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By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 10 May 2014:
The Feel Cinema in Benghazi gave a special screening of The Road to Bab Al-Azizia . . .[restrict]on Thursday in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the National Front for the Salvation of Libya’s valiant but ultimately doomed attempt to overthrow the Qaddafi regime through its 1984 assault on the dictator’s armed compound at Bab Al-Azizia a in Tripoli.
Four of the six surviving members from the group, Osama Shallouf, Aref Dkhiel, Kamal Al-Shami and Emad Al-Hsaeri attended the opening of the film which documents the events of 1984.
Shallouf told the Libya Herald of his gratitude to the makers of the film and said it was an accurate representation of what had happened. He added that the subject was important not just for present-day audiences but for future generations of Libyans.
“This is a historical document showing the brutality of the Qaddafi regime, something many younger Libyans of the 1990s cannot fully appreciate having only lived during the regime’s era of openness,” Dkhiel said. “I consider the director Faraj Farjani as one of us for his work these past three years,” he added.
The film, officially sponsored by the Benghazi Local Council, documents the story of 18 “Fedayeen” or militant members of the National Front who travelled to Libya from Tunisia with a plan to destroy the Qaddafi regime at its heart. However, their plans were discovered when three of them were arrested.
The result was that their leader, Ahmed Ahawwas, was caught while travelling to Tripoli on 6 May 1984 and summarily executed in Zuwara. Others tried to carry out the attack, but the element of surprise was lost. In the aftermath, dozens were arrested and executed.
Ahawas is now seen as a hero of the anti-Qaddafi resistance movement. [/restrict]
