Death story of Osama Bin Laden

In the dark of night, U.S. helicopters approached a high-walled compound in Pakistan on a mission to capture or kill one of the world's most notorious terrorist leaders.

Less than 40 minutes later -- early Monday morning in Pakistan -- Osama bin Laden was dead, along with four others inside the complex, and the U.S. forces departed with the slain al Qaeda leader's body to fulfill a vow that originated shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

And as he announced the raid at the White House Sunday night, U.S. President Barack Obama called bin Laden's death "the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to defeat al Qaeda."

One senior administration official called the investigation a "team effort" and a "model of really seamless cooperation" across agencies.

This official and others briefed reporters on further details about the assault on the compound, which they believe was built five years ago for the specific purpose of hiding bin Laden -- known by the code name "Geronimo," a U.S. official said.

A senior administration official said later that "Geronimo" was code for the act of capturing or killing bin Laden, not the man himself.

The compound is in Abbottabad, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. The city sits in a mountainous region that is not heavily populated. Many of the residents are army personnel.

While senior administration officials would not offer a breakdown of the U.S. mission's composition, a senior defense official said U.S. Navy SEALs were involved.

After years of intelligence work and months of following a specific lead, they traced a courier linked to bin Laden to the compound in Abbottabad, the officials said.

When first built, the compound was secluded and reachable by only a dirt road, the officials said. In recent years, more residences built up around it, but it remained by far the largest and most heavily secured property in the area, they said.

The mission ordered Friday by Obama found outer walls up to 18 feet tall topped with barbed wire, with two security gates and a series of internal walls that sectioned off different portions of the compound, the senior administration officials said. The main structure was a three-story building with few windows facing the outside of the compound, and a third-floor terrace had a 7-foot privacy wall, they said.

Months of intelligence work determined that the compound was custom-built to hide a high-value terrorism suspect, almost certainly bin Laden. The officials noted there was no telephone or Internet service at the dwelling, which was valued at more than $1 million, and its occupants burned their trash rather than leave it out for collection as other area residents did.

Calling the U.S. operation a surgical raid, officials said it was conducted by a small team and designed to minimize collateral damage.

A firefight was under way for most of the 40 minutes that U.S. Special Operations forces were in the compound, as the team encountered resistance from bin Laden and three other men, a senior defense official said.

The official said the forces had to fight their way through the first floor of the three-story building, where two adult males lived.

Bin Laden and his family lived on the second and third floors, and they were cleared last, with bin Laden killed in the last five or 10 minutes of the siege, the official said.

One of bin Laden's wives identified his body to U.S. forces after the team made visual identification, the official said.

In the end, all four of the combatants in the compound were dead, along with a woman whom one of the men used as a human shield, the officials said. Sources said bin Laden was shot in the head.

John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, said it is his understanding that the woman who was killed was one of bin Laden's wives.

Later, a senior U.S. official said that bin Laden's wife was not the woman killed and that she may not have been used as a human shield after all. This official also said that bin Laden was shot twice, once in the chest and once in the head.

At some point, one of the assaulting helicopters crashed due to a mechanical failure, according to the officials. It was destroyed as the U.S. team flew away, they said.

Obama and the senior administration officials said no U.S. forces were harmed in the operation, which took place very early Monday morning Pakistani time.

Shandana Syed, a resident doctor in Abbottabad, said she woke up to a large thundering sound.

"My initial reaction was that maybe we're being attacked ... I saw the last helicopter. It was flying very low. Initially I was too afraid to get out. I was very terrified," she said.

U.S. officials said they used a number of methods to identify the body as bin Laden.

One official said it was clear to the assault force that the body matched bin Laden's description, but they used "facial recognition work, amongst other things, to confirm the identity."

A senior national security official told CNN that they had multiple confirmations that the body was bin Laden, saying they had the "ability to run images of the body and the face."

Another U.S. official told CNN that bin Laden has already been buried at sea. His body was handled in the Islamic tradition, said the official, who did not elaborate.

