The Jasmine Revolution Pt. 3, the Civil War in Libya

This is last of 3 blog posts in my school project called "You and the World." I chose to research the Jasmine Revolution for this project, and I divided up my blog posts in the three main countries to revolt in this event. I started with Tunisia, where the entire revolution began. My second post was about Egypt, a more famous revolution, where the majority of people began to take interest in the revolution. In this last blog post I will write about the ongoing Civil War in Libya, between the rebels and the supporters of dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Muammar Gaddafi took power in 1969 after the overthrow of King Idris I, and has maintained power by placing people from his tribe in positions of power in the government. The Civil War began with peaceful protests which started in February 15, and the protests quickly spread throughout the country. Gaddafi's response was censorship and military force, which caused the peaceful protests to escalate into an all out civil war. The rebels want take Gaddafi out of power, and hold democratic elections; while the supporters of Muammar Gaddafi are mainly from his tribe, and receiving special benefits from this.

The first place taken by the rebels was Benghazi, the second largest city in Libya. The conflict began 3 days after the protests, when security forces began firing live ammunition into the protests. A funeral procession went by the main government compound, and were shot at by security forces. They responded by attacking back, and eventually retreated. This happened two more times, and the third time a suicide car bomber destroyed the gates of the compound under cover of the funeral procession. Libyan rebels eventually took the compound, but to take the city hundreds of people died, including 130 soldiers who were executed when the refused to shoot at the protesters. This civil war is still happening, and the UN has declared a "no fly zone" over Libya, to prevent Gaddafi from using planes to kill rebels. The US has fired a missile into Libya, and there are UN troops there to prevent war crime.

There were protests in other countries, but Tunisia, Egypt, are the only places to have succeeded so far, and Libya is the only place where there has been an all out civil war. Only time will tell whether any other countries will join this movement, or whether Libyan rebels will succeed in overthrowing Muammar Gaddafi. This has been the final of my three blog posts on the Jasmine Revolution.