Across Benghazi city, the capital of the Libyan opposition movement, armed squads are being dispatched to crack down on supporters of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regime. In just a few weeks, hundreds have been arrested in the night raids.
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Some 300 Gaddafi supporters with "blood on their hands" are in Benghazi, says Abdul Ghoga, spokesperson for the rebel Interim National Council (INC). They drive around in cars firing at pedestrians in order to spread fear, say the rebels.
Others believe the figure is far higher. "There are thousands of them here," said the gang leader of the night raid "maybe even 6000."
"We have many people - students, post-graduates, businessmen who still stand with Gaddafi. They are in hiding now, organizing themselves when Gaddafi starts to attack Benghazi," says lifelong Benghazi resident Sami Hassan, 37.
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Fed by fear, war breeds suspicion and mistrust. Determining loyalties in this fluid environment can be an impossible task. Some of the targets are suspects on dangerously loose criteria.
The regime loyalty of a person's home town, a photograph of Gaddafi in the wallet (common place during the dictator's rule) and family ties, are all considered 'evidence'.
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"It is also disconcerting that the authorities do indirectly cooperate with these vigilante shabab groups by taking custody of the people they've detained, and not even investigating the abuses committed against those detainees."
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As the revolution transforms into a political opposition movement, the raids leave an increasingly bad taste to the INC commitment to democratic values. The raids are for security in times of war, say the rebels, but they also smack of political repression.
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The term "enemies of the revolution" is familiar. Gadhafi used those words himself during his own revolution. "The script has flipped, says Mustafa Giriani, media coordinator for the National Council, "before it was the anti-Gaddafi movement that was in hiding".
