“Zorro is doing a great job, ” exclaimed 29-year-old Salah, raising his fist in the air as if his favorite football player had just scored a goal. Had Salah not heard a loud explosion rocking the house of a revolution returnee in a nearby neighborhood, he would not have stopped talking to his friends to cheer. Salah was sure that it was ‘Zorro of Misrata’ who was responsible for the explosion.

“Zorro is doing a great job, ” exclaimed 29-year-old Salah, raising his fist in the air as if his favorite football player had just scored a goal. Had Salah not heard a loud explosion rocking the house of a revolution returnee in a nearby neighborhood, he would not have stopped talking to his friends to cheer. Salah was sure that it was ‘Zorro of Misrata’ who was responsible for the explosion.

Other than the Z mark he leaves behind at the ruins of returnees’ houses and shops he explodes, there is no other trace leading back to the anonymous person who calls himself ‘Zorro of Misrata’.

Returnees

‘Returnees’ are residents of Misrata who left during the revolution when Misrata—200 kilometers east of Tripoli— was besieged by Gadaafi’s forces. The city population had no choice but to resist, so families decided to stand together and help each other out.

The youth fought against Gaddafi’s forces after they had evacuated their families from downtown’s Tripoli Street, the then most prominent battlefield. A minority of residents however decided to flee the city for different reasons. Some of them did not approve the revolution; others were involved with Gaddafi’s regime; while a third group was not from the city, so they went back to their hometowns.

Zorro’s justice

Zorro of Misrata has decided not to let them return because they did not participate in defending the city. According to his page on Facebook, he was one of the rebels who fought against Gaddafi’s battalions in Tripoli Street.

“Do you know that Zorro fought in Tripoli Street when there was a real Jihad?” Zorro asks thousands of fans and followers. “I was shot in my shoulder, but I have recovered. When the front moved to Dafniya (west of Misurata), a large number of people joined the battalions so that 270 battalions came to exist in Misrata.”

“This is why,” Zorro explains, “I have decided to struggle against the traitors and returnees who have betrayed their home. They don’t deserve to live in Libya. This is my duty towards martyrs and I will not go back on my promise… May God burn traitors in hell.”

Zorro demands that “each returnee and traitor leave Misrata otherwise face humiliation, insult, disgrace, shame and death.”

Zorro’s battalion

Having been one of the youths who defended Misrata, Salah, who regularly visits Zorro’s page, stressed that Zorro actually carried out the threats he posted on his Facebook page. Salah cited a letter that Zorro had addressed to the residents of the Qoushi buildings: “That place is dangerous and I want to bring down all of the buildings there down.” According to Salah, Zorro has already started to keep his promises.

Over time, Zorro of Misrata has grown from a quiet one-man show into a well-organized cell, comprising a group of fighters under the command of Zorro himself who calls it the ‘Zorro of Misrata Battalion for Fighting Against Returnees”. The battalion members however remain anonymous.

No one in Misurata has any information that could point to real personalities of this network, which, with each passing day gains more and more supporters as well opponents. The more it carries out operations, the larger the number of mistakes and dangers, and the greater the already great controversy around it grows.

Zorro’s mistakes

A resident who spoke anonymously said that Zorro had committed several mistakes. For example, when he tried to bomb the apartment of one of Gaddafi’s men at Saadon Street, a ten year-old girl had her leg amputated when the shell hit her apartment by mistake.

He also said that a café closed after reacting to a threatening letter Zorro had left at its door one night: “Shut down this café… because families shop in this street, the café visitors harass the girls.”

According to Misrata residents, the activities of Zorro’s Battalion are increasingly expanding. They say it has become natural to wake up in the morning and find a new phrase or letter signed with the Z mark on one of the city walls, threatening a new official or a rebel who is “deviant”, from Zorro’s point of view.

Some even say that the same mark has appeared in other Libyan cities, such as Shahat (eastern Libya) where it was attached to the following phrase: “Zorro of Shahat for combating informal settlements”. Following the same approach, Zorro of Shahat fights against those who build houses over lands unassigned for construction or those who cut down trees in cities.

The houses and belongings of the returnees in Misrata are quickly sold to new owners who restore or re-build them. Only then is Zorro satisfied.