Rival rebel factions clash in Libya, 4 dead

[Bosonic]

Source: AP

(AP) The information minister of Libya's rebel movement says its forces have overrun the base of a rival faction after five hours of fighting.

Mahmoud Shamam says the clashes broke out around 3 a.m. Sunday and left four rebels dead and six wounded. The main rebel force was now in control of the al-Nidaa Brigade's base on the western outskirts of Benghazi, the de facto capital of Libya's rebel-held east.

The fighting followed Thursday's killing of chief rebel commander Abdel-Fattah Younis in yet unexplained circumstances. The slaying and Sunday's clashes point to sharp divisions within the rebel movement nearly six months after the start of the uprising against Moammar Gadhafi's rule.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-07-31-libya-rebels_n.htm?csp=34news

[Poll_Blind]

1. In related news, NATO torn on how to fairly distribute friendly-fire deaths among rival factions.

PB

[PurityOfEssence]

4. Har.

Good one.

[tcaudilllg]

2. Looks like someone realized they were fighting for al Qaeda.

[harmonicon]

3. Who do you want to bomb now?

We really need to quickly sort out which faction to bomb the shit out of. Also, we need to decide which to recognize as the official government. Does the cognitive dissonance hurt yet?

[PurityOfEssence]

6. First we have to help them steal all of Libya's money in our banks

For a proper bloodbath, one needs weapons, ammunition and money.

Will this be a quick incident, or does this suggest something greater? Is this "real" infighting, or just a little house-cleaning so they can seem like upstanding types to their foreign corporate interventionist pals?

This is, once again, an extremely complex situation, but I'm sure we'll get lectured by the interventionists on this board how it's all straightforward and obviously the "good" work of the unsullied populist heroes.

Maybe this will cause a cleansing of the Islamist theocrats from the rebel ranks--which would be a fabulous thing--but it may just illuminate how many there are there or bring them to ascendancy.

Get gleaning, folks: the western news entities are NOT going to sincerely get into the real forces at play; it messes with their narrative.

[harmonicon]

7. There's something that this really makes me wonder:

No matter who wins this war (though I suspect that it will be the old government), how much restitution will NATO owe? The real cost we pay for taking part in this war may be far more than - even in just monetary terms - just some bombs and planes.

[joshcryer]

11. I really don't see where you stand here.

"Is this "real" infighting, or just a little house-cleaning so they can seem like upstanding types to their foreign corporate interventionist pals?"

"Maybe this will cause a cleansing of the Islamist theocrats from the rebel ranks--which would be a fabulous thing--but it may just illuminate how many there are there or bring them to ascendancy."

Now, I can agree with both sentences are sensible, alone, but together they show a lack of position being taken. Which is it?

I can certainly agree that the house cleaning could be done to impress the west, but if that was their strategy it would be an interesting failure, since at least the western media is reporting it as straining factionalization. So I'm more inclined to believe that they did it because they had what could only be called a threat to their interests sitting in a camp in Benghazi, which acted with impunity. That couldn't be allowed, even if they weren't Islamist (which they were). In that vein it has to cause the cleansing of the "Islamist theocrats" because the theocrats can only have power through force and intimidation. By locking down the militas in Benghazi and banning weapons not in licensed security forces hands (wow) they're at least making moves to stop it.

I can agree that it might illuminate the level of the theocrats (and I could be misled that there are more than I previously believed), but I cannot agree that it could "bring them to ascendancy."

[plumbob]

5. See, just the supporters of bombing said, it's simple, we'll be in and out

in no time, smelling the rose petals!

Yes, this is definitely worth spending our money on, instead of our own people!



Right? right? Hey, where's MY flowers?

[BadtotheboneBob]

8. Fighting over who gets to sell all their oil...

... money is quite a motivating factor, dontcha know...

[UnseenUndergrad]

9. If I may.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/gaddafi-cell-routed-by-libyan-rebels-20110801-1i6t7.html#utm_source=twitter

It appears that the "rival faction" was in fact a sleeper cell coordinated by Gaddafi's secret police.

[BadtotheboneBob]

10. Thanks...

Makes sense...