In the two days since my previous post on the subject not much has happened in Libya.
On Saturday (23/7/11) NATO (read British) aircraft carried out another intense night time air raid on Qaddafi's compound in Tripoli. As it is extremely unlikely that Qaddafi was in the compound at the time and the compound has been bombed close to a hundred times since the start of the air campaign this latest attack was of limited military value. Instead it was a symbolic attack designed to send two messages. Firstly it was designed to send the message to Qaddafi and the Libyan people that the international coalition is still holding together and they're not going away anytime soon.
Secondly it was designed to send a message to Norway and the international community about Friday's (22/7/11) twin terrorist attacks. In the original plan the blond, blue eyed gunman, Ander Breivik, was supposed to have used his disguise as a policeman to flee from the scene while everyone was too busy looking for an Arab/Muslim terrorist. This would have led to two to three days of confusion and wild speculation while the Norwegian authorities tried to identify the attacker under extreme pressure. By throwing Qaddafi's name into the confusion Britain was hoping to convince everyone that he was behind the attacks forcing the Norwegian government to reverse it's decision to withdraw from the NATO operation at the end of August.
Elsewhere in Libya it still appears that the rebels have been unable to re-take an undefended Brega. The problem they're facing is that as part of their defence of the town government extensively rigged the town with booby traps and other improvised explosive devices (IED's). So the situation the rebels have been facing in Brega is remarkably similar to the situation the Norwegian police faced when they arrived on Utoya island only with fewer corpses.
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