Friday, February 25, 2011

Forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi launched a fierce counter-attack Thursday on rebels holding towns near the capital in battles that killed dozens while the Libyan leader blamed Osama bin Laden for the upheaval.
The opposition was already in control of major centers in the east, including the regional capital Benghazi, and reports that the towns of Misrata and Zuara in the west had also fallen brought the tide of rebellion closer to Gadhafi’s power base.

Gun battles in Zawiya, an oil terminal 50 kilometers from the capital, left 23 people dead, a Libyan newspaper said. But Al-Jazeera quoted residents putting the toll there at 100. France’s top human rights official said up to 2,000 people might have died so far in the uprising since Feb. 15.

In a rambling appeal for calm, Gadhafi blamed the revolt on bin Laden, and said the protesters were fueled by milk and Nescafe spiked with hallucinogenic drugs.
Gadhafi, who just two days ago vowed in a televised address to crush the revolt and fight to the last, showed none of the fist-thumping rage of that speech.

This time, he spoke to state television by telephone without appearing in person, and his tone seemed more conciliatory. “Their ages are 17. They give them pills at night, they put hallucinatory pills in their drinks, their milk, their coffee, their Nescafe,” Gadhafi said.
“Shame on you, people of Zawiya, control your children,” he said. “They are loyal to bin Laden,” he said of those involved in the uprising.

“What do you have to do with bin Laden, people of Zawiya? They are exploiting young people … I insist it is bin Laden.”
Gadhafi quickly condemned the Sept. 11 attacks that bin Laden masterminded, saying: “We have never seen such a horrific and terrifying act performed in such a exhibitionist manner.”

A Tripoli resident, who did not want to be identified, told Reuters: “He’s realizing it’s going to be a matter of time before the final chapter: the battle of Tripoli.”
A former Libyan Justice Minister Mustafa Mohammad Abdel-Jeleil told a Swedish newspaper he expected the increasingly isolated Libyan leader to commit suicide the way Adolf Hitler did at the end of World War II rather than surrender or flee.

In the latest blow to the Libyan leader, a cousin who is one of his closest aides, Ahmad Gadhaf al-Dam, announced that he has defected to Egypt in protest against the regime’s bloody crackdown, denouncing what he called “grave violations to human rights and human and international laws.” Gadhaf al-Dam is one of the highest level defections to hit the regime so far, after many ambassadors around the world, the justice minister and the interior minister all sided with the protesters.

In Amman, Libya’s ambassador to Jordan Mohammad al-Barghathi also said he left his post in protest at his government’s violent crackdown calling for the ousting of Gadhafi.
The worst bloodshed was in Zawiya. An army unit loyal to Gadhafi opened fire with automatic weapons on a mosque where residents – some armed with hunting rifles for protection – have been holding a sit-in to support protesters in the capital, a witness said.

Libya’s Quryna newspaper said 23 people were killed and 44 wounded in the town. Quoting medical sources it said “intense exchange of fire” was preventing the wounded from reaching hospitals. Some men were removing wounded kin from hospitals for fear of them falling into the hands of Gadhafi loyalists.

A doctor at a field clinic set up at the mosque said he saw the bodies of 10 dead, shot in the head and chest, as well as around 150 wounded.

“It is chaotic there. There are people with guns and swords,” said Mohammad Jaber, who passed through Zawiyah on his way to Tunisia Thursday. A witness told Reuters the Libyan army was present in force.
Thousands massed in Zawiya’s main Martyrs Square by the Souq Mosque after the attack, shouting for Gadhafi to “leave, leave,” a witness told the Associated Press.

“People came to send a clear message: We are not afraid of death or your bullets,” he said.
Forces loyal to Gadhafi also attacked anti-government militias controlling Misrata, Libya’s third-biggest city, 200 kilometers east of Tripoli, and several people were killed in fighting near the city’s airport.
Al-Jazeera quoted a senior officer who had joined the rebels as saying the government used poison gas against demonstrators at Misrata’s airport early Thursday, although such reports could not be verified.

Anti-government militias were in control of Zuara, about 120 kilometers west of Tripoli. There was no sign of police or military and the town was controlled by “popular committees” armed with automatic weapons.
In the east of Libya, many soldiers have withdrawn from active service and some are openly supporting the revolt.
Protesters have also taken control of Al-Kufra, some 1,000 kilometers southeast of Benghazi, Quryna newspaper said.

The uprising has virtually halted Libya’s oil exports, said the head of Italy’s ENI, Libya’s biggest foreign oil operator. The unrest has driven world oil prices up to around $120 a barrel, stoking concern about the economic recovery.
In Paris, French Ambassador for Human Rights Francois Zimeray said up to 2,000 people had been killed in the revolt and that there was evidence to suggest Gadhafi had committed crimes against humanity.

In Benghazi, where the rebellion started a week ago, the mood was triumphant. Effigies of Gadhafi and his clan hung from lampposts, men chanted slogans and fired guns into the air and the town was being run under “people’s committees.”
“All is run now by the young people of Benghazi, there is no control from outside Libya or inside Libya,” said resident Faraj Mohammad.

In the hospital morgue though, body bags lay half opened exposing the charred remains of eight bodies.
“I am a witness to this criminal act, from the first time, the first day I saw 13 bodies, one with a bullet in his neck. The other case a bullet in the spine. Even the injured are handicapped now. All 13 to 20 years,” said Jamil Howedi, a doctor at the hospital.

“I am responsible for this and have medical records and I know from hospital records that 220 to 250 people died,” he said, noting that many of the dead were from the army, killed for refusing to fight the protesters.
In Tripoli locals said they were too scared to go outside for fear of being shot by pro-government forces. – Agencies