A senior administration official also said bin Laden's body would be "handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition. This is something that we take very seriously, and so therefore this is being handled in an appropriate manner."

According to the senior administration officials, intelligence work determined at the beginning of 2011 that bin Laden might be located at the compound in Pakistan. By mid-February, the intelligence was considered strong enough to begin considering action pledged by Obama when bin Laden's whereabouts had been determined.

To discuss that intelligence and develop a plan, Obama chaired five National Security Council meetings from mid-March until late April, with the last two on April 19 and April 28 -- last Thursday. The next day, on Friday, Obama gave the order for the mission, the officials said.

A U.S. official said multiple options were considered before settling on the assault.

"A bombing would not have risked American lives but it might have left questions" as to whether Bin Laden was killed, the official said. National security officials widely agreed "the best option is the one that gives proof," the official said.

The key break involved one of the few couriers trusted by bin Laden, according to the officials. About two years ago, intelligence work identified where the courier and his brother lived and operated in Pakistan, and it took until August of last year to find the compound in Abbottabad, they said.

"When we saw the compound where the brothers lived, we were shocked by what we saw -- an extraordinarily unique compound," one senior administration official said. "The compound sits on a large plot of land in an area that was relatively secluded when it was built. It is roughly eight times larger than the other homes in the area."

Noting that the courier and his brother had no discernible source of wealth to live at such a property, intelligence analysts concluded the compound was "custom-built to hide someone of extraordinary significance," the official said, adding: "Everything was consistent with what experts thought Osama bin Laden's compound would look like."

U.S. forces also recovered what a senior intelligence official is calling "quite a bit of material."

"There's a robust collection of materials we need to sift through, and we hope to find valuable intelligence that will lead us to other players in al Qaeda," the senior intelligence official said.

A task force has been set up "because of the sheer volume of material collected. That material is currently being exploited and analyzed," the official added.

How U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden

In the dark of night, U.S. helicopters approached a high-walled compound in Pakistan on a mission to capture or kill one of the world's most notorious terrorist leaders.

Less than 40 minutes later -- early Monday morning in Pakistan -- Osama bin Laden was dead, along with four others inside the complex, and the U.S. forces departed with the slain al Qaeda leader's body to fulfill a vow that originated shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

And as he announced the raid at the White House Sunday night, U.S. President Barack Obama called bin Laden's death "the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to defeat al Qaeda."

One senior administration official called the investigation a "team effort" and a "model of really seamless cooperation" across agencies.

This official and others briefed reporters on further details about the assault on the compound, which they believe was built five years ago for the specific purpose of hiding bin Laden -- known by the code name "Geronimo," a U.S. official said.

A senior administration official said later that "Geronimo" was code for the act of capturing or killing bin Laden, not the man himself.

The compound is in Abbottabad, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. The city sits in a mountainous region that is not heavily populated. Many of the residents are army personnel.

While senior administration officials would not offer a breakdown of the U.S. mission's composition, a senior defense official said U.S. Navy SEALs were involved.

After years of intelligence work and months of following a specific lead, they traced a courier linked to bin Laden to the compound in Abbottabad, the officials said.

When first built, the compound was secluded and reachable by only a dirt road, the officials said. In recent years, more residences built up around it, but it remained by far the largest and most heavily secured property in the area, they said.

The mission ordered Friday by Obama found outer walls up to 18 feet tall topped with barbed wire, with two security gates and a series of internal walls that sectioned off different portions of the compound, the senior administration officials said. The main structure was a three-story building with few windows facing the outside of the compound, and a third-floor terrace had a 7-foot privacy wall, they said.

Months of intelligence work determined that the compound was custom-built to hide a high-value terrorism suspect, almost certainly bin Laden. The officials noted there was no telephone or Internet service at the dwelling, which was valued at more than $1 million, and its occupants burned their trash rather than leave it out for collection as other area residents did.

