The fall of Tripoli

Tuesday, August 23  Abdallah slides his finger across the map of Tripoli. “They’re still fighting here, in Abu Salim. And in Bab Al Aziziya, of course: that’s Qadhafi’s stronghold. And over there, around the airport. Oh, and I was just talking to a friend in Sidi Khalifa yesterday; she said there was heavy shooting in her neighborhood.” It has been three days since rebels entered Tripoli but intense fighting persists in the capital, while outside of it Qadhafi soldiers continue to stalk Western Libya. At the Tunisian border, nearly every car is heading out of the war-torn country. Apart from a Red Cross truck and a few dozen journalists busy filming each other, only a few Libyans are heading the other way. One of these is Abdallah, who says that, after having been involved in the Egyptian revolution, he would not miss this one for the world: “It’s my country