By Ruth Sherlock in Benghazi, The Scotsman, May9, 2011

....For more than a month Hamid Abdallah, 27, has shipped weapons and ammunition to rebel fighters in the besieged city in Libya's west. Collecting guns and bullets from civilians, lobbying arms dealers, and buying what he can, the disabled Benghazi man has worked tirelessly to feed Misrata's weapon supply line.

Mr Abdallah is confined to a wheelchair after an accident at the heavy machinery plant where he worked left him with a fractured spine. Supplying the frontlines, he says, is compensation for the fact that he cannot fight himself.  "I love this revolution. If I could walk I would be the first one up to fight Gaddafi. These (weapons shipments] are the small things I can do," he says.

Horrified by the stories told by his friends in Misrata, Mr Abdallah set about investigating the murky world of weapons dealing that has burgeoned in Benghazi since the revolution began....I went to these men, I told them that Misrata needs us. We should give them to those that need, rather than just sell them to people who will fire them in the air for show here in the city. This makes me so angry," says Mr Abdallah.

He has bought other weapons with his own savings - money he had been saving from his monthly disability payments in the hope that he would one day be able to afford an operation to improve his condition...