Calling the U.S. operation a surgical raid, officials said it was conducted by a small team and designed to minimize collateral damage.

A firefight was under way for most of the 40 minutes that U.S. Special Operations forces were in the compound, as the team encountered resistance from bin Laden and three other men, a senior defense official said.

The official said the forces had to fight their way through the first floor of the three-story building, where two adult males lived.

Bin Laden and his family lived on the second and third floors, and they were cleared last, with bin Laden killed in the last five or 10 minutes of the siege, the official said.

One of bin Laden's wives identified his body to U.S. forces after the team made visual identification, the official said.

In the end, all four of the combatants in the compound were dead, along with a woman whom one of the men used as a human shield, the officials said. Sources said bin Laden was shot in the head.

John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, said it is his understanding that the woman who was killed was one of bin Laden's wives.

Later, a senior U.S. official said that bin Laden's wife was not the woman killed and that she may not have been used as a human shield after all. This official also said that bin Laden was shot twice, once in the chest and once in the head.

At some point, one of the assaulting helicopters crashed due to a mechanical failure, according to the officials. It was destroyed as the U.S. team flew away, they said.

Obama and the senior administration officials said no U.S. forces were harmed in the operation, which took place very early Monday morning Pakistani time.

Shandana Syed, a resident doctor in Abbottabad, said she woke up to a large thundering sound.

"My initial reaction was that maybe we're being attacked ... I saw the last helicopter. It was flying very low. Initially I was too afraid to get out. I was very terrified," she said.

U.S. officials said they used a number of methods to identify the body as bin Laden.

One official said it was clear to the assault force that the body matched bin Laden's description, but they used "facial recognition work, amongst other things, to confirm the identity."

A senior national security official told CNN that they had multiple confirmations that the body was bin Laden, saying they had the "ability to run images of the body and the face."

Another U.S. official told CNN that bin Laden has already been buried at sea. His body was handled in the Islamic tradition, said the official, who did not elaborate.

A senior administration official also said bin Laden's body would be "handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition. This is something that we take very seriously, and so therefore this is being handled in an appropriate manner."

According to the senior administration officials, intelligence work determined at the beginning of 2011 that bin Laden might be located at the compound in Pakistan. By mid-February, the intelligence was considered strong enough to begin considering action pledged by Obama when bin Laden's whereabouts had been determined.

To discuss that intelligence and develop a plan, Obama chaired five National Security Council meetings from mid-March until late April, with the last two on April 19 and April 28 -- last Thursday. The next day, on Friday, Obama gave the order for the mission, the officials said.

A U.S. official said multiple options were considered before settling on the assault.

"A bombing would not have risked American lives but it might have left questions" as to whether Bin Laden was killed, the official said. National security officials widely agreed "the best option is the one that gives proof," the official said.

The key break involved one of the few couriers trusted by bin Laden, according to the officials. About two years ago, intelligence work identified where the courier and his brother lived and operated in Pakistan, and it took until August of last year to find the compound in Abbottabad, they said.

"When we saw the compound where the brothers lived, we were shocked by what we saw -- an extraordinarily unique compound," one senior administration official said. "The compound sits on a large plot of land in an area that was relatively secluded when it was built. It is roughly eight times larger than the other homes in the area."

Noting that the courier and his brother had no discernible source of wealth to live at such a property, intelligence analysts concluded the compound was "custom-built to hide someone of extraordinary significance," the official said, adding: "Everything was consistent with what experts thought Osama bin Laden's compound would look like."

U.S. forces also recovered what a senior intelligence official is calling "quite a bit of material."

"There's a robust collection of materials we need to sift through, and we hope to find valuable intelligence that will lead us to other players in al Qaeda," the senior intelligence official said.

A task force has been set up "because of the sheer volume of material collected. That material is currently being exploited and analyzed," the official added.

