I just spoke to a friend’s husband who is in Benghazi. He’s Libyan, works there and in Europe, and his family is in this city, the second largest in the Libya. He asks that I don’t use his name—because Muammar Qaddafi is not gone yet (and though he’ll eventually return to Europe, his relatives won’t). He reports:
* Benghazi is quiet and safe. Shops and banks—though not schools—were open today. He had no trouble driving throughout the city. “Everybody’s fine,” he says. I’ts very safe… Unbelievably. Nobody is afraid of Qaddafi like before.”
* The Internet is not functioning in the city. International phone service is sketchy. Many residents are receiving and watching Al Jazeera.
* The city is being governed by an ad hoc assortment of military people, police, past government officials, and groups of citizens.
* There is a major fear shared by the residents of Benghazi: that Qaddafi will launch an air assault on the city. My friend’s husband notes that the military guarding the city does not possess anti-aircraft guns. He says that because Qaddafi was distrustful of this region, he did not supply the military based there with large amounts of weaponry. “We cannot fight back against an air attack,” he says.
* The residents of Benghazi have been trying to follow what’s happening in Tripoli. “I was able to talk to a friend in Tripoli,” he notes. “He told me, ‘It’s hell in Tripoli. There’s shooting everywhere. Qaddafi’s mafia is shooting people everywhere in the city.'”
He’s hopeful that the violence in Libya—a friend of his was shot and killed in Benghazi—will soon be over and Qaddafi gone. “In a couple of days,” he says, “everything will be finished.”
