Members of Libyan Military Defect & Liberate Benghazi – Protests Spead to Tripoli
Posted by Jim Hoft on Sunday, February 20, 2011, 4:49 PM
At least 200 people were killed during a crackdown by the Gaddafi regime this week.
Members of the Libyan military defected today and liberated the people of Benghazi.
SKY News reported:
Members of a Libyan army unit have told Benghazi residents they have defected and “liberated” the city from pro-Gaddafi forces.
Speaking from Benghazi, a local man named Benali, told Sky News that members of the Libya’s armed forces have defected and that anti-regime protesters are now in control of the city.
Habib al-Obaidi, who heads the intensive care unit at the main Al-Jalae hospital, appeared to confirm the reports, saying the “Thunderbolt” squad arrived at the hospital with soldiers who had been injured in clashes with Gaddafi’s men.
“They are now saying that they have overpowered the Praetorian Guard and that they have joined the people’s revolt,” said Mr al-Obaidi.
More… Protests spread to Tripoli today for the first time.
The Guardian reported:
Libya is defying international condemnation of a bloody crackdown that saw troops and mercenaries shooting unarmed demonstrators as the crisis spread to Tripoli and the death toll rose to more than 200.
The most violent scenes so far of the wave of protests sweeping the Arab world were seen in its most repressive country, as Muammar Gaddafi resorted to force to crush what began last week as peaceful protests but may now threaten his 41-year rule.
BBC Arabic reported clashes involving automatic gunfire and teargas in the capital for the first time since unrest began. A promised address by Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi’s son, on state TV failed to materialise.
gatewaypundit.rightnetwork.com
----------------------------------------------------------
Cyrenaica rises up against Qaddafi's Tripolitania regime
DEBKAfile Special Report February 20, 2011, 11:24 PM (GMT+02:00) Tags: Libya Qaddafi Cyrenaica Muammar Qaddafi
Around two million Cyrenaican protesters, half of Libya's population who control half of the country and part of its oil resources, embarked Sunday, Feb. 20, on a full-scale revolt against Muammar Qaddafi and his affluent ruling Tripolitanian-dominated regime. Unlike the rights protests sweeping the Middle East and North Africa, in Libya, one half of the country is rising up against the other half, as well as fighting to overthrow a dictatorial ruler of 42 years.
Since last week, heavy battles have been fought in Benghazi, Al Bayda, Al Marj, Tobruk and at least two other two cities. In some places, debkafile's military sources report protesters stormed army bases and seized large quantities of missiles, mortars, heavy machine guns and armored vehicles – and used them. The important Fadil Ben Omar Brigade command base in Benghazi was burnt to the ground.
Our sources cite witnesses who spied Berber tribesmen among the insurgents, which bodes ill for Algerian and Morocco and their large Berber populations.
The reports of massacres and imported mercenaries, especially in Benghazi come mainly from opposition sources in West Europe and cannot be independently confirmed at this time. Neither could reports from the same sources Sunday night that Qaddafi's rule had collapsed and the revolt had spread.
At the same time, there is no doubt that Qaddafi will not scruple to use brutal measures in desperation to save his regime, if he has not already. Hospital sources describe hundreds of dead and injured.
He has meanwhile put Ahmed Gaddaf Al-Dam, his cousin and security chief, in charge of the army's effort to suppress the uprising in Benghazi. Most of the city appears to have fallen to the protesters, with the exception of its airport through which the ruler is pumping heavy reinforcements and sending them straight into battle.
So far, the Libyan Air Force and Navy have not been deployed. Helicopters sent in action to shoot into crowds are confirmed in only one place, Al Bayda.
Since Saturday afternoon, Qaddafi has not been seen or heard in public. According to some rumors, he has left Tripoli and made for the Saharan oasis town of Sebha, his tribal birthplace. So far, he has kept up the flow of military reinforcements to the six rebel cities because the towns of Tripolitania have been relatively quiet. But if Tripoli and its environs rise up too, he will be short of military strength to deal with trouble spots in both parts of the country.
Some Libyan would-be go-betweens proposed a ceasefire between Qaddafi and the protesters whereby the government would resign and the popular former prime minister Abdul Salam Jaloud be appointed caretaker prime minister until the crisis is resolved. But Jaloud declined the offer.
It is too early to determine in advance how the showdown between Qaddafi's army and the protesters-insurgents of Cyrenaica turns out. Before it is over, Libya's eastern provinces may be called on to sacrifice thousands more dead and wounded. If the Cyrenaicans do manage to hold on, they will be in a position to carve Libya in two and break away from Tripolitania and the Qaddafi regime.
debka.com |
