Libya Executes 150 Troops for Refusing to Attack Protesters

Executions Occurred in Waning Days of Benghazi Attacks

It is now a matter of common knowledge that the Gadhafi regime has lost control of virtually the entire military of Libya (as well as virtually the entire territory of Libya), but when troops first started defying orders to turn their guns on protesters, the reactions were quite shocking.

According to some new reports coming out of the now Free City of Benghazi, military commanders executed some 150 members of the army in their city alone to punish them for defying orders to attack the protesters.

Of course since then, much of the military has defected to the side of the protesters, and Libyan pilots ordered to bomb the protesters have either flown their planes out of the country or, in the case of one of them, ejected and let the plane crash into the countryside.

The executions reveal the regime’s first reaction to the defiance of the rank and file soldiers, but clearly, as the violence picked up speed much of the military’s leadership got the same idea and ditched the regime in favor of the protesters, which have clearly been the winning side.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.