THE GUN barrels of the two black-painted rebel tanks point out across the great expanse of flat, arid desert in the direction of Bani Walid, ready to achieve with fire what Libya’s opposition still hope can be achieved by negotiators – the fall of one of Col Gadafy’s last strongholds.
Col Gadafy himself appears to have fled, but his footsoldiers remain in the town, reportedly fortifying themselves within the walls of this ancient desert oasis.
And Libya’s rebels, who just a few weeks ago struggled to keep an army in the field, are ready to obliterate their foe with newly acquired weapons unless they see the white flag of surrender.
A fortnight of non-stop advances have turned the military calculations in this country upside down. Now it is the government forces who are on the back foot, reduced to a few hundred fanatical troops in a town surrounded by rebels deploying captured artillery, rocket launchers and tanks.
“We are waiting for negotiations,” said Fowad Drgash, a officer with the rebel Khafila brigade at Abdul Rauf. “We want to give them a chance.”
The problem, say rebels lounging among more than 100 black pickup trucks, each mounting either an anti-aircraft gun or a rocket launcher, is not the population of Bani Walid, but die-hard Gadafy followers in the town.
They are trapped in Bani Walid because rebel units from Misurata have cut off the highways. Only Col Gadafy’s top officials – the ones with four-wheel drives – can escape the town across the hundreds of miles of desert that lie between Bani Walid and refuge on the Algerian and Niger border.
For the rest, there is no escape. “There are a lot of military volunteers in the town, that’s the problem,” said Drgash.
“He gave them everything, cigarettes and drugs, and said: ‘You can do whatever you want.’”
Doing “whatever they wanted” included, say the rebels, kidnapping and torturing hundreds of civilians, gang rape, robbery and terrorising of towns spread across the country. The fighters say they are under instructions not to dispense summary justice, but will arrest all militiamen they find for what they expect will be war crimes trials, with capital punishment for the guilty.
“Those who committed blood crimes, they are going to be jailed or we are going to execute them,” said rebel fighter Abdulla Maiteeg.
Until then, the rebels are prepared to wait. With Tripoli secure, and Col Gadafy’s last coastal stronghold, Sirte, expected to be assaulted this weekend unless it surrenders, the fighters at Abdul Rauf say their priority is to conserve lives.
“The main thing is that our families are protected,” said father-of-three Ahmed el Bala of the el Moharib (Warrior) brigade, relaxing on a carpet under an awning in the vehicle park. “We can wait two years if necessary.”