Soon on the NYT: Inside the Workshops of the Uprising.

Tuesday, May 3 2011

Soon on the NYT: Inside the Workshops of the Uprising.

Have a glance at these pics. The first one, at top, is of a piece of henzab, an object that could be a symbol of the Libyan rebels’ battle to push the forces of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi out of Misurata. And here’s a laundry basket of them.

Would you like to drive your car over a patch of road or alley covered with these? Would you like to run across the same place while under gunfire, or diving for cover?

The rebels of Misurata have been aided by many people. Among them are a network of metal workers whose designs have helped equip Misurata’s residents with home-made killing tools and protective armor. Between back-alley upgrades to weapons and modifications to civilian items converted to martial use, the rebels have gone to battle with locally conceived products that reflect their peculiar circumstances for waging war. We’ve written here and in The New York Times of some of the rebels’ weapons and other equipment (look here for photographs of their armor-clad pickup trucks.) And we’ve covered some of the problems with rebel jury-rigged arms, especially the Grad rocket launchers and repurposed air-to-ground rockets visible each day in eastern Libya.

After a long time trying, Bryan Denton and I gained accesss to workshops where arms and munitions are modified, the caltrops are made, and civilian pickup trucks are outfitted with steel plates and turrets. The report will be up soon on the NYT. We’ll link to it when it goes live. (We’re also expecting a big slide-show of Bryan’s work, which will take you inside.)

Not all of these weapons and defensive measures are ideal, much less perfect. Some of them are of questionable use. But as the rebel fighting force in Misurata has evolved and gained experience, its locally-made equipment has been evolving, too. Look, for example, at the forward handgrip welded and bolted to the PKT machine gun, below, a firearm not intended for manual use. Without something like this to get the user’s hand out of direct contact with the barrel, the weapon cannot be held when fired for more than a burst or two, because the barrel becomes hot enough to sear.

Below is another PKT, having a “trigger” fitted to a rod welded to its end. PKTs are captured from former Qaddafi tanks and armored vehicles. The factory-produced versions of this weapon have no manual trigger. But with a little bit of after-capture work in a metal shop, they can be made to work. Once a threaded pin is inserted through the hole visible in the protruding rod, and bolted off on the other side, a manual squeeze (think: bicycle brake) will cause the bolt-release mechanism at the left to be depressed. At this point, the PKT will begin to fire. Note as well the forward handgip, which has been welded to the barrel.

Though a weapon like this, once completed, has many, many shortcomings — no sights, no bipod, no shoulder rest for well-aimed fire — it is a monument to trying. Misurata’s rebels started with almost nothing. Details like this are one of the reasons they have taken most of Misurata back.

More soon (no: much more) on the NYT site.

ABOUT THE PICS

Made during the last few days in Misurata. By the author.