TRIPOLI- This is Mohamed from Benghazi.
The last time I saw him was in Al Jdaida prison on May 10 or so.
He was the first guy I met in Jdiaida. We were shuffled into the same crowded cell on the same day. We always seemed to be on the same prison bus to the courthouse because of this timing. He taught me to time my steps up the court house stairs in leg chains.
BANI WALID – This tribal city of approximately 100,000 captured the world’s attention in September 2011 when it was reported that loyalists here were harboring Saif Islam Gaddafi, who fled to the mountainous region after the fall of Tripoli.
Thousands of rebel groups from western Libya descended in heavily armed trucks to smash the loyalist hold outs and capture Saif. They didn’t get him.
Bani Walid sits on a series of hills that provide excellent cover for snipers and range for rocket launchers. Hundreds of rebels were killed and wounded in attempts to assault the city head on. Bani Walid only surrendered after rebels gained controlled over most of its center and destroyed hundreds of buildings on October 17.
February 17th, anniversary of the start of the Libyan revolution. The square where Gaddafi once held massive rallies was filled with tricolored flags and fireworks. Instead of the usual celebratory gunfire thousands of paper lanterns filled the night sky.
We crossed from Tunsia into Libya in two battered mini vans, cases of potable water, cans of tuna and a few gallons of gasoline in back. It was a little over three months since I’d been released from Tripoli captivity. Now I was headed back in with six other journalists for the capital that had fallen days before.
We got our passports stamped with a new Libyan visa inside a container on the sand dune outskirts of Zintan. I watched the sun rise. Clare, Manu and I all vowed we’d come back. I didn’t want people to think I was crazy, and I waited months to make sure that I wasn’t. But I would have paid to return a few days earlier to see the battle of Bab Al-Aziziyah, instead of watching it from GlobalPost offices in Boston.
Battle for Sirte from Sept.-Oct. 2011
TRIPOLI, Libya — “Welcome to hell,” a Libyan prison guard told several new inmates. “This is Abu Salim.”
The words sent chills through Dr. Ahmed’s already badly beaten body. He had been helping an Al Jazeera reporting team in March, during the early days of the Libya uprising, when forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi surrounded the western city of Zawiya, capturing him and his colleagues.
After days of interrogations and torture, he was dropped under the cover of darkness in a large prison outside Tripoli known as Abu Salim. It was there, 15 years ago, that a now infamous massacre of political prisoners took place, an event that would ultimately lead to the open revolt that is now gripping the country.
"War is fought by
human beings"
Carl von Clausewitz, On War
James W. Foley is a freelance text and video reporter covering conflict. He has covered wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria. Foley has been published and broadcast by Globalpost, AFP, CNN, CBS, PBS. 
Raising funds for freelance photographers hurt in the field
Training and equipping freelance journalists in all media to treat life-threatening injuries on the battlefield