Tripoli guns mow down Gadhafi foes

It’s like ‘we are dogs,’ says protester as deaths mount

People from various nations head for ships Friday in Benghazi as they flee Libya’s unrest.
People from various nations head for ships Friday in Benghazi as they flee Libya’s unrest.

— Protesters demanding Moammar Gadhafi’s ouster came under a hail of bullets Friday when pro-regime militiamen opened fire to stop the first significant anti-government marches in days in Tripoli, the Libyan capital. The Libyan leader, speaking from the ramparts of a historic Tripoli fort, told supporters to prepare to defend the nation.

Witnesses reported multiple deaths from gunmen on rooftops and in the streets shooting at crowds with automatic weapons.

“It was really like we are dogs,” said one man who was marching from Tripoli’s eastern Tajoura district. He added that many people were shot in the head, with seven people within 10 yards of him cut down in the first wave.

“The military, they are going in the small streets in between the houses and opened the fire, guns, and [they caught] some live people and took them,” said Zakariya Naas, 38, who found himself in the middle of the gunfire. “I saw by my own eyes, more than seven young guys” taken captive at gunpoint, he said, adding that he watched 15, maybe 20, bodies drop.

Also Friday evening, troops loyal to Gadhafi, the68-year-old leader who has ruled since 1969, attacked a major air base east of Tripoli that had fallen into rebel hands. A force of tanks attacked the Misrata Air Base, succeeding in retaking part of it in battles with residents and members of army units who had joined the anti-Gadhafi uprising, said a doctor and one resident wounded in the battle on the edge of opposition-held Misrata, Libya’s third-largest city, about 120 miles from the capital.

http://www.arkansas…">Protests rock Libya

The opposition captured two fighters, including a senior officer, and still held part of the large base, they said. Shooting could still be heard from the area after midnight. The doctor said 22 people were killed in two days of fighting at the air base and an adjacent civilian airport.

More than 600 people have died since the uprising began Feb. 15, according to independent human-rights organizations.

In Washington, 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 - heir apparent Seif al-Islam, Khamis and Muatassim - and a daughter, Aisha, also apply to the Libyan government.

Obama ramped up the pressure on Gadhafi after American diplomatic personnel were evacuated from the capital of Tripoli aboard a chartered ferry and a chartered airplane, escorting them away from the violence to Malta and Turkey. Moments after the aircraft departed Libya, the Obama administration suspended operations atthe U.S. Embassy in Tripoli.

Obama said the U.S. is imposing unilateral sanctions on Libya because continued violence there poses an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to America’s national security and foreign policy.

In a statement issued with the executive order, Obama said the Gadhafi government “must be held accountable” for its “continued violation of human rights, brutalization of its people and outrageous threats.”

“His legitimacy has been reduced to zero in the eyes of his people,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said of Gadhafi.

Earlier, the U.N. Security Council met to consider possible sanctions against Gadhafi’s regime, including trade and financial sanctions, travel bans, an arms embargo and a freeze of Libyan assets. Secretary-General Ban Kimoon urged the council to take “concrete action” to protect civilians in Libya, saying “the violence must stop” and those responsible for “so brutally shedding blood” must be punished.

But Gadhafi vowed to fight on. In the evening, he appeared before more than 1,000 supporters in Green Square and called on them to fight back and “defend the nation.”

“Retaliate against them, retaliate against them,” Gadhafi said, speaking by microphone from the ramparts of the Red Castle, a Crusader fort overlooking the square. Wearing a fur cap, he shook his fist, telling the crowd: “Dance, singand prepare. Prepare to defend Libya, to defend the oil, dignity and independence.”

He blew kisses to the crowd, packed with people waving green flags and pictures of the leader, and urged them to fight to the death against what he called foreign aggressors overtaking the nation.

He warned, “At the suitable time, we will open the arms depot so all Libyans and tribes become armed, so that Libya becomes red withfire.”

Earlier, his son Seif al-Islam was asked in an interview with CNN-Turk about the options in the face of the unrest. “Plan A is to live and die in Libya, Plan B is to live and die in Libya, Plan C is to live and die in Libya,” he replied.

GUNFIRE AFTER PRAYERS

The marches in the capital on Friday were the first major attempt by protesters to break a clampdown that pro-Gadhafi militiamen have imposed on Tripoli since the beginning of the week, when dozens were killed by gunmen roaming the street, shooting people on sight.

