18 Dead, 120 Wounded In Libyan Town of Zawiya
- Posted on March 4, 2011 at 12:35pm by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Moammar Gadhafi’s forces launched a powerful attack trying to take back the closest opposition-held city to the Libyan capital on Friday, in fierce fighting that killed at least 18, including the city’s top rebel commander – an army colonel who defected. In Tripoli, Gadhafi loyalists fired tear gas and live ammunition to smother a new outbreak of protests.
To the east, rebels advanced on an oil port along the Mediterranean coast in their first offensive against Gadhafi’s military. Explosions were heard as the two sides battled around the air strip at Ras Lanouf, residents said.
The fighting underlined how both sides are pushing against the deadlock that has gripped Libya’s 18-day-old upheaval. The rebellion has broken away the entire eastern half of the country from Gadhafi’s control and has swept over several cities in the west close to the capital.
So far, Gadhafi has had little success in taking back territory, with several rebel cities repelling assaults in the past weeks. But the opposition forces have seemed unable to go on the offensive to march on areas still under. Meanwhile, in Tripoli – Gadhafi’s most important bastion – his loyalists have waged a campaign of terror to ensure that protesters do not rise up in significant numbers.
Friday’s assault on the rebel city of Zawiya, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Tripoli, appeared to be the strongest yet by Gadhafi’s forces after repeated earlier forays against it were beaten back.
In the morning, troops from the elite Khamis Brigade – named after the son of Gadhafi who commands it – bombarded the city’s western edges with mortars, heavy machine guns, tanks and anti-aircraft guns, several residents said. By the evening, they had also opened a front on the eastern side. Armed Zawiya citizens backed by allied army units were fighting back.
The commander of the rebel forces – Hussein Darbouk – was shot to death by fire from an anti-aircraft gun, said Alaa al-Zawi, an activist in the city. Darbouk was a colonel in Gadhafi’s army who defected along with other army troops in Zawiya early on in the uprising.
A witness who was at Zawiya’s hospital said at least 18 people in the city were killed and 120 wounded. Libyan state TV claimed the attackers had retaken the city. But al-Zawi, the witness and other residents said it remained in opposition hands, with skirmishes continuing after nightfall.
They and other witnesses and residents around the country spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
The day’s other fighting took place at Ras Lanouf, a small oil port 380 miles (620 kilometers) east of Tripoli, just outside the long swath of eastern Libya controlled by the opposition.
Rebels attacked Ras Lanouf on Friday afternoon, feeling flush with victory after repelling Gadhafi forces who attacked them days earlier at Brega, a larger oil facility just to the east. Fighters armed with Kalashnikovs and heavy machine guns were seen streaming in pickup trucks and other vehicles from Brega heading in the direction of Ras Lanouf.
They battled with about 3,000 pro-Gadhafi troops, mainly around the facility’s airstrip, said a resident of the town. She reported heavy explosions starting around 4 p.m. As night fell, the explosions eased, she said, but it was not clear who was in control of the complex, which includes a port and storage facilities for crude coming from fields in the deserts to the south.
The fall of other parts of the country has made control of the capital Tripoli, his strongest bastion, crucial for Gahdafi. His loyalists have taken fierce action to ensure protesters cannot rise up and overwhelm the city as they have in other places.
Last week, Friday marches were met by barrages of gunfire from militiamen shooting into crowds, killing a still undetermined number. Since then, pro-Gadhafi forces have carried out a wave of arrests against suspected demonstrators, snatching some from their homes in nighttime raids, instilling fear in the most restive neighborhoods.
In the latest opposition attempt, more than 1,500 protesters marched out of the Murad Agha mosque after noon prayers Friday in the eastern Tripoli district of Tajoura, chanting “the people want to bring the regime down” and waved the red, black and green flag of Libya’s pre-Gadhafi monarchy, adopted as the banner up the uprising.
But pro-Gadhafi forces quickly moved in. They fired volleys of tear gas and – when the marchers continued – opened fire with live ammunition, according to witnesses.
It was not clear if they fired at the crowd or into the air, but the protesters scattered, many of them taking refuge back in the mosque, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene. A doctor said several people were wounded and taken to a nearby hospital.
“All these people are threatened with death,” said a 35-year-old among the Tajoura protesters Friday. “We have no education, no economy, no infrastructure. … We want nothing but the end of the regime. We were born free but he is suppressing us.” He said he had recently had kidney surgery, but “look at me, still I went out with the people because we are oppressed people.”
“I am not afraid,” said another man in the march. “We want to show the world that we are not afraid.”
The fear seemed to have had an impact, and some protests in other parts of the capital didn’t get off the ground. One resident said he went to prayers at a downtown mosque and found police officers standing outside to ensure no one marched. After prayers, the worshippers dispersed without protests.
