It was utterly predictable that the war in Libya would not be over even if Gaddhafi would be pushed away. The various fractions of the rebels could always be expected to start fighting over the loot. Frankly – why shouldn't they? This is happening now and NATO is preparing to go into Libya to clean up the mess the three stooges, Obama, Sarkozy and Cameron, created.
Nato officials are also concerned that fighting could break out among the factions that brought down Gaddafi's regime.
They believe the alliance would be under an obligation to intervene under the terms of its UN mandate to protect the Libyan population.
"If it degenerates into a big fight between factions, we will have to take action," a senior official said.
"If the scale and scope is of an order that justifies Nato intervention, we will intervene."
The situation is of course already degenerating and there is already fighting between various rebel factions. But a multisided civil war situation like this can not be refereed from the air. To intervene here means ground troops and a lot of them. Those will then be, as in Afghanistan, just another faction in an ever widening civil war.
From various news items:
Remember what happened after they did this in Iraq?
Libya's new government is setting up a security agency whose main task would be to root out those who remain loyal to deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi in towns and cities it now controls.
Ahmed al Dharrat, Libya's new interim internal affairs minister, told Reuters the new agency would replace a much-feared security service which ruled the North African nation through fear and arrests throughout Gaddafi's 42 years in power.
"Regarding internal security, there has been an order to abolish it. And we are studying a way of creating a body," al Dharrat said in an interview.
In Tripoli – people from Ziltan versus the LIFG:
An NTC spokesman who did not want to be named because he is not allowed to speak to the media about the incident told CNN "immediately after the journalist left the area, members of the rival Zintan-based Kekaa militia surrounded members of the Tripoli Brigade and stopped them from leaving."
"They had issued an arrest warrant from the Zintan Military Council for Belhaj and his deputy," the NTC spokesman added.
…
More members from the Tripoli Brigade based in Metiga airport arrived in pickup trucks armed with heavy artillery and surrounded the Kekaa Brigades and "convinced" them to leave after accusations were exchanged between the two groups and tension that may have escalated to fighting, the spokesman said.
In the South – Berbers versus Arabs:
Berbers from Nalut and Arabs from nearby Seaan clashed Saturday with Kalashnikov rifles and machine guns in the Nefusa mountains. A family of three caught in the crossfire was killed in the incident, Ahmed Hussein who witnessed the incident, told CNN.
Tripoli – lot of loyalist who will not stay silent:
"I am a Gadhafi loyalist. I want Moammar. Some people are afraid to speak out, but I'm not," he says. "All I've known is Gadhafi. And I felt secure back then. There are many of us who feel the same way, but we are afraid to speak out because we might get beaten or shot."
…
By some estimates, up to 30 to 40 percent of the population in Libya remains sympathetic to Gadhafi.
Sirte – fighting to death:
For the grim truth is that this battered city, the last strategically important target for anti-Gaddafi forces, is home to elements who know there is no point in surrendering.
These men know that death is their only option. If they surrender they will tried and executed for so-called "blood crimes".
The rebels know it too.
Near Sirte – Benghazis versus looters from Misurata
Fathi al-Shobash, an eastern revolutionary, said that when he tried to stop Misrata fighters from raiding homes, they would push him away and say this was their time to treat the Gadhadhfas the way they were treated by their leader. Gadhafi drew heavily on the Gadhadhfa and other loyalist tribes for his military and other key parts of his regime.
“I came to sincerely fight for freedom and my one goal is to rid Libya of Moammar Gadhafi,” said al-Shobash. “Why take it out on innocent people from his tribe?”
The tensions between east and west have begun to percolate on a national level as the interim government — set up by easterners — tries to solidify its authority after the fall of Tripoli and Gadhafi’s ouster in late August. Already, some in the west have rankled at what they see as attempts by easterners to dominate.