Libya's tribes rise up against Gadhafi

[Turborama]

Source: CNN International

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Several powerful tribes have already shown support for the rebellion
* There are about 140 tribes and each is subdivided into clans
* Tribes play an important role in Libyan society
* They stood united to fight their Italian colonizers

By Moni Basu, CNN
March 3, 2011 4:45 p.m. EST

Soon after the Libyan rebellion escalated, a senior member of the nation's powerful Warfallah tribe announced it would no longer support Moammar Gadhafi, saying that "he is no longer a brother."

The Zawiya tribe, based in a petroleum-rich region in the east, threatened to cut off oil flow. The Bani Walid tribe decided to withdraw its men from the regime's security brigades. And the influential Zintan tribe, allied in the past to Gadhafi's own tribe, broadcast a statement of support for the opposition.

One after another, Libya's myriad tribes are falling in line against Gadhafi, and the implications are enormous, said longtime observers of Libya, because for centuries, tribes have formed the backbone of the North African nation.

=snip=

Libya's 140 or so tribes and the clan and family structure that fall under them, remain the most important aspect of a society that lags behind many others in the region in development, said Ronald Bruce St. John, a scholar who has visited Libya numerous times and published several books about the country.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/03/03/libya.tribes/index.html?hpt=T2

[pinboy3niner]

1. Even some elements of Gaddafi's own tribe have renounced him

[roguevalley]

2. he's done for.

[StarsInHerHair]

3. K&R

nt

[Turborama]

4. Kick

From the bottom of page one, because I think there's someone around right now who might want to read it and could miss it otherwise.

:kick:

[WatsonT]

5. We live in interesting times.