Tripoli’s sudden fall revealed rotten heart of Gaddafi’s regime

TRIPOLI, Libya — They were elite, professionally trained troops guarding a critical source of the regime's power: the headquarters of Libya's propaganda-spewing state television.

But when unarmed protesters took to the streets, the feared guards, members of brigades known as Katibas, simply took off their uniforms, lay down their weapons and ran.

"Underneath their uniforms, they had civilian clothes, jeans and T-shirts, as though they were expecting this," said Badr Ben Jered, a 25-year-old employee in Nokia's marketing division, patrolling his neighborhood with a Kalashnikov rifle. "Then people started screaming, 'The Katiba are running! The Katiba are running!' We were so shocked, and still so scared of them, no one even went after them."

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Cecilia Kang 01 Sep, 2011

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