Cars, trucks, and vans stacked with families and their personal belongings had poured out of Benghazi on for most of Saturday, heading toward the eastern city of Beida, about 125 miles away. Many of the Libyans said they would continue on to Tobruk and even Egypt. “We are fleeing Benghazi, and we are going to Egypt,” said one man driving a large van with his and his neighbor’s family packed into it. Like many others reaching Beida after dark, he said they had been traveling for nearly seven hours because of the heavy traffic of cars trying to escape. Some expressed anger at the foreign powers for failing to stop Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s onslaught on the rebel capital of Benghazi that they say has already destroyed homes and entire streets.
They were unaware of allied air attacks launched Saturday evening against the forces assaulting their city. That is until they reached Beida. There, they arrived to crowds of excited young men, cradling rifles at checkpoints and cheering the first French overflights. As the Benghazi traffic flowed in, the men rushed into the roadway to distribute drinks, biscuits and water, often tossing them through the open windows of vans and cars, and asking drivers if they needed anything else. A number of men held signs, offering shelter to incoming strangers. At least one man held a ring of keys, offering fleeing Benghazi residents the keys to vacant houses to take shelter for the night.
Trucks streaming rebel flags, and carrying young children singing rebel cheers joined the traffic jam in the heart of Beida, where parading residents mixed with the cars of those fleeing the violence. One small groups of men chanted: “One, two, three! Thank you Sarkozy!” to a rhythm thumped out by drums, in tribute to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who had announced the commencement of air operations. After the French took out four Libyan tanks, the U.S. reportedly launched 112 tomahawk missiles against Libyan air defense installations.
Earlier in the day, it was Benghazi that had been receiving the assault. Fleeing residents first reported seeing a heavy troop presence of Gaddafi troops around the western gate to the city and near Gar Younis University. Some reported seeing snipers who opened fire at random. “There were around 100 [regime] soldiers and about 20 tanks by Gar Younis University,” said Abdel Kadir al-Fayedi, who was driving a truck with three families in it, as well as much of their furniture, luggage, a refrigerator, and a washing machine. They were planning to seek shelters with relatives in Beida.
Many said that they escaped amid heavy shelling. When Umm Muftah and her family left at 2 p.m., she said the scene in their neighborhood of Foyhat al-Gharbiya was total chaos. “There was shooting everywhere and bombs. We didn’t know what side it was coming from. We were panicked, and the children were crying. We were all crying,” she said as she held her infant in her lap in the passenger seat of a car driven by her husband. “Everyone was running out of their houses. It’s a crazy situation. [The shelling] started at about 3 a.m. and it was continuous.” As they fled, she saw residential buildings where apartments had been taken out by rockets; some that were completely destroyed. “One of the buildings crashed down,” she said.
Chaos reigned and rumors swirled throughout the day. A fighter plane shot down over Benghazi early Saturday morning was first believed to be one belonging to government forces; later, many suspected that rebels had shot down one of their own. The government in Tripoli also put out the message that former interior minister turned head of rebel forces, Abdel Fatah Younis had switched sides, along with his special forces. And some of those fleeing Benghazi reported seeing forces attacking them that they believed were affiliated with the largest rebel base there. But then Younis reportedly denied switching sides, according to al-Jazeera. And by nightfall, as allied forces began to launch strikes against Libyan military targets, official state television announced that ambulances in Tripoli were heading to the scene of civilian casualties caused by allied air strikes.
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