Gaddaafi loosing grip: 1,000 inmates freed, buildings torche

[Talo alle udaa]

1602: Libyan newspaper Quryna has reported the torching of security, administrative and judicial buildings in Benghazi, including those of Revolutionary Committees, as well as two police stations in al-Baraka and al-Fuwayhat. It says more than 1,000 inmates escaped from the al-Kuwayfiayaa correctional facility in Benghazi on Friday. Security sources said about 150 had been recaptured



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698


Live Blog - Libya
Live Blog - Libya
By Al Jazeera Staff in Middle East
on February 17th, 2011.


Protesters reportedly tear down statues of Muammar Gaddafi's famous "Green Book" in Tobruk on Thursday.
From our headquarters in Doha, we keep you updated on all things in Libya.

AJE Live Stream - Libya marks 40 years of Gaddafi - Feb. 17

(All times are local in Libya)

February 18, 2011

5:55 pm Al Jazeera speaks with Mohamed el-Berqawy, an engineer in Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city. Berqawy describes a "massacre" going on in the city and makes an impassioned appeal to the Arab League and United States for international help:



4:54 pm Following up on news of death tolls in Libya. Al Jazeera online producer Evan Hill spoke with a doctor in Benghazi earlier this morning who cited two close friends - doctors in Benghazi and Bayda - who reported 14 and 25 deaths in those cities, respectively. The death toll in Libya seems likely to rise above the earlier count of 24, reported by Human Rights Watch.

4:40 pm YouTube user "analibyana" or "I am a Libyan" posted this compilation of footage of recent protests in Libya. Please be warned that it contains graphic images of the injured and possibly dead:



3:41 pm There is a fierce battle over the eastern Libyan city of Bayda, the Reuters news agency reports. Two Libyan exile opposition groups earlier claimed that that the city had been taken over by anti-government protesters who were joined by local police forces, but now it appears that government "militias" have been reinforced and are clashing with residents, who are fighting back "with any weapons they could find."

[Talo alle udaa]

It seems there actual battles going on in some towns in Libya between opposition groups and the regime.

Aljazeera's live blog: http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/ ... blog-libya

[Talo alle udaa]

Libyan troops attempt to put down unrest in east

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Protests in Africa and the Middle EastTRIPOLI | Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:45am EST

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Soldiers sought to put down unrest in Libya's second city on Friday and opposition forces said they were fighting troops for control of a nearby town after crackdowns which Human Rights Watch said had killed 24 people.

Protests inspired by the revolts that brought down long-serving rulers of neighboring Egypt and Tunisia have led to violence unprecedented in the 41-year rule of Muammar Gaddafi.

The New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch said that according to its sources inside Libya, security forces had killed at least 24 people over the past two days. Exile groups have given much higher tolls which could not be confirmed.

Opponents of Gaddafi had designated Thursday as a day of rage to try to emulate uprisings sweeping through North Africa and the Middle East. Unrest continued well into the night.

The demonstrations have been focused in the country's east, including its second largest city, Benghazi, where support for Gaddafi has been historically weaker than in the rest of the country. The area is largely cut-off from international media.

"Last night was very hard, there were a lot of people in the street, thousands of people. I saw soldiers in the street," a resident who lives on Benghazi's main thoroughfare, Nasser Street, told Reuters.

"I heard shooting. I saw one person fall down (from a gunshot wound) but I don't have a figure for casualties."

The privately-owned Quryna newspaper, based in Benghazi, said security forces overnight fired live bullets at protesters, killing 14 of them. It published photographs of several people lying on hospital stretchers with bloodstained bandages.

Two Swiss-based exile groups said anti-government forces, joined by defecting police, were battling with security forces for control of the town of Al Bayda, 200 km (125 miles) northeast of Benghazi and scene of deadly clashes this week.

The Libyan Human Rights Solidarity group and the Libyan Committee for Truth and Justice initially said protesters had seized Al Bayda but later said government troops were fighting back. The reports could not be verified.

A source in Benghazi, who said he had been in contact with people in Al Bayda, told Reuters there had been more deaths in that town overnight, adding to at least five killed earlier. "There are a lot of people killed," he said.

Ashour Shamis, a London-based Libyan journalist, said protesters had stormed Benghazi's Kuwafiyah prison on Friday and freed dozens of political prisoners. Quryna said 1,000 prisoners had escaped and 150 had been recaptured.

CALM IN TRIPOLI

The capital Tripoli has been calmer, with Gadafi supporters staging demonstrations of their own. The leader appeared in the early hours of Friday briefly at Green Square in the center of Tripoli, surrounded by crowds of supporters. He did not speak.

A sermon at Friday prayers in Tripoli, broadcast on state television, urged people to ignore reports in foreign media "which doesn't want our country to be peaceful, which ... is the aim of Zionism and imperialism, to divide our country."

Gaddafi's opponents, using social media networks Facebook and Twitter, had called for new protests after Friday prayers, when most Libyan men visit the mosque.

[Talo alle udaa]

1618: A BBC correspondent in Tripoli says unconfirmed reports from Benghazi say the building of the state broadcaster there has been taken over by anti-government protesters

[abdisamad3]

I dont get it why bbc is calling libya middleast..I mean cant these fockers read a map.
libya is north-african country why do these fockers keep reffeing part of africa as the middleast.

[Talo alle udaa]

[LiquidHYDROGEN]

I dont get it why bbc is calling libya middleast..I mean cant these fockers read a map.
libya is north-african country why do these fockers keep reffeing part of africa as the middleast.

According to gaalo any arab muslim country = middle-east. The dumb americans even think Pakistan is in the middle-east.

[FAH1223]

I dont get it why bbc is calling libya middleast..I mean cant these fockers read a map.
libya is north-african country why do these fockers keep reffeing part of africa as the middleast.

Geo Political terms are really subjective

Middle East can refer from Morocco to Pakistan

But the best description is Egypt, the Levant, and the Arabian Peninsula... and Persian Gulf

[Talo alle udaa]

--"Libyan citizens take over Benina Airport in Benghazi and block the runway preventing Gaddafi's forces from using it"--

[Talo alle udaa]

2058: The BBC has confirmed that Benghazi airport has been closed2044: More from the BBC's sources in Benghazi: Reports are going around the city that more tanks are coming from nearby Deriana.2034: Sources in the Libyan city of Benghazi have told the BBC that electricity has been cut off in the coastal area. Four tanks are reportedly parked outside the court house. One resident said they fear there will be a massacre tonight.