I hope you didn't miss this: it is quite literally incredible
Libyan forces kill funeral mourners
PA
Yesterday
Muammar Gaddafi’s forces fired on mourners leaving a funeral for protesters today, killing at least 15 people and wounding scores more as the regime tried to squelch calls for an end to the ruler’s 42-year grip on power.
Libyan protesters were back on the street for the fifth straight day, but Gaddafi has taken a hard line toward the dissent that has ripped through the Middle East and swept him up with it.
Government forces also wiped out a protest encampment and clamped down on internet service throughout Libya.
Snipers fired on thousands of people gathered in the eastern city of Benghazi, a focal point of the unrest, to mourn 35 protesters who were shot on Friday, a hospital official said.
A hospital official said 15 people were killed, including one man who was apparently hit in the head with an anti-aircraft missile. The weapons apparently were used to intimidate the population.
“Many of the dead and the injured are relatives of doctors here,” he said. “They are crying and I keep telling them to please stand up and help us.”
The official said many people were shot in the head and chest. The hospital was overwhelmed and people were streaming to the facility to donate blood.
Before Saturday’s violence, Human Rights Watch had estimated at least 84 people have been killed.
Just after 2am local time in Libya, the US-based Arbor Networks security company detected a total cessation of online traffic in the North African country. Protesters confirmed they could not get online.
Information is tightly controlled in Libya, where journalists cannot work freely, and activists this week have posted videos on the internet that have been an important source of images of the revolt.
Other information about the protests has come from opposition activists in exile. Egyptian officials briefly tried to cut internet service during the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak on February 11, but that move was unsuccessful.
About 5am local time on Saturday, special forces attacked hundreds of protesters, including lawyers and judges, camped out in front of the courthouse in Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city.
“They fired tear gas on protesters in tents and cleared the areas after many fled carrying the dead and the injured,” one protester said.
Doctors in Benghazi said that 35 bodies had been brought to the hospital following attacks by security forces backed by militias, on top of more than a dozen killed the day before.
Standing in front of Jalaa Hospital morgue, a witness said that the bodies bore wounds from being shot “directly at the head and the chests”.
Residents of the city set up neighbourhood patrols on Saturday, after police left the streets.
“We don’t see a single policeman in the streets, not even traffic police,” a lawyer in Benghazi said. People regarded the disappearance of the police as an ominous sign, fearing that pro-government forces would soon follow up the encampment raid with house-to-house attacks.
Switzerland-based Libyan activist Fathi al-Warfali said that several other activists had been detained including Abdel-Hafez Gougha, a well-known organiser who was being held after security forces stormed his house in a night raid.
Gaddafi is facing the biggest popular uprising of his autocratic reign, with much of the action in the country’s impoverished east.
The nation has huge oil reserves but poverty is a significant problem. US diplomats have said in newly leaked memos that Gaddafi’s regime seems to neglect the east intentionally, letting unemployment and poverty rise to weaken opponents there.
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RAI news this morning at 08.00 said that snipers brought from Tripoli were on roofs and shot 35 mourners in the funeral of some riot victim.
One comment struck me:” Now instead of one funeral, they have another thirty five funerals”.
BREAKING – Alarabiya.net: Gaddafi is headed to Venezuela or Brazil on private jet
Posted on February 20, 2011 by admin ( http://www.libyafeb17.com/?p=1283 )
I’m currently very close to Venezuela and people are saying Gaddafi will be seeking refuge in Venezuela or Brazil…
Right now, on Al Jazeera, an astonishing, rambling speech by Gaddafi’s son. Beginning of the end. Phenomenal!
It is apparently over! Have just been watching the botched up effort of one of Gaddafi’s sons insultingly clutching at straws blaming all for the demise of his father’s regime.
The majority of Italian media report that security forces in Tripoli have also disappeared
All international news websites right up to date on what’s going on in Libya (01:25). Times of Malta still yakking about some assholes shooting spoonbills. Gaddafi’s son just said they are half an hour from Europe. Guess which part of Europe.
Things are really changing in North Africa. As you had observed in a previous article, something has snapped there and it looks like Libya is next.
Let’s hope matters do not precipitate much although news have it that various parts of Libya are under revolt.
[Daphne – That’s an understatement. You had better switch on your television and go straight to the international news channels. Benghazi has fallen and there are riots in Tripoli.]
Gaddafi is not a soft or democratic guy so more bloodshed and confrontation is expected. Let all hope a civil war does not develop at our door step.
What with our safety, the potential exodus of more immigrants hiting our shores, and the uncertain fate of the substantial Maltese investments down there.
This is too close to our shores. I don’t want to sound alarmist but it seems to me our security may be in danger and it follows that our future economic well being could potentially be under threat.
So, will Mintoff and John Dalli lose their business interests and contacts in Libya?
Mintoff still has his human rights prize from Gaddafi.
Will Gaddafi lose his ‘Ordni tar-Repubblika’ awarded to him by Mintoff?
Gaddafi is no General Custer. His one and only interest is to safeguard his skin and the billions he has siphoned away in Swiss banks.
@El Topo. Ghaddafi withdrew all his money from Switzerland a couple of years ago after the Geneva police arrested his son Hannibal for beating up his wife in a Swiss hotel.
[Daphne – Fran, it was actually one of the Gaddafi sons AND his wife who were arrested for illegal treatment of two servants: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/25/muammar-gaddafi-libya. If he really withdrew his money from that country (and yes, I suppose he would have), then please God don’t let it be in Malta.]
If he is savvy enough, he would have buried his stash in the Cayman Islands where the attitude is that of the three monkeys: say nothing, hear nothing and see nothing.
I mixed that with this.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/6909125/Police-called-to-Colonel-Gaddafis-sons-hotel-room-after-woman-heard-screaming.html
[Daphne – Nut jobs. And to think they have investments in Malta, and how much they were courted here by Maltese businessmen: Saif this and Saif that. Looking back, it just makes you sick.]
Well a few big Swiss companies have also invested there. Two of ABB’s workers were taken as hostages after the Geneva hotel episode. I think Nestlé also has interests there. And don’t forget Tony Blair sucking up to Gadaffi. I remember a photo of Blair’s silly grin with the dictator. So it’s not only Malta – no excuse I know but..
http://www.google.com.mt/imgres?imgurl=http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00636/news-graphics-2007-_636539a.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1552871/Blair-meets-Gaddafi-on-African-farewell-tour.html&h=300&w=380&sz=34&tbnid=cOqst4ZwRgAdLM:&tbnh=97&tbnw=123&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dblair%2Band%2Bgaddafi%2Bphoto&zoom=1&q=blair+and+gaddafi+photo&hl=mt&usg=__aghlGcwnt_x3ktcdD-J7_ihirXQ=&sa=X&ei=Hy1iTdjcCcHXsga93OC1CA&ved=0CBoQ9QEwAg