A city with a new-found swagger

By RYAN LUCAS, Associated Press BENGHAZI, Libya
Posted: March 21, 2011

- Residents of the rebel stronghold of Benghazi yesterday fired AK-47s in jubilation and danced on burnt-out tanks that appeared to have been destroyed by allied airstrikes.

The celebrations marked a dramatic swing from the fear that gripped the city of nearly 700,000 a day earlier, when Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi's forces pounded the city with artillery and tank shells and punched through the outskirts of Benghazi in fierce street fighting.

After weeks of ceding territory to government troops, the rebels' successful defense, coupled with French and U.S. airstrikes on Gadhafi's forces overnight, gave the city - and its defenders - a newfound swagger.

"I feel like in two days max we will destroy Gadhafi," said Ezzeldin Helwani, 35, standing next to the smoldering wreckage of an armored personel carrier, the air thick with smoke and the pungent smell of burning rubber.

Mohammed Faraj, a rebel fighter manning a checkpoint, said that the rebels were now ready for anything from Gadhafi.

"Our spirits are very high," said Faraj, 44, a grenade in each hand. "Me and all of Benghazi, we will die before Gadhafi sets foot here again.

Some 12 miles south down the road, the charred remains of seven government tanks, many with their turrets blown off, lay in a dusty field along with two armored personel carriers, apparently hit by an allied airstrike overnight.

Hundreds of men roamed the site, climbing atop the tanks and snapping photographs with their cell phones. Shredded blankets, torn foam mattresses and empty cans of tomato paste littered the field. A goat head with a cigarette stuck in its mouth hung from the barrel of one of the tanks.

"Thank you France, thank you America," said Abdul Gader Dejuli as he surveyed the wreckage. "Obama good, Sarkozy good."

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