Why are rebels against gaddafi

For the moment, Libya is a divided land. And a fault line runs through the country, between the western half of Libya, largely controlled by Col Gaddafi, and the eastern region that first revolted against him last month. The front line in the east has shifted up and down the coastal road that runs the width of a vast oil-rich country.

But it broadly fits a fault line that has long roots in Libyan history. The flag that now flies in the east - and areas of the west under opposition control - is that of the monarchy. King Idris, who was overthrown by Col Gaddafi in , hailed from the eastern region of Cyrenaica. In Roman times, Libya was divided into Cyrenaica in the east and Tripolitania in the west, as well as Fezzan in the south.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, said Col Gaddafi and his inner circle were under its spotlight. The court has identified at least nine incidents that could constitute crimes against humanity, including the alleged killing of people in Benghazi last month. Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told the BBC the case was "close to a joke", built purely on media reports.

Jon Leyne reports from the rebel-held city of Benghazi, where people have been celebrating an end to Colonel Gaddafi's rule in the east of the country. But they're beginning to realise the fight for control of the whole country is a long way from over. Ian Pannell has been to an area of Libya's Sahara desert, now in the hands of rebels. He finds the threat that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's forces could return ever present and the rebels' hold on their new territory precarious.

John Simpson in Aqayla in central Libya, which he says it is "not like the normal front line of a war zone". Ben Brown on the Libyan-Tunisian border, where an international effort has begun to rescue thousands of stranded people. Navigate the map to see the latest reports from correspondents across the region as the crisis unfolds. Protests in the capital had centred on Green Square and various key buildings, like the headquarters of state TV and the People's Hall, were attacked and damaged.

But Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, and his supporters are very much in control of Tripoli. Later reports said that the town of Brega was also in rebel hands. In the west, France said its warplanes destroyed five Libyan aircraft and two helicopters at an air base outside rebel-held Misrata on Saturday. Pro-Gaddafi forces had earlier pounded the city with tank, mortar and artillery fire that halted only as coalition aircraft appeared overhead, rebels said.

Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told reporters in the capital Tripoli that Gaddafi was directing his forces but appeared to suggest the leader might be moving around the country so as to keep his whereabouts a mystery.

I assure you he is leading the nation at this very moment and he is in continuous communication with everyone around the country. In a time of war you act differently. One resident in Misrata said people had been killed in the city in a week and that snipers were still shooting people from rooftops. In Ajdabiyah, rebel fighters danced on tanks, waved flags and fired in the air near buildings riddled with bullet holes.

But with time, and foreign training, the rebels became a reasonably effective military force. NATO, along with its Qatari partners, began bombing Libya on March 19 , co-ordinating operations with fighters on the ground. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the most prominent son of the deposed leader who wrote his PhD thesis at the London School of Economics about the need for democratisation, was seen as a moderniser by the West.

Saif was wrong, of course, and rebels announced the violent killing of his father on October