Gaddafi Ends Foreign Occupation at Wheelus

TRIPOLI — The final foreign military convoy has left Wheelus airbase, ending a presence that survived governments, treaties and generations of Libyans watching aircraft rise from land they could not enter. At noon, the foreign flag was lowered and the Libyan banner climbed the same pole to a salute from troops assembled along the runway.

Muammar Gaddafi entered the base through its main gate rather than the ceremonial platform prepared nearby. He stopped beside the guardhouse, removed its English sign and handed it to a young soldier as though returning a misplaced object.

“Today the runway points toward Libya, not away from it.”

Keys, hangars and unanswered questions

The transfer included hangars, workshops, fuel tanks and several locked rooms for which nobody could immediately identify a key. Engineers began inspecting equipment while clerks counted vehicles, furniture and telephones that continued to ring despite the absence of anyone authorised to answer.

Officials promised to convert parts of the base into a civilian airport and technical academy. Residents nearby asked first for access to the beach road, closed for so long that it had become a story grandparents told children.

After the departure

By dusk, celebrations moved beyond the perimeter. The departure ended one argument—who controlled the base—and opened another over who should benefit from it. Independence arrived not as an empty runway, but as a long list of decisions no foreign commander could now be blamed for making.