Osama bin Laden conspiracy theories

FROM his father's front porch, where he insists on sitting so as not to share a room with a woman, the self-described Taliban disciple explains patiently how Osama bin Laden was funded by the US and India.

"Osama bin Laden is a CIA person," says the 41-year-old son of a retired Pakistan army major.

"He had direct connection with the Indians. Evil people have connections all over the world."

From where I sit, half behind the lounge room curtain as directed, I can just make out Shujar ur-Rehman's bearded face and white-turbaned head through a screened window. Released from prison four months back and living less than 1km from bin Laden's compound, Shujar is the extreme face of the conspiracy theories flourishing in Pakistan.

His brother, a personable bin Laden lookalike with fluent English and a masters degree in electrical engineering, laughs off Shujar's theories as those of a man unhinged, before referencing Chuck Norris and Charlie Sheen as authorities on the 9/11 attacks being an Israeli plot.

Conspiracy theories love a vacuum and the many unanswered questions over bin Laden's death have created fertile ground for improbable explanations to germinate. Did bin Laden die at the hands of US Navy SEALs in the compound less than 2km from the country's most prestigious military academy, or has he been dead for years?

Was he taken alive for US interrogation? Did the ISI intelligence agency not know of his presence in one of Pakistan's most important garrison towns, or were they just waiting for the best time to hand him over?

A humiliated population is grasping at improbable straws and scrabbling for answers.

At a Gloria Jeans coffee outlet in Islamabad, a respected journalist points to apparent evidence of Saudi Arabian involvement. Under pressure from the Arab Spring revolution, and fearing an al-Qa'ida plot to capitalise on the unrest, the Saudis may have mediated the handover of bin Laden, he muses.

Even sober intellectuals are surrendering to their imaginations. "I don't believe in conspiracy theories," begins Talat Masood, a retired three-star general and one of the country's most sensible and articulate analysts, before suggesting bin Laden is probably being kept alive by the US for questioning and definitive DNA testing.

"He would be a huge source of information, irrespective of all the files and hard drives they recovered from the compound. He's the hardest drive there is, so it would be amazing if they had killed him yet."

Pakistan's all-powerful military - which has staged three successful coups since 1947 - has been weakened by its failure to detect bin Laden in its own backyard. Army chief Ashfaq Kayani has spent the week lashing out at his government for failing to answer questions only the military can answer, and at the US for doing what the military should have done.

Even firebrand television anchors, usually the first to champion the armed forces over "corrupt" civilian politicians, have turned against the military. One slammed the country's "two-faced" approach to extremism, a reference to what the US suspects is public support for the war on terror and simultaneous covert backing of militant proxies in Afghanistan and Kashmir.

"We have become the world's biggest haven of terrorism," declared chat show host Kamran Khan. "We need to change."

On a flight from Islamabad to Lahore this week, a service used by businessmen and rich Pakistani women shuttling from homes in London and New York, a ferocious debate broke out. Could Imran Khan, former playboy cricketer turned opposition leader, head a government capable of brokering a truce with the US, India and Afghanistan?

A heavily made-up woman sporting a giant Chanel bag and a colossal diamond interjects to suggest that "what Pakistan needs is a Mexican-style revolution".

"We need to get Pakistan's best brains together and overthrow this establishment," she says to stunned silence. "I mean, we can't go on like this, can we?"

Bin Laden raid and US drone attacks

Pakistan's parliament has called for a review of the country's relationship with the US over the American commando raid that killed Osama Bin Laden.

During a long joint session held to debate the US operation, MPs called for an independent investigation.

They unanimously passed a resolution urging a ban on Nato transit convoys unless the US ends drone attacks.

The session followed Friday's double suicide bombing that killed 80 people in north-western Pakistan.

At least 120 others were wounded in the attack on a Frontier Constabulary training centre in Shabqadar, Charsadda district.

Heightened security

The Pakistani Taliban said they carried out the attack - this year's deadliest on the security forces - to avenge Bin Laden's death.

