Tripoli, April 05: Amid relentless attacks on civilians by forces loyal to Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi, hundreds of Libyans have stepped forward for volunteer weapons training.
At least 700 civilians have participated in such training sessions at a military camp in Benghazi, according to a Reuters report.
These volunteers — most of them workers and well-educated trainees — have decided to take up arms, in order to better defend their towns as well as their families.
“In his speech Gaddafi said I’m a military man and I arrived on a tank, those who want to overthrow me should come on a tank as well. We tell him that with God’s will … we will achieve his wish and we will win,” said university student Hisham Mohamed, quoted by Reuters.
Fighting continued across Libya on Tuesday with heavy clashes reported in the port city of Misratah.
Gaddafi’s troops shelled residential areas in the city and targeted a school used as a shelter for residents. At least five civilians were killed in the attack.
According to the United Nations, more than 400,000 people have so far fled crisis-hit Libya for fear of rising violence. Some 12,000 of the refugees are now stranded at the country’s borders with Egypt and Tunisia.
Meanwhile, NATO airstrikes continued over the weekend around Sirte and Ras Lanouf, east of Tripoli.
Backed by the United Nations, US, British, French, Canadian, Danish and Belgian warplanes have launched several strikes on Libya since March 19.
The West claims that it has launched the war on Libya to stem Tripoli’s military offensives against anti-government forces that now control a large portion of the country.
Critics, however, accuse the West of hypocrisy for the offensive on Libya, given their silence on brutal crackdowns on similar anti-regime movements elsewhere in the Arab world, such as Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
——–Agencies