Instead, dozens of Gadhafi supporters turned up for a counterdemonstration in Tripoli’s central Green Square, waving green flags.
Before prayers, the worshippers gathering inside the Murad Agha mosque debated what to do. They said messages between Tripoli organizers were being aired on radio being aired from Benghazi, the main city in the opposition-held east, and audible in the capital.
At one point, they decided to hold a sit-in inside the mosque to avoid coming under gunfire by stepping outside. In the mosque’s courtyard, they burned a copy of the Green Book, Gadhafi’s political manifesto, as well as the green flag of Gadhafi’s Libya.
At the same time, young men from the neighborhood transformed a nearby square, tearing down posters of the Libyan leader and replacing them with the flags. They spray-painted walls with graffiti reading, “Down with Gadhafi” and “Tajoura will dig your grave.”
In the end, the 400 worshippers in the mosque decided to march, joined by hundreds of others.
Ahead of the planned protests, Internet services, which have been spotty throughout Libya’s upheaval, appeared to be halted completely in Tripoli on Friday. Renesys Corp., a Manchester, New Hampshire, company that maps the pathways of the Internet, said it wasn’t able to reach any of the websites it tried to access inside Libya on Friday. Google’s transparency report, which shows traffic to the company’s sites from various countries, also showed that Internet traffic had fallen to zero in Libya.
Libyan authorities briefly barred many foreign journalists from leaving their hotel in Tripoli, claiming it was for their protection because they had information “al-Qaida elements” plan to open fire on police to spark clashes. They later allowed them to go out into Tripoli.
Several hours before prayers, security forces began to take up positions. In Tajoura, police set up two checkpoints on the main highway leading to downtown. They stopped cars to search them, check drivers’ ID and ask where they were going or coming from.
Gadhafi loyalists in the capital have unleashed a wave of arrests and disappearances since last Friday’s bloodshed. Bodies of people who vanished have been dumped in the street. Gunmen in SUVs have descended on homes in the night to drag away suspected protesters, identified by video footage of protests that militiamen have pored through to spot faces. Other militiamen have searched hospitals for wounded to take away.
—
AP correspondent Bassem Mroue in Cairo and AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay in New York contributed to this report.
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sjohn70037
Posted on March 5, 2011 at 9:52amYeaaaaaa!!! More dead muslims!!!!! More! More!
Report Post »aLinedog
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 11:49pmAbout time… I remember wishing, years ago, we’d gotten lucky but all we got was his poor little girl. Fortunately, she is likely in a better place than her human sire will ever see.
Report Post »Sic semper tyrannus, …be he Fascist, Communist, Socialist or otherwise -and Boothe.
-line
((My bad, Mod.. didn’t mean to cross any lines with previous post. -LD))
bkeely
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 8:24pmThis is just the beginning.
Report Post »======================
Buck
Heirloom Seeds, “How God plants His garden.”
Beware of Romans
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 5:16pmFor the first time in my life, I’m actually cheering for the dictator. Knowing that these protests are being promoted by Obamas Union Marxists to destablal;ize the middle east against Captitalist sympathizers, I would much rather a sympathizing ‘dictator’ to an all out Sharia run ‘stone the woman and gays’ world.
Report Post »mike_trivisonno
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 2:30pmThe yummy fruit of the tree of Islam.
Report Post »calebgs83
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 2:20pmIf they are not willing to free themselves…they don’t deserve freedom and they wont be able to keep it anyway.
Report Post »calebgs83
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 2:18pmThe USA must STOP POLICING THE WORLD! Why should Americans die so that their own soldiers and citizens don’t have to…especially in these God forsaken Islamo-fascist countries.
Report Post »Richard Compton
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 1:52pmWe must not get involved in this, as much as I despise Gadhafi it would only inflame more hatred towards the US and Israel if we took him out. Let his own people do the job, not us, if our finger prints on the job we loose. We cannot win the hearts and minds of these people by assination.
Report Post »It’s like poking a hornets nest with a stick to get involved there, the hornets somehow always know what direction the poke came from, and they swarm in that direction.
DashRipRock
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 1:50pmMaybe we could trade all of our middle eastern oil interests to China
in exchange for our debt to them.
Then leave then a note in Iraq that reads
ROTS OF RUCK
Report Post »DVPFLA
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 1:39pmI hate to look on the downside, what will be the effect if Gadhafi puts down this rebellion?
Report Post »welovetheUSA
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 1:33pmThis ruler is not going to go down without a fight, they knew that before this all started.
Report Post »elvascon
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 1:10pmNo-fly zone is hours away. Ready to take the regime out. Gadhafi’s days are numbered.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 1:13pmMeet the new boss…same as the old boss.
