The Libyan Revolution

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

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The Libyan Revolution - February 2011
A cartoon. Photographs here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Junior fruitcake, Sayf al-Islam Gaddafi, given end-time shoe salute in Tripoli.
A street photograph from Libya

Bloodbath on Arab Street. Anti-Gaddafi civil war rages in Libya. Benghazi vs Tripoli. Gaddafi clan at immediate risk of being lynched and burned.
(This summary begins on Sunday 20th February 2011)
The Libyan army and police have killed upwards of 500 (five hundred) anti-Gaddafi demonstrators across the country in the last week. Hospitals report over 300 (three hundred) fatalities in Benghazi alone. Medical supplies, including wound dressings and anaesthetics have run out. Doctors and nurses are exhausted. Anti-government protesters in Benghazi have seized army vehicles and weapons. The Benghazi police academy has been set ablaze. Military units have been changing sides in the chaos. Thousands of armed protesters are heading for the Gaddafi compound in the city of Al-Zawia near Tripoli, with the intention of burning the building down (Late note: The Al-Zawia compound is now said to be burned down).

Six foreign mercenaries have been captured by protestors in the city of Shahat. Anti-Gaddafi graffiti is spreading in several cities, including Bayda, Derna, Tobruk and Misrata. Upwards of 10,000 prisoners are said to have broken out of several prisons. There was machine-gunfire around Green Square in the capital, Tripoli. Government-hired English and French-speaking foreign mercenaries were on the rampage against protestors in the Zawid Dahmani area of Tripoli. Several police stations have been burned out. A rambling, unscripted, buffoon-like broadcast by Sayf al-Islam Gaddafi on Libyan state television was given the end-time shoe salute in Tripoli. Iran television reported that Muammar Gaddafi had left Libya for Venezuela or Brazil. Senior UK government sources suggested Venezuela. However, neither Venezuela nor Brazil, nor any other convenient bolthole would offer refuge to Gaddafi, and he was forced to return to Libya.

On Monday 21st February 2011, government security forces were seen looting several banks in Tripoli. The General People's Congress (parliament) building was set on fire. In Benghazi, eleven bodies of Libyan soldiers were buried. They had refused to fire on civilians and were executed by Gaddafi officers. The bodies were mutilated, heads on one side and legs on the other. A workers' strike at Libya's Nafoora oilfield stopped production. BP suspended operations for oil and gas drilling. BP and Shell began to pull their staff out of the country. Several senior Libyan ambassadors and officials, including the Justice Minister, Mustapha Abdul Jalil, resigned their posts in response to the government-backed live-fire shooting of civilians. The Gaddafi clan has now lost the support of almost every section of Libyan society including medics, lawyers, imams and major tribal groupings such as the Warfla.

Protestors were bombed by Libyan airforce jets and Apache helicopters in Fashloum and Souq al Juma. Upwards of 250 dead. Two Libyan Mirage jets refused to bomb civilians in Benghazi. They flew low over the city to evade radar and landed in Malta. Their Libyan pilots have sought political asylum. Elsewhere, the Libyan airforce was bombing funeral processions. Hospital doctors and patients in several cities, including Benghazi, were attacked by armed, foreign mercenaries driving new Jeeps. Government sniper units were deployed in Tripoli to shoot demonstrators.

On Tuesday 22nd February 2011, destruction of the runways at Benghazi airport was completed by Libyan government warplanes. The bodies of dead demonstrators were being left uncollected on the streets of Tripoli. Hospitals were ordered by the Government to treat all Libyan military casualties first, before attending to the civilian wounded. In an angry, shouted speech, Muammar Gaddafi spoke for seventy five minutes on Libyan state television, saying that he would fight to the death as a martyr to cleanse Libya house by house. "I am a fighter, a revolutionary from tents .... I am not a president to step down." The Libyan government finally lost control of the eastern part of the country (the Egyptian side), including most of the major oil installations. Convoys of medical supplies began to reach Benghazi by road via Sallum and Bardiyah.

Developing situation updates and commentary here (23.02.11), here (22.02.11), here (22.02.11), here (21.02.11), here (21.02.11), here (21.02.11), here (21.02.11), here (21.02.11) and here (continually refreshed).