Libya City Torn by Tribal Feud

Ethnic Hatred Rooted in Battle for Misrata Underlines Challenges the Nation Faces After Gadhafi

 

BY SAM DAGHER

MISRATA, Libya—"Traitors keep out," reads graffiti at the entrance of a housing project in an impoverished neighborhood of Misrata, the rebel-held city grappling with the physical and emotional scars of Col. Moammar Gadhafi's siege since March.

A group of men sipping tea in the courtyard on a recent afternoon say the "traitors" are those who hail from Tawergha, a small town 25 miles to the south inhabited mostly by black Libyans, a legacy of its 19th-century origins as a transit town in the slave trade.

Many Misratans are convinced that Tawerghans were responsible for some of the worst atrocities committed ...