Graphic Iraq War Viedeos

Reading the Rebels in Misurata, Libya

One pair of questions often asked about the war in Libya have been these: Just who are the rebels who have taken up arms against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s government, and how do they fight?

A video recorded this spring by an independent photographer in Misurata, if watched closely, offers a set of answers to these questions, and raises many others.

Earlier this year, this blog began the Vantage Point series, presenting raw and often uncut video from Afghanistan. (You can watch earlier segments here, here or here. ) The series took a necessary pause as many of us were called away from months in the field in Libya and elsewhere. The video posted here now, which rates a warning for graphic content, provides a chance to revive the feature and to explore important questions about Libya’s armed uprising and the men participating in it.

First, watch the raw video, below, which shows a group of rebels pressing an attack against a group of pro-Qaddafi soldiers they had surrounded in a small residential compound near Tripoli Street, which was the area of some of the most intensive fighting during the siege. (Note: This is actually two video files stitched together. There was a break of about one minute after the man most prominently featured was wounded. During this time, the videographer, who was using a digital camera that also shoots video, took several still images before switching back to the camera’s video mode.)

Like this: Rebels mass and mill about in an alley as several of them prepare a truck-mounted M40 recoilless rifle to fire. Nearby is the wall of a small compound, within which the surrounded Qaddafi soldiers have been trapped. Rebels fire rifles to suppress the Qaddafi soldiers. Then one of them fires the heavy weapon, which causes an explosion as the round strikes the face of the compound wall. One of the rebels — his name is Hamid Shwaili — falls. He calls for help. Other rebels at a nearby building fire machine guns into the compound as the wounded man’s friends drag him back up the alley, to what appears to have been a small garage, where doctors try to administer immediate aid. Near death, Mr. Shwaili is soon rushed to an ambulance, bound for a hospital, no doubt. If you watch very closely — note the dark puddle that becomes visible the moment Mr. Shwaili is first moved from the dusty ground, and note as well the stained clothing of the doctor who carries him into the ambulance — you will see his blood loss has been extreme.

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