The 2 May US raid on the al-Qaeda leader's Abbottabad hideout has left Washington-Islamabad relations at an all-time low, correspondents say.

Members of the US Congress have been calling for Washington to cut its billions of dollars in aid to Islamabad, saying some Pakistani officials must have known Bin Laden was hiding in the country.

On Saturday, the parliament in Islamabad said the American operation was a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty.

The MPs' resolution was passed after a joint session, under heightened security, lasting more than 10 hours.

"The people of Pakistan will no longer tolerate such actions and repeat of unilateral measures could have dire consequences for peace and security in the region and the world," the AFP news agency quoted the resolution as saying.

'Unacceptable'

An investigation should take place to "fix responsibility and recommend necessary measures to ensure that such an incident does not recur", it added.

The resolution also labelled as "unacceptable" the US use of pilotless planes to attack militants along the mountainous border with Afghanistan.

It said if the attacks did not stop, the government should consider stopping the transit of supplies through its territory for Nato forces in Afghanistan.

More than 100 drone strikes are estimated to have been carried out last year.

Continue reading the main story

• In pictures: Bombs wreak havoc
• Eyewitness: Carnage in Shabqadar

Correspondents say Islamabad has tacitly approved of such US air strikes, although Pakistani leaders have always denied supporting them.

In recent months senior Pakistani security officials have reportedly been pressing for a limit to such operations, in the face of public anger over civilian casualties.

During the parliamentary session, Pakistan's army chiefs appeared before MPs to explain their actions over Bin Laden's death.

Lt Gen Ahmed Shujaa Pasha, head of Pakistan's security services, is reported to have told MPs that he had offered to quit after the US Navy Seals raid, but had been turned down by the army chief.

Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan said Lt Gen Pasha had told MPs he was ready to take responsibility for any criminal failing.

Pakistani leaders have insisted they had no idea Bin Laden was holed up in the country.

US disappoints Libya rebel envoys

The US has stopped short of recognising Libya's National Transitional Council as the country's legitimate government.

The statement comes after the first visit to the White House by a senior member of the rebel council, which is pushing for international support.

Earlier, Col Muammar Gaddafi taunted Nato troops in an audio message on state TV, saying he was in a place where they "cannot reach" him.

State media says 11 Muslim clerics have been killed in a Nato air strike.

Mahmoud Jibril, deputy leader of the Benghazi-based National Transitional Council (NTC), met officials at the White House on Friday, including National Security Adviser Tom Donilon.

'You can't kill me'

In a statement, the White House said Mr Donilon had told Mr Jibril that the US viewed the council as "a legitimate and credible interlocutor of the Libyan people".

The US and Britain have not recognised the NTC as the true government of Libya - in contrast to France, Italy and Qatar.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Thursday that such a step would be "premature".

A Libyan government spokesman said Col Gaddafi was in very good health and high spirits

The US has said it is up to the Libyans to decide their government, not foreign powers.

There was some encouragement on Friday, however, for rebel hopes of accessing seized Libyan regime assets.

Mr Carney said the US was working with Congress to unblock some of the more than $30bn (£18.5bn) in frozen funds, so it could be used to aid the rebels.

Six large blasts - believed to have been Nato air strikes - were heard in the Libyan capital Tripoli late on Friday and early on Saturday morning.

They followed Libyan state TV's broadcast of an audio message by Col Gaddafi, pouring scorn on the alliance.

The Libyan leader thanked those outside Libya who had "expressed deep and strong concern, enthusiasm and love for me by carrying out all these contacts to enquire about my safety after hearing about the crusader, cowardly and treacherous missile attack".

"I say to the crusader cowards that I live in a place that you cannot reach and kill me in it because I live in the hearts of the millions," he added.

"Immortality is for the martyrs, and death, infamy and disgrace are for the treacherous agents and their cowardly masters."

Italy's foreign minister said earlier on Friday that Col Gaddafi had probably been wounded in Thursday's air strike on his Bab al-Aziziya compound and had fled Tripoli.

