF Waddington, and the five aircraft will be based in Afghanistan," an RAF spokesperson told the Guardian. “We will continue to operate the other Reapers from Creech though, in time, we will wind down operations there and bring people back to the UK.”

It is not known whether the drones will remain in Afghanistan following the NATO withdrawal in 2014.

Drone controversy deepens

The use of UAVs in Middle East is a controversial issue, as drones airstrikes frequently kill large numbers of innocent civilians.

Last month’s study from Stanford and New York universities titled ‘Living Under Drones’ claimed that only two percent of drone strike casualties in Pakistan are the top militants targeted in the attacks, and that the large number of collateral civilian deaths have turned Pakistanis against the US.

The “best available information,” according to the study, is that between 2,562 and 3,325 people were killed in Pakistan from June 2004 through mid-September of this year. An estimated 474 to 881 of those killed were civilians, including 176 children.

In early October, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that an overwhelming majority of those killed by US UAV strikes in Pakistan are innocent civilians. Malik asked the US to share its drone technology with Pakistan, claiming his government could do a better job at targeting terrorists than Washington.

"The Americans themselves often don’t know who they’ve hit,” anti-drone activist and filmmaker Carol Grayson told RT. “And this huge discrepancy over the figures… we’re finding out that a lot more civilians are being killed. But these are the people that the Americans don’t tell you about. And they actually class these people as ‘other.’”

The CIA has not responded to these calls for restraint, and recently asked the White House to increase the number of drones it employs, effectively transforming the program into a paramilitary force.

This summer, the UN lashed out against US drone policy, and asked Washington to clarify the legal basis for drone strikes against terror suspects rather than trying to capture them. The body argued that the airstrikes, which frequently kill innocent civilians, may be violating international law.

The US uses drone technology across the Middle East and North Africa, including in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen and Somalia.

In the first nine months of 2011, leading up to the ten-year anniversary of the Afghan War, US-led spy drones operating with NATO conducted nearly 23,000 surveillance missions in Afghanistan. At around 85 flights a day, this figure nearly doubles the rate of such missions from two years previous.

As the Pentagon increases the number of drones used in NATO missions in Afghanistan, insurgent attacks have risen nearly 50 percent since 2009, according to a media brief released in the fall of 2011 by the Afghanistan International Security Assistance force.

The UK has operated UAVs in Afghanistan since 2008 for combat missions and surveillance operations. According to the UK’s Ministry of Defense, Britain’s five drones were flown for 39,628 hours and fired 334 laser-guided missiles and bombs at suspected insurgents.

The Ministry of Defense said that it does not know how many insurgents have died from drone attacks because of the risks involved in verifying who has been hit. The ministry also said that it relies on Afghans to handle complaints of civilians killed by such strikes, and gather statistics.

Heather Barr, a lawyer for Human Rights Watch, believes this system of verification is flawed because it lacks uniformity, and not all Afghans have ready access to NATO military bases where such complaints can be made. For some Afghans, there is “a certain sense of futility in doing so [reporting civilian deaths] anyway,” due to lack of trust in the West, she said.

Eleven killed as Libyan militia shell Gaddafi stronghold

Clashes between Libyan authorities and Gaddafi loyalists have left 11 dead during the siege of anti-regime bastion Bani Walid. Libyan authorities continue to struggle against multiple militia groups in the midst of growing political disarray.

Libya’s President of the General National Congress, Mohammed Magarief, is on the way to Bani Walid to persuade its tribal and military leaders to allow a peaceful army takeover, AFP reported.

Meanwhile, some reports suggest that ceasefire has already been agreed, and national military forces are preparing to enter the restive city.

Tensions have been rising in the former Gaddafi stronghold as government forces try to bring the dissident town to heal.

People from both sides were killed in the violence as militias operating alongside the Defense Ministry faced counter attacks on Wednesday.

"Bani Walid has been shelled since this morning from three sides – the south, the east and southeast," Colonel Salem al-Wa'er, a spokesman for Bani Walid's fighters, told news agency AFP by phone.

The commander of ex-rebel group Libya Shield said four of his men had been killed and 19 injured in the battle for the hilltop town. While the deputy director of the town’s hospital said that at least 75 people had been wounded, including a 14-year-old girl.

Humanitarian groups have condemned the situation in the town amid reports that residents have been left without food and medical supplies. Amnesty International says hundreds of residents have been unlawfully taken into custody by militia groups in the city and are being tortured and mistreated.

Violence erupted after Libya’s General National Congress gave the Ministries of Interior and Defense permission to use force to arrest those suspected of killing Omran Shaaban – the man who is credited with capturing the country’s ex-leader, Muammar Gaddafi, last year.

Acting on government orders, troops began to surround the town, threatening to “purge” the settlement of the vestiges of the regime.

Army spokesperson Colonel Ali al-Sheikhi told AFP on Wednesday that the military had issued no order to attack the city, while Shield Libya officers said that they had been told to advance on Bani Walid.

­

Political disarray

Libya’s General National Congress has thus far failed to curtail violence in the country and bring militant groups formed of former rebels under control.

The country’s fragile government was plunged into disarray when the Congress sacked Mustafa Abushagur, the first prime minister to be elected after the 2011 toppling of Muammar Gaddafi.

Abushagur was elected as PM following the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi that killed US Ambassador Christopher Stevens. The now ex-PM warned of rising instability in Libya and called for a “crisis cabinet” to be created.

The former leader said he respected the Congress’ decision to oust him, but stressed he wanted to form a “national unity government” with a view to persuading the country’s political factions to end their wrangling and work together.

­

‘An embarrassing revelation’

­Human Rights Watch revealed in a report on Wednesday that stipulates Libyan rebels abused and murdered Colonel Gaddafi, along with his son Mutassim, and loyalists. Sabah Al-Mukhtar, President of the Arab Lawyers Association described the findings as an “embarrassment” for NATO given that they backed many of the armed militia groups that fought against Gaddafi.

“The major powers like the US and Britain were all telling lies, to say the least. This revelation, although now documented, is not new, everybody expected it,” Said al-Mukhtar to RT.

On the subject of the government’s harsh line on Beni Walid, he said the government is not in control of the fragmented military groups. Speaking about the militia groups, he told RT “their allegiance is not to Libya. Their allegiance is to their tribe, their town or their background.”

“The Libyan people are certainly suffering more than they did under Gaddafi,” said al-Mukhtar. “At the present moment we have a situation where the Libyans are pitched against each other.”

He concluded that the current situation will remain the same while there are international oil interests in Libya.