Rebels are claiming to have gained control of Zawiyah and Gharyan for the most part, though the battles aren't done.
The Zawiyah fight is also extending westward in some of …I guess you could say it's metro area cities. They seem to be heading for the westernmost major city, Zuwarah, which has a large Berber population, in other words it's revolution ready (these rebels are largely Berber to begin with on this front so it's probably a special target for them in regards to liberation).
Damn. Wow. Holy cow.
I thought the end game was upon us, but the quickness of this is amazing. Gaddafi threatened a war of attrition and looks like he got it, and it fucked him.
The only major cities not currently under the rebel aim, control, or combat are....only four.
There's Sirte, which is roughly between the rebel strongholds of Misrata and Benghazi. It's Gaddafi's hometown, so there's a sense that possibly maybe the people there have some tribal reason to stand up for him. And also of course that Gaddafi has pumped more protection and clampdown into it for reasons of both keeping face (losing your hometown would suck right?) and maybe even genuine feelings of care for the place being his. Which to me describes his pysche. He is both trying to gold onto power like Mubarak or Ben Ali because hey, he is a power hungry greedy fuck. But also because he really is invested in Libya, it's HIS, it's HIS triumph, HIS rising success story, HIS achievement. How dare anyone take that from him! How dare the people try to share themselves with themselves. They're his too!
There's Bani Walid which I think is currently the only loyalist controlled major city linked to Tripoli by road at this point, and along the only remaining route outside from Tripoli. That route goes down into the desolate south of the country, but I guess eventually hits Gaddafi's lapdog state of Chad. Which so far is the primary source of mercs. Those mercs who seem to be half of the loyalist troops by this point, judging by the fact that every captured soldier seems to be a black guy.
And speaking of down there, there's really only one city down there in the south. It's called Sabha and it's remained loyal throughout all this. It doesn't really have any strategic importance and I guess is so isolated from everything else that it might be able to sit out any conflict. I wonder if that isolation is probably why people have been quiet there too, they're alone down there with Gaddafi troops and a easy skip and a hop from merc country. I worry though that if the revolution succeeds up north that it could become a last holdout of desperate military leaders or something.
And of course the fourth major city clearly in Gaddafi hands is….Tripoli. There are only 30 miles between Zawiyah and Tripoli. The rebels aren't going to just sit on their hands and ignore it, good idea or no…..the fight will be in Tripoli soon. Probably within the week.
That Russian ambassador earlier had mentioned Gaddafi planning a sort of suicidal blast for the city if it was close to falling into rebel hands....sounds a lot like the way Hitler was acting in the last days. Cursing the German people as deserving of their loss, angry at his own subjects as if they were to blame. A siege could occur which would be hell on the people.
Though maybe with rebels at the gates, the long expected, hoped for, and sometimes doubted revolution in Tripoli will finally come.
The ultimate question is simply, can Gaddafi get out alive.