Earlier on Friday, state TV reported a Nato strike hit a boarding house in the eastern city of Brega, killing 11 imams and wounding 45 people.

A government spokesman said the victims were part of a larger group who had travelled to the government-held town from across Libya seeking peace talks in rebel-held Benghazi.

But rebel officials in Benghazi insisted there were no civilians at all in Brega, while a Nato spokesman said he did not know anything about an attack in Brega.

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Questions of Motives in Bombing in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Senior police officials said Friday that a suicide attack that killed more than 80 cadets from a government paramilitary force was probably retaliation for an army offensive in Pakistan’s tribal areas, and not for the death of Osama bin Laden, as the Pakistani Taliban claimed.

The New York Times

Enlarge This Image

Arshad Arbab/European Pressphoto Agency

More than 80 paramilitary soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a military training center.

Enlarge This Image

Arshad Arbab/European Pressphoto Agency

Caskets were brought to the hospital in Peshawar.

Shortly after the attack early Friday, which was aimed at members of the Frontier Constabulary in the town of Charsadda, the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility, saying it was retribution for the American raid on May 2 that killed Bin Laden in the small garrison city of Abbottabad, about 75 miles from the capital.

But the Pakistani Taliban have recently issued several statements claiming responsibility for attacks that they did not initiate, the police officials said, adding that they doubted that the suicide bombing was carried out by the group, or that it was in revenge for the American raid.

They said the attack was instead probably the work of a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban that has been fighting the Pakistani Army in the nearby tribal region of Mohmand, where the army has struggled for two years to subdue the insurgents, who are led by Umar Khalid.

Recently, the army opened what it called the third phase of an offensive, suffering heavy losses.

The insurgents in Mohmand have been able to force the Pakistani Army into a lengthy campaign by seeking refuge in sanctuaries across the border in Kunar Province in Afghanistan. NATO forces in Afghanistan have been helping Pakistan by going after the militants as they escape across the border.

Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao, a member of the provincial assembly of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, said the training facility that was attacked, at Shabqadar Fort, had been a frequent target of militants before. “Basically, the threat is from Mohmand Agency, where militants still have pockets and are active,” he said.

“I feel that this attack is not in retaliation to the Abbottabad incident,” he added. “Basically, in the last one and a half months, a new military operation has been started in Mohmand, as the army is going against militants. So this attack can be seen as a retaliation to the Mohmand operation.”

Bashir Bilour, a senior minister in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provincial government, told reporters that officials were withholding assessing blame for the deadly attack. “We don’t believe in directly blaming any country without any proof,” he said.

The bombing killed 82 cadets and wounded about 150 people, said Muhammad Akbar Hoti, the commandant of the Frontier Constabulary.

The death toll was expected to rise and could end up being the highest number of law enforcement officials killed in a terrorist attack in recent years, said Liaqat Khan, the police chief in nearby Peshawar. A second bomber may have taken part, he said.

The suicide bomber attacked as the paramilitary soldiers were about to return to their homes for a 10-day leave after six months of training, Mr. Khan said. The bomber was in a car outside the fort when he detonated the explosives about 6 a.m.

The death toll was so high because the men were told to wait for their transportation outside the gates, which provided the opportunity to attack them in a cluster, a provincial security official said.

“There are two occasions in one’s life to celebrate: wedding and going home on vacations at the end of six months of training,” said Mohammad Sardar, in his mid-20s, who was admitted to Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar with a head injury. “So we were all happy, celebrating the occasion, with bedrolls on our heads, thinking of home, when the first explosion occurred, followed by a second.”

The Frontier Constabulary forces who were the target of the suicide attack are not involved in the fighting in Mohmand. They are security guards at checkpoints in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, but their graduation, officials said, provided an accessible target for the militants to drive home their message.