Report Post »N37BU6
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 5:07pmToo bad you can’t take a look in the mirror when you say that.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 1:09pmThe Libyan people danced, sang and praised Alllah when the Towers fell. Why should we risk American lives to protect them? If the rebels win, do you think they will love America and sell us oil at cost? The rebels just want our help for the moment. When it’s over, they would gladly seperate your head from your body. Let them all kill each other, let the bodies stack to the heavens. Let them all rot, praise allah now you filthy vermin. Have a nice day.
Report Post »Showtime
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 1:15pmThanks for reminding us.
Report Post »You have a nice day, too., Gonzo.
Gonzo
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 1:30pmHey Showtime, this country used to know how to hold a grudge, “Remember Pearl Harbour” is how we won that war. I’m ready to forgive and forget when the war is over just like we did 1945. This war is not over. Everyone looking at every revolution in the middle east through the lens of 1776, is falling for a load of B.S. Guys like McCain, calling for a no fly zone, need to remember 9-11. If I lost a son to protect people that hate us, I would lose my mind and end up like Cindy Sheehan camping out in front of the White House for the rest of my life.
Report Post »kryptonite
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 1:32pmI’m with you, bud. All Hussein has to show for in Af-Pak are wasted American lives. We’ve lost the ME thanks to this Cr*p-in-Chief. What we need to do is bring our troops home, get the traitor out of the way and drill here, drill now.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 1:53pmHey Krypto, I know how you feel about Af-Pak and sometimes I feel the same way about it. However, we went over there (for good reason I think) and made a commitment and I think when we make a commitment we need to see it through. I think they need to let the armed services do what they do best though, kill people. All these restrictions the administration has put on them is killing our best and brightest. We have no dog in the fight in Libya, whoever ends up in charge will still want to sell oil. If they don’t, so be it. We need to quit being children and produce our own oil.
Report Post »kryptonite
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 4:35pmGonzo,
I supported the war in Afghanistan for the longest time, and I am still very concerned about the nukes in Pakistan. But let’s face it, Obama polarized the entire region against us. Both countries are now practically in the hands of the Taliban, with all the not-so-secret alliances. Who can blame Karzai and Zardari? They know this Traitor plans to pull out our troops without a victory.
The only valuable part of the O’Reilly-Obama interview is when Hussein tells O’ that once al-Qaeda is defeated — which he claims our troops will do before they pull out — the Taliban should run for office, if that’s what they want. Don’t you get the stupidity of that statement? For starters, how can he talk about defeating one and not the other? Second, like you said, how exactly is he planning to defeat a deadly enemy with the current ROE? Third, if he thinks it’s OK for the Taliban to be in control of Afghanistan — again — why did we go into Afghanistan for in the first place?
Obama just wants our troops killed and demoralized. Then when they get back, he’ll begin his Stockholm Syndrome Campaign, to get them on his side. The mere thought makes me want to puke, but he’ll do it; wait and see.
How can I continue to support Obama’s war?
Report Post »RLTW
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 5:07pmKRYPTONITE
I’d say your assessment of what the progressives/obama will attempt are very accurate. Deliberately bloody our military blame the right/Bush and then magically have the solution to all the problems.
Report Post »chubbzbar
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 1:03pmI haven’t seen anything on The Blaze about the military and civilian planes that Obama is allowing to move evacuating Egyptians from Tunisia home to Egypt. But it really yanks my chain. Our citizens from Libya had to wait for a rented ferry !! They didn’t get a plane — OMG !! Not only do you not want to be an ally of the US, but being a citizen is now a rather dangerous proposition.
Report Post »Marcus Junius Brutus
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 12:58pmThe situation in Libya, without any Western intervention, is surely just going to devolve into an all out Civil War with no end in sight. Expect the bloodbath to continue and oil prices to skyrocket.
Report Post »biggreenboo
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 1:11pmI for one am willing to pay a liiiiittle bit more for gas to keep them squabbling with each other over there instead of bombing us over here.
We should stay completely out of it… get our troops back here now.
Report Post »Showtime
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 1:13pmI suspect that’s by design, since Obama stopped drilling and won’t allow it in ANWAR.
Report Post »biggreenboo
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 1:22pmGod i can’t wait for 2012… just give me someone good to vote for!!!!!
Report Post »kryptonite
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 1:47pmYeah, a combination of what happened in Lebanon and Kuwait, since Qaddafi will probably set the oil wells on fire. On this side of the globe, the Traitor’s unions will continue their acts of violence, Dims will go AWOL, and we ‘d better get ready to fight, despite what Glenn says.
Report Post »RLTW
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 3:26pm@KRYPTNITE
“get ready to fight, despite what Glenn says.” I agree with Glenn’s hope of a civil conclusion to what can only be called a cold civil war now on the verge of becoming hot, but as you stated we’d better get ready.
