Osama Bin Laden, (AP) – Army units and militia loyal to Muammar Gaddafi has turned against the Libyans rebels who rose up in cities near the capital Thursday attacked a mosque where many have been holding anti-government sit-in and struggling with others who had seized control of the airport. A doctor at the mosque said that 10 people were killed.
Gaddafi accuses al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden of being behind the insurgency in Libya, tours in a telephone call to state television. The Libyan leader said the revolt over a week was carried out by young men jumped on hallucinogenic pills given to them “in their coffee with milk, like Nescafe.”
“Shame on you, people of Zawiya, control your kids,” he said, speaking to residents of the city of Tripoli, where the mosque attack occurred. “They are loyal to Osama bin Laden, “he said of those involved in the uprising. What you have to do with Bin Laden, the people of the Zawiya? They exploit young people … I insist, it is bin Laden “.
Attacks on Thursday to postpone a revolt that came close to Gaddafi’s stronghold in the capital, Tripoli. Most of the eastern half of Libya has already broken, and parts of the Gaddafi regime, distended.
In the latest blow to the Libyan leader, a cousin who is one of his closest aides, Ahmed al-Dam Gadhafi announced he has defected to Egypt to protest against the bloody repression of the regime against the insurgency , denouncing what he called “serious violations of human rights and international laws and human. ”
In Zawiya, 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Tripoli, an army unit raided the town of Souk “Mosque, where opponents had camped for days in a demonstration calling for the overthrow of Qadhafi said one witness. The soldiers opened fire with automatic weapons and click the minaret of the mosque with the heat of anti-aircraft gun, “he said. Some of the young men among the demonstrators, who were inside the mosque and an adjacent lot had shotguns for protection.
A doctor at a field hospital set up at the mosque said he saw the bodies of 10 dead, shot in the head and chest, as well as 150 wounded arond.
The witness said a day earlier an emissary of Gaddafi arrived in the city and warned the protesters, “either leave or you will see a massacre.” Zawiya is a key town near an oil port and refinery.
After Thursday’s attack, thousands massed in the main square Zawiya Martyrs of the mosque, shouting “Leave, leave,” in reference to Gaddafi, said the witness. “People came to send a clear message: We are not afraid of death or your balls,” he said.
The other attack occurred at a small airport outside Misrata, Libya’s third largest city, where residents rebels claimed control on Wednesday. The militiamen with rocket launchers and mortars inundated with a line of those who were guarding the airport, including some armed with automatic rifles and shotguns, “said one rebel who was involved in the battle.
During the fighting, the defenders of the airport have seized an anti-aircraft gun used by the militias and it turned against them, “he said.
A medical officer at a military airbase at the airport, two people were killed in the fighting – one on each side – and five were wounded. He said that personnel at the base was on the side of the insurgency and had Misrata warplanes disabled there to prevent them from being used against rebellious populace.
“Now Misrata is totally under control of the population, but we are worried because we squeezed between Sirte and Tripoli, which are bastions of Gaddafi,” he said. Sirte, a center for tribes from Gaddafi, is south-east of Misrata.
The militia fired back in the late morning. In Misrata, local radio – controlled by the opposition as the rest of the city – called on residents to march to the airport to strengthen it, “said a woman who lives in downtown Misrata.
In the afternoon, it appeared the fighting broke out again, “she said, reporting heavy booms of the airport on the edge of town, located about miles (200 kilometers) east of Tripoli.
Witnesses around Libya has requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Suppression Gaddafi has so far helped to keep control of Tripoli, a city which holds about a third of Libya’s 6 million inhabitants. But the insurgency has divided the country and threatened to push the civil war in the cities of the east, residents got up, and government buildings flooded and army bases, joined in many cases by local units of the army fled. In these cities, tribal leaders, residents and military officers have formed local governments, through the looted weapons in the arsenals of the security forces.
The cousin of the leader, Gadhafi al-Dam, is one of the highest-level defections to hit the system at present, after many ambassadors in the world, the justice minister and interior minister all sides with the demonstrators.
Gadhafi al-Dam belonged to the circle of Gaddafi formally link with Egypt, but he also served as envoy to Gaddafi other world leaders and often appeared alongside him.
In a statement released Thursday in Cairo, al-Dam Gadhafi said he left Libya for Egypt “in protest and demonstrate disagreement” with the crackdown.
control Gaddafi has now been reduced to the northwest corner around Tripoli, the desert southwest and central regions. The uprisings of Misrata, Zawiya and several small towns between the capital and the Tunisian border to have further eroded the bastion.
The resident Zawiya said that until Thursday’s attack, opponents of Gadhafi total reigned in the city after police fled days earlier. The residents had organized to protect watchgroups local government buildings and houses.
The capital, Tripoli has seen a major outbreak of protests against the rule Gaddafi earlier this week met with attacks by militiamen that left dozens dead.
militiamen pro-Gaddafi – a mixture of Libyans and foreign mercenaries – have clamped down on the city since the Libyan leader went on state TV Tuesday night and urged his supporters to take over the streets. Residents say militia roam the main streets of Tripoli, firing in the air, while the neighborhood watch groups have barricaded the streets side by trying to keep veterans and demonstrators to keep a low profile.
At the same time, the regular security forces have launched raids on houses around the city. A resident in the district of Ben Achour said a number of SUVs filled with armed men trained in his constituency on Wednesday night, broke into his neighbor’s house and dragged a friend of the family as women in house shouted. He said that other similar raids took place on Thursday in other districts.
“Now is the time of the terror arrests and secret secret. They will go home to home and liquidation of opponents in this way, and to impose his (Gaddafi) control of Tripoli,” the witness said .
Another resident said Tripoli armed militiamen had entered a hospital, looking for protesters among the wounded. He said a friend on treaties that he escaped because doctors have hidden.
international momentum has been building for action to punish the regime of Gaddafi for the bloodshed.
President Barack Obama says the suffering in Libya “is outrageous and unacceptable” and he directed his administration to prepare a wide range of options, including possible sanctions that could freeze assets and ban travel United States by Libyan officials.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy raised the possibility of the European Union to cut economic ties.
Another proposal gain some traction was the United Nations to declare a no-fly zone on Libya to stop using military aircraft to strike the demonstrators. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said that if reports of these strikes are confirmed, “there is an immediate need for this level of protection.”
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said estimates some 1,000 people killed in the violence in Libya were “credible” but he insists the information on victims is incomplete. The New York-based Human Rights Watch has put the death toll to nearly 300, according to a partial count.
Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam said Thursday that the rate of reported deaths were exaggerated, although not his own face. In a press conference broadcast on state television, he said that the number of people killed by the police and the army was limited and “talking about hundreds and thousands (killed) is a joke.”
He also said that a committee had been formed to investigate allegations of foreign participation in the demonstrations.
Earlier Thursday, the Libyan television showed Egyptian passports, CDs and mobile phones allegedly belonging to prisoners who have confessed to plotting “terrorist” operations against the Libyan people. Other pictures showed dozens of men lying on the ground with their faces down, blindfolded and handcuffed. Rifles and shotguns were built beside them.
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Michael reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb and Bassem Mroue contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell was an American actress and was on the Hollywood's leading sex symbols in 1940s and 1950s.
Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell was an American actress and was on the Hollywood's leading sex symbols in 1940s and 1950s.