The Frontier Constabulary, which dates from the 1800s, is run by the Pakistani police authorities and has about 70,000 paramilitary soldiers. In addition to patrolling checkpoints, the constabulary provides security at foreign embassies and consulates in major cities. For the sons of many poor families, landing a job in the constabulary is considered a prize.

Captive Soldiers Tell of Discord in Libyan Army

MISURATA, Libya — The army and militias of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, who for more than two months have fought rebels seeking to overthrow the Libyan leader, are undermined by self-serving officers, strained logistics and units hastily reinforced with untrained cadets, according to captured soldiers from their ranks.

In interviews this week in a rebel-run detention center where more than 100 prisoners from the Libyan military are housed, the prisoners consistently described hardships in the field and officers who deceived or failed them. They spoke bitterly of their lot.

While some showed signs of mistreatment or of making statements to ingratiate themselves with their captors, the accounts of their logistical and tactical problems portrayed a Libyan force suffering from growing problems in a war that began as a mismatch, settled into stalemate and has recently shown signs of rebel advance.

On one hand, Libyan military units and militias went to war with clear material and organizational advantages, equipped with tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery, rockets and vast stores of munitions. They arrived to battle with trained snipers and mortar, rocket and artillery crews.

On the other, the Libyan Defense Ministry thickened the ranks with veterans recalled to duty in poor physical condition and cadets with almost no combat training or experience.

Then, after facing weeks of airstrikes and a growing rebel force, some of these units were cut off, prisoners said, and officers betrayed the rank and file.

“The commanders told us, ‘Stay here and we will be back with more ammunition,’ ” said a cadet who claimed to have been pressed into service as an untrained infantryman last month, and was assigned to the fight for this city’s center. “But they did not come back, and the rebels surrounded us and we had to put down our weapons and quit.”

The prisoners’ identities, which were provided by the interviewees, have been withheld to protect them and their families from retaliation.

The cadet, who had a shaved head and slender hands protruding from a long black robe, described many forms of disappointment in the Qaddafi military. At the start of the war, he said, he was a second-year cadet, and was told by his instructors that he must go serve.

His and his classmates’ first mission, he said, was to search vehicles and check identification cards at one of the country’s myriad checkpoints. There were 11 cadets at the gate of the town where he was assigned, he said.

“After a while they came and said 11 at the gate is too much,” he said. “And they took six of us and gave us Kalashnikovs and took us into Misurata.”

That was in April, when Misurata was the center of Libya’s most pitched fight, a block-by-block contest that cost the lives of hundreds of men on both sides.

Inside the city, he said, he found he was in an unknown neighborhood, hidden with others in an apartment building as rebel fighters pressed near and the Libyan Army’s lines of logistics were slowly but persistently severed behind them.

Other prisoners described constant deception by their officers.

One prisoner, a member of the 32 Reinforced Brigade of Armed People, a unit often called elite and which is led by Khamis Qaddafi, one of Colonel Qaddafi’s sons, said he was the third contingent of the brigade to be sent from Tripoli to Misurata.

The third group was sent, he said, after the first two suffered heavy casualties.

He was assigned to the insurance building, a tall office complex that gained notoriety among rebels for the snipers who watched over the streets from its many windows.

The captured soldier, scarred on the hand and wearing jeans and a gray T-shirt that read “King of the Town,” said his officers lied to him throughout, telling him he had been sent to put down a foreign-inspired jihad.

“When we came here we heard the fighters shouting all the time, ‘Allahu akbar!’ ” he said. “The officers told us the enemy was Al Qaeda and other terror groups from Syria and Tunisia. But we saw that they were Libyans.”

The soldier said that he had not put on the uniform to kill Libyans, and, after listening to Qaddafi mortar crews shell the city with cluster munitions, he slipped out of the building and hid in a shop. There he waited, he said, until he heard rebels nearby. Then he surrendered, turning over his rifle and two grenades.

Other prisoners described being summoned back to duty after leaving the army two years ago, and finding once they went to battle that there were delays in evacuating the army’s wounded.