{"id":39223,"date":"2019-05-03T02:24:13","date_gmt":"2019-05-03T02:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=39223"},"modified":"2019-05-03T02:24:13","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T02:24:13","slug":"summit-was-attended-by-heads-of-government-ministers-and-bankers-from-arab-and-foreign-countries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=39223","title":{"rendered":"Summit was attended by heads of government, ministers and bankers from Arab and foreign countries"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nTAJOURA, Libya: It\u2019s a day of rest from fighting on the front line in Libya and Abdelaziz and his comrades down their weapons only to pick up their phones and resume combat.<\/p>\n

\n\u201c(Khalifa) Haftar\u2019s guys are coming to get us,\u201d shouts Abdelaziz, referring to the military commander who launched a bid to capture Tripoli last month.<\/p>\n

\nThe eyes of the young men are fixed on mobile phones as they shoot it out in PlayerUnknown\u2019s Battlegrounds, or PUBG, a brutal \u201cbattle royale\u201d game in which the winner is the last survivor.<\/p>\n

\nThe online multiplayer video game is among the world\u2019s most popular with more than 360 million downloads.<\/p>\n

\nThe Iraqi Parliament voted last month to ban the game for \u201cinciting violence\u201d and it has also been outlawed in Nepal and the Indian state of Gujarat.<\/p>\n

\nIn Libya, PUBG is all the rage, especially on the front line in the suburbs of Tripoli and around the city where forces loyal to the internationally recognized Government of National Accord have been fighting Haftar\u2019s Libyan National Army for the past month.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe play it when we come back from the front, and sometimes even on the front,\u201d the burly Abdelaziz says in his raspy voice.<\/p>\n

\nThe 25-year-old and his fellow fighters from a \u201ckatiba\u201d or battalion in Misrata are battling alongside other pro-GNA forces in Ain Zara, a district in Tripoli\u2019s southern suburbs.<\/p>\n

\nThat afternoon, they rested at their camp in Tajoura, a coastal town in the eastern part of the capital.<\/p>\n

\nUnder a large awning, Abdelaziz and his comrades \u2014 mostly in their 20s \u2014 put their Kalashnikov assault rifles patched up with tape and their rocket-propelled grenade launchers on a table.<\/p>\n

\nThey reach for their phones, go online and fire up the game with their carefully selected outfits and avatars, some more colorful than others.<\/p>\n

\nThey jump out of planes along with 100 other players and are parachuted onto an island where they collect weapons and eliminate each other until the last one is standing.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI discovered the game a year ago thanks to these guys. I tried it out of curiosity and fell in love,\u201d says Abdelaziz.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAt night, we play. You don\u2019t sleep,\u201d another player says with a laugh.<\/p>\n

\nMohamed Shaafi, a 19-year-old in a camouflage cap, chips in.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWhether it\u2019s morning, afternoon or night, we have to play,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt excites us and we can even learn tricks (for the real battlefield): where to look, how to crawl, how to train.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt motivates us when we play it before going to the front line,\u201d he says, looking from under the visor of his cap raised like a cyclist\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\nAround the table, the first crackles of gunshots are heard from their phones.<\/p>\n

\nWithout ever taking their eyes off their screens, the four young men talk to each other as though in battle.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThere\u2019s someone under the tree: Watch out!,\u201d \u201cGet down!,\u201d \u201cYou\u2019re far away!,\u201d \u201cYou don\u2019t have a gun? I\u2019m here, don\u2019t worry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nFor Abdelaziz, his virtual opponents are the same as \u201cHaftar\u2019s guys\u201d who he fights in the potholed streets of Ain Zara.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe front is PUBG in real life. That\u2019s why we love this game,\u201d Akram says with a smile, his combat helmet still on his head, as he watches the gameplay.<\/p>\n

\nAbdelaziz says \u201cthere\u2019s a big difference between real life and gaming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIn gaming, when you die, you can come back. In real life, it\u2019s over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nMohamed, on the other hand, almost prefers the reality of the front.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIn the game, when you get hurt and call for help, no one comes, but on the battlefields, someone comes to help you,\u201d says the young man with a bandage on his leg.<\/p>\n

\nAfter 10 minutes of play, one of the players finally lifts his head from his screen.<\/p>\n

\nHe appears upset as he drops his phone on the table, before saying: \u201cI\u2019m out of battery.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TAJOURA, Libya: It\u2019s a day of rest from fighting on the front line in Libya and Abdelaziz and his comrades down their weapons only to pick up their phones and resume combat. \u201c(Khalifa) Haftar\u2019s guys are coming to get us,\u201d shouts Abdelaziz, referring to the military commander who launched a bid to capture Tripoli last…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":39224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}