Report Post »I fear it’s coming and I think it’s a matter of when not if.
kryptonite
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 6:26pm@RLTW
Report Post »Like you, I wish Glenn was right, but it’s hard to imagine those SEIU commies and their boss will be stopped peacefully. God does work in mysterious ways, so let’s hope He wants to turn things around.
NickDeringer
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 12:56pmI can‘t help but wonder if Professor O’Barry isn’t propping this guy up.
He is part of the Axis of Evil: Reverend Wright, Momo Q’Daffy and Louis Farakaaaaaaaaaaaaaahn. All heroes of Professor O’Barry.
Report Post »JD Carp
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 12:52pmMan has an inherent desire to be free to pursue life and happiness. Fight on and rid yourselves of this tyrant. Form a republic and strive to keep it. Don’t do what we did in America and create a ruling class and a working class. Get your Obama out and replace him with a Reagan. Good luck!
Report Post »GeneralBeasley
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 12:51pm10 bucks says obamao, and cnn will never mention this, but in todays breaking news charlie sheen………….
Report Post »biggreenboo
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 1:06pmThank you… I needed that.
Report Post »Katayno
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 2:37pmCharlie Sheen looks JUST like Mr. Burns on the Simpson’s….but with hair.
Report Post »aLinedog
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 3:02pm…but at least Burns is FUNNY! The rest of the show is almost a total loss.. well, maybe not Moe, or Barney. Sheen is just sad.
Report Post »-line
Katayno
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 12:44pmSo explain to me why McCain is wrong….“no fly” zone over hot spots in Libya?
Report Post »It seems like we always choose the exact opposite way to handle crisis!!!
code green
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 1:18pmI say stay away from it and let them kill each other,the more the better. Just fewer to contend with ,after the million Moooooslum march.
Report Post »Katayno
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 2:35pmCode green & Gonzo…..Because that dictator needs to be tried for Lockerbee AND we need to make sure the rebels or Al queda don’t get their hands on the oil.
Report Post »kryptonite
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 4:08pmKatayno,
Report Post »Qaddafi is a friend of Barack Hussein’s for crying out loud. As for the oil fields, you have a point, but is that Obama’s priority? I don’t think so! If oil is that traitor’s concern, why shut down drilling in the Gulf?
Showtime
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 12:42pmThey’re gonna get him, jone way or the other. Dead or alive. And, if alive, they’ll try him and sentence him to death.
He’s a dead man walking.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 1:15pmHe is indeed a dead man walking, the only problem is that dictators like quaddafi have an annoying ability to survive for longer than expected or desired. Just look how long it took for us to find the former leader of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, and how long we have been looking for Bin Lauden.
He will fall eventually, it will be seen just how soon and how many others will be taken down with them.
Report Post »J.C. McGlynn
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 12:41pmFight the good fight. The president of the US doesn’t the the guts to say it. I do.
Report Post »banjarmon
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 12:51pmWill it happen in AMERICA??? I’m loaded and Ready to fight to keep FREEDOM.
Report Post »kryptonite
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 1:08pmWatch that speech where O’bum finally condemns Qaddafi. He blinks like crazy. Lie to me, Roach.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 1:13pmInteresting that there are mixed reports going on of us establishing a…
“No fly zone..until the British suggested the same.
“Troops for humanitarian relief
“Troops for rescue of Americans
“Troops to seize the oil fields (Castro/Chavez favorite
“Etc..etc…etc…
The administration is clueless and indecisive as ever in this situation; and for once even Carter, unbelievably, looks better in his foreign policy fiascos than this administration does. Then again the fact Obama wants chaos and pressure here at home, nothing would suprise me anymore.
Report Post »sissykatz
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 1:38pmI may go to Hell for even thinking this but I wish we had some Mercenaries to go in and take out Quadafi and his sons and stop all this killing of the innocent. This group of Tyrants are killing just for the sake of killing, He wants to die a martyr I say let’s grant him his wish and take him out.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 1:53pm@SissyKatz
Good idea in principle, yet it is the intervention in such manners during the past which has gotten us into so many messes like this in the first place; the one thing the US government needs to get stuck inside of the thick skull they have is that we cannot change everything in the world, and where we do intervein, there will be places not wanting us to help, such as in Somalia where a food relief program evolved into a government reform program until the Black Hawk Down scenario occured.
That could easily happen here.
Report Post »TexasCommonSense
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 4:19pmThis is kind of like Saddam Hussein using chemical weapons on Iraqi citizens.
Report Post »avenger
Posted on March 5, 2011 at 7:28amit is none of our business….let the 1.2 billion muslims take care of their own frigging problems….
Report Post »