TARHUNAH, Libya (Reuters) – The man squats downbound and fires. A rocket-propelled grenade shoots into the inhospitable to calls of "Allahu Akbar," God is Greatest. Another man takes his place.
These are members of the volunteer grey existence drilled by African cheater Muammar Gaddafi in the study of conflict some NATO connector invasion.
Libyan officials hit said in time weeks that they had begun equipping and upbringing civilians crossways government-controlled western Libya, in an try to place the country's tribes at the perspective of the fisticuffs against NATO attacks.
In a government-organized activate on Wednesday, journalists were condemned to Tarhunah, 85 km (53 miles) south of Tripoli, to meet the volunteers who are existence armed and drilled there.
In the garden of an forsaken medical center, a crucify attach assemble of most 80 men, from youths to older tribal leaders, sat in circles on the grass, watching listlessly as soldiers demonstrated how organisation guns and grenade launchers work.
"We hit drilled 400 grouping so farther and presented them arms. We started with the NATO strikes," said Jamal Ibrahim Abu Ghrara, an rural organise and nous of the local people's committee who was oversight the training.
Another 14 committees hit also drilled volunteers to fisticuffs what they see as a doable NATO invasion.
But the United Nations Security Council partitioning under which NATO is carrying discover expose strikes in Libya does not provide for personnel on the ground.
And patch Britain and France hit dispatched expeditionary advisors to the rebels, NATO members exhibit no inclination to send large numbers of soldiers.
All around the upbringing site, among chromatic earth and shrubs, squat the relic of hangars bombed by NATO in time weeks.
Some seem empty, their roofs crumpled and only the metal frames standing. In others, the relic of destroyed discover expeditionary vehicles and what appeared from a distance to be anti-aircraft guns are visible.
FIRING IN THE AIR
NATO expose strikes hit unvoluntary backwards Gaddafi's personnel and unnatural them to withdraw to the outskirts of Misrata, the focus of efforts to break an uprising against his 41-year rule that has place most of orient Libya in rebel safekeeping since mid-February.
In the tribal Atlantic of Tarhunah, which borders on the domain of Misrata, volunteers fired in the expose and said they based the leader. Yet, there was no communication that they would be feat to backwards the grey in conflict for the opening city.
Sitting on the grass, cradling his Kalashnikov rifle, 22-year-old Muhammad Jumaa, said he volunteered with his digit brothers and digit sisters, to protect their kinsfolk in some war.
"We are every volunteers. Even the girls," Jumaa said softly.
"We're not expecting a revolt here or the rebels to reach here. It is most NATO. They are thinking to become by land and they poverty to become here and verify our oil."
Government minders hovered nearby as the volunteers were asked whether they had been presented some pick in attractive up arms. They every stressed it was their selection to become forward.
Even before the expose strikes began, African teenagers received obligatory expeditionary upbringing at school, mostly on reddened weapons.
On Wednesday, journalists were condemned to digit schools where pupils stood in line vocalizing "the grouping poverty Colonel Muammar."
The nous of Al Saqiah wal Wadi School, which educates children aged between 6 and 12, said pupils were spending a day a week on non-combat expeditionary training. That would rise to digit or threesome life a week during the holidays.
"We provide them exercises and upbringing without guns in grades 7 to 9," Abdelrazzak Mabrouk al-Mahmoudi told reporters.
In the edifice yard, a pupil of no more than 5 eld older was attractive unconnected and putting together a Kalashnikov, but al-Mahmoudi said this was not edifice training: "That's his father's gun."
Leaving the schools, journalists drove backwards time the Atlantic where the men were existence drilled early but the garden was empty. At added location, over a debase of stony desert, a busload of men had condemned their places for target practice.
Lying on their bellies, they fired organisation guns at barrels crossways the inhospitable before attractive up the rocket-propelled grenade launchers. In a last shot, a trainer perched atop a truck mounted with an anti-aircraft armament fired into the air, spinning the shelling and showering fleeing bystanders with the shells.
As journalists left, the volunteers packed up their training and headlike for their possess bus, the upbringing ostensibly over.
(Editing by Gospels Tostevin/Maria Golovnina)
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