News stories by Karlos Zurutuza, page 11

'Before being deployed to Iraq I never thought I’d come across people who physically resemble my friends and family back in Buffalo,' says U.S. marines sergeant William Collins on a rare patrol around Basra’s Zubeir district.

'Before being deployed to Iraq I never thought I’d come across people who physically resemble my friends and family back in Buffalo,' says U.S. marines sergeant William Collins on a rare patrol around Basra’s Zubeir district.

The Libyan revolution has been devastating for 20-year-old Alybe Nally from Nigeria, as it has been for countless others from Africa seen by the rebels as Gaddafi loyalists. 'When the rebels took over Tripoli two weeks ago they took my money, my mobile, my passport…All I have is what you see now,' he says, pointing to his mismatched pair of sandals.

Libyan children will go back to school without Muammar Gaddafi’s ubiquitous presence, despite a lack of new books.

'Gaddafi renamed this one as the ‘Green Square’ but we have brought back its ancient name, ‘Martyrs square’,' Asma Mohamed, Tripoli resident tells IPS. Eid celebrations are being followed by the anniversary Thursday of Muammar Gaddafi coming to power 42 years ago. Celebrations of one kind have mixed with celebrations of another.

Thousands have been caught in the Libyan fighting — people neither with Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s forces, or with the rebels. Ayman Agamy Abdelgawad, an Egyptian released from Tripoli’s Abdu Selim prison, shares his experiences with IPS. He narrates his experience below:

'We grabbed all these weapons from Gaddafi's compound just before NATO shelled the whole place,' says rebel fighter Massud Askar in downtown Nalut. The 50-year-old rebel displays an Italian light semi-automatic rifle in his right hand and a hand grenade in the other.

'I’m 60 years old and I never thought I'd see this moment with my own eyes,' Najib Taghuz tells IPS from the Tunisian-Libyan border. The engineer from the recently liberated town Gehryan is headed for Tunisia - his wife needs surgery on the left hand. But he hopes to return to a new Libya.

Recent victories in Libya’s western mountains have led to a brief reprieve from violence and local fighters and civilians are slowly trying to piece their lives back together.