In the morning and night before, text messages were sent urging protesters to stream out of mosques after noon prayers, saying, “Let us make this Friday the Friday of liberation,” residents said. The residents and witnesses all spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

In response, militiamen set up heavy security around many mosques in the city, trying to prevent opposition gatherings. Armed young men with green armbands to show their support for Gadhafi set up checkpoints on many streets, stopping cars and searching them. Tanks and checkpoints lined the road to Tripoli’s airport, witnesses said.

After prayers, protesters flowed out of mosques, converging into marches from several neighborhoods, heading toward Green Square. But they were hit almost immediately by militiamen, a mix of Libyans and foreign mercenaries.

“We can’t see where it is coming from,” another protester from Tajoura district, several miles from Green Square, said of the gunfire. “They don’t want to stop.” He said a man next to him was shot in the neck.

After nightfall, protesters dispersed, and regime supporters prowled the streets, a resident said. As they have on past nights this week, many blockaded streets into their neighborhoods to prevent militiamen and strangers from entering.

Tripoli, home to about a third of Libya’s population of 6 million, is the center of the territory Gadhafi still controls. The opposition holds a long sweep of about half of Libya’s 1,000-mile Mediterranean coastline where most of the population lives.

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

Parliament Speaker Mohammed Abul-Qassim al-Zwai announced that the government would increase salaries and offer the unemployed a monthly salary. State TV reported the unemployed would get the equivalent of $117 a month and salaries would be raised 50 percent to 150 percent.

WORLD REACTION

High-level defections continued to weaken Gadhafi’s regime, and the world community stiffened its response.

Libya’s delegation to the United Nations in Geneva announced Friday that it was switching to the opposition, and it was given a standing ovation at a gathering of the U.N. Human Rights Council. Libya’s U.N. ambassador, Mohammad Shalgham, broke down in tears after he urged intervention to stop the bloodshed. Shalgham said Gadhafi, his former friend and mentor, had given the Libyan people a grim choice: “Either I rule you, or I kill you.” He received hugs from some diplomats.

The council later voted to condemn Libya and ordered an international inquiry into atrocities, which it said could constitute crimes against humanity.

At U.N. headquarters in New York later Friday, European powers circulated a draft resolution, to be considered at an emergency Security Council meeting today, that would impose international economic sanctions on Libya and specifically target Gadhafi, his sons and his close aides with a travel ban and asset freeze.

In Cairo, Libya’s 11-member Arab League mission also announced its resignation, saying they had “joined our people in their legitimate demands for change and the establishment of a democratic system.”

On a visit to Turkey, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the violence by pro-Gadhafi forces is unacceptable and should not go unpunished. “France’s position is clear: Mr. Gadhafi must go,” he said.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said the bloc needs to consider sanctions such as travel restrictions and an asset freeze against Libya to halt to the violence and move toward democracy.

NATO’s main decision making body, the North Atlantic Council, met Friday in emergency session to consider the deteriorating situation. The body said in a statement that it will continue to monitor the situation “in coordination with other international organizations, and “continue to consult in order to be prepared for any eventuality,” but that it will not intervene.

A humanitarian crisis appeared to be growing at Libya’s Salloum border crossing with Egypt, where thousands of foreign laborers were streaming out of Libya.

People packed minivans, and vehicle roofs were piled high with luggage, air conditioners, mattresses, televisions and even stoves and refrigerators. There was little or no food available and no sanitary facilities, and Egyptian government workers struggled with mounting piles of trash.

Ban told the Security Council that some 22,000 people have fled across the Libyan border to Tunisia and a reported 15,000 to Egypt.

Obama called Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the Libyan crisis, the White House said. Humanitarian aid was among the topics they discussed.

Information for this article was contributed by Paul Schemm, Bassem Mroue, Sarah El Deeb, Ben Hubbard, Lee Keath, Slobodan Lekic, Anita Snow, John Heilprin, Frank Jordans, Mark Carlson, Selcan Hacaoglu, Bradley Klapper, Ben Feller, Darlene Superville, Matthew Lee and Edith M. Lederer of The Associated Press; by Hannah Allam, Ameera Butt and Warren P. Strobel of McClatchy Newspapers; by Alaa Shahine, Zainab Fattah of Bloomberg News; by Borzou Daragahi and Sihem Hassaini of the Los Angeles Times; and by Karen DeYoung, Colum Lynch, Leila Fadel, Liz Sly and Scott Wilson of The Washington Post.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/26/2011

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