Libya Protests: Tripoli In Open Revolt, Pro-Gaddafi Gangs Terrorize Capital

[HeyItsZeus]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/26...28586.html

TRIPOLI, Libya - The embattled Libyan regime passed out guns to civilian supporters, set up checkpoints Saturday and sent armed patrols roving the terrorized capital to try to maintain control of Moammar Gadhafi's stronghold and quash dissent as rebels consolidate control elsewhere in the North African nation.

Residents of its eastern Tajoura district spread concrete blocks, large rocks and even chopped-down palm trees as makeshift barricades to prevent the SUVs filled with young men wielding automatic weapons from entering their neighborhood -- a hotspot of previous protests.

With tensions running high in Tripoli, scores of people in the neighborhood turned out at a funeral for a 44-year-old man killed in clashes with pro-regime forces. Anwar Algadi was killed Friday, with the cause of death listed as "a live bullet to the head," according to his brother, Mohammed.

Armed men in green armbands, along with uniformed security forces check those trying to enter the district, where graffiti that says "Gadhafi, you Jew," "Down to the dog," and "Tajoura is free" was scrawled on walls.

Outside the capital, rebels held a long swath of about half of Libya's 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) Mediterranean coastline where most of the population lives, and even captured a brigadier general and a soldier Saturday as the Libyan army tried to retake an air base east of Tripoli. The state-run news agency also said the opposition held an air defense commander and several other officers.

On Friday, pro-Gadhafi militiamen -- including snipers -- fired on protesters trying to mount the first significant anti-government marches in days in Tripoli.

Gadhafi, speaking from the ramparts of a historic Tripoli fort, told supporters to prepare to defend the nation as he faced the biggest challenge to his 42-year rule.

"At the suitable time, we will open the arms depot so all Libyans and tribes become armed, so that Libya becomes red with fire," Gadhafi said.

The international community toughened its response to the bloodshed, while Americans and other foreigners were evacuated from the chaos roiling the North African nation.

The U.N. Security Council began deliberations to consider an arms embargo against the Libyan government and a travel ban and asset freeze against Gadhafi, his relatives and key members of his government. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said some estimates indicate more than 1,000 people have been killed in less than two weeks since the protests broke out in Libya.

President Barack Obama signed an executive order Friday freezing assets held by Gadhafi and four of his children in the United States. The Treasury Department said the sanctions against Gadhafi, three of his sons and a daughter also apply to the Libyan government.

In Tripoli, most residents stayed in their homes Saturday, terrified of bands of armed men at checkpoints and patrolling the city.

Tripoli, home to about a third of Libya's population of 6 million, is the center of the eroding territory that Gadhafi still controls.

Even in the Gadhafi-held pocket of northwestern Libya around Tripoli, several cities have also fallen to the rebellion. Militiamen and pro-Gadhafi troops were repelled when they launched attacks trying to take back opposition-held territory in Zawiya and Misrata in fighting that
killed at least 30 people.

Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, told foreign journalists invited by the government to Tripoli that there were no casualties in Tripoli and that the capital was "calm."

"Everything is peaceful," he said. "Peace is coming back to our country."

Shit's going down! This is fucked up, man!

[Ashendant]

He already bombed his own people uses ambulances as vehicles to bring combatants on the front line, blames bin laden too

[Dotard]

What I want to know is when is the American revolution going to start?

[reverendjeremiah]

He already bombed his own people uses ambulances as vehicles to bring combatants on the front line, blames bin laden too

acts of desperation

---

What I want to know is when is the American revolution going to start?

If that happens you will not like it. It will be brutal, it will be bloody, it will last a LONG time.. and it will be in your very back yard.

[Dotard]

If that happens you will not like it. It will be brutal, it will be bloody, it will last a LONG time.. and it will be in your very back yard.

Damnit! There's always a catch.

[downbeatplumb]

I see some good movies coming out of this in about five years.

Theres always a silver lining.

[Violet]

I love watching enemy countries weaken themselves, there is just something morbidly fascinating and fun about it. I hope that after he is done butchering his own civilians: someone rolls in and crushes him in his weakened state, and then annexes his former territory. Surely Libya has some resource or other to offer a hungry war machine... >_> Or I suppose we could make use of our unemployed.... what an idea: let's do it!

Unfortunately, considering the country is in africa, the territory might well become what I call a "hot potato", which i think is self explanatory to anyone that thinks about that for more than three seconds.

(False positivity is fun, more people should try it)

[Ubermensch]

Muammar Gadaffi is a terrible excuse for a human being and he ought to be strung up like Mussolini.

[Ashendant]

[Autumnlicious]

The Libyan military has bombed an arms depot to prevent it from being used by rebels. They're using scorched earth tactics now, even as their own capital amasses forces to revolt there.

REF: http://www.haaretz.com/news/internationa...i-1.346294

Libyan warplanes reportedly bombed an arms dump inside a rebel-held eastern district on Monday, two senior security sources said, as hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Tripoli to demonstrate against long-time leader Muammar Gadhafi.

"It's true, they hit an arms dump in Djabiya. No one was hurt. It happened at around 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon," said Fathi Abidy, a member of the security council set up by the temporary administration in Libya's main eastern city Benghazi.

...
But rebel officers say many more stayed behind to gather at makeshift training camps in schools and burnt-out barracks.

"We can give them what they need: training in assault, in defending a position. They should know that we are here to protect the youth revolution," said Marai Lojeli, a colonel in his 50s.