Al Arabyia, Press TV, and a representative of Libyan opposition group have reported that Muammar Gaddafi has left Libya. Germany’s news web site TT.com also reports, quoting opposition groups, that Gaddafi has fled.
On Monday, Gaddafi’s son, Seif al-Eslam, denied the report that his father left the country.
Other developments
(Guardian.co.uk) — In fast-moving developments after midnight, demonstrators were reported to be in Tripoli’s Green Square and preparing to march on Gaddafi’s compound as rumours spread that the leader had fled to Venezuela. Other reports described protesters in the streets of Tripoli throwing stones at billboards of Muammar Gaddafi while police used teargas to try to disperse them.
BBC Arabic reported automatic gunfire and teargas in the capital for the first time since the unrest began.
But the regime went on the attack when Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, appeared on state TV to say it was a “tragedy” that Libyans had died but warned of “civil war” unless order was restored.
Wagging a finger at the camera, he blamed Libyan exiles for fomenting the violence but also promised dialogue on the country’s constitution, saying that the general people’s congress, Libya’s equivalent of a parliament, would convene to discuss a “clear” reform agenda, while the government would also raise wages.
“There is a plot against Libya,” said Saif, blaming “an Islamic group with a military agenda” for the bloodshed in Benghazi.
Libya would see “rivers of blood”, an exodus of foreign oil companies and occupation by “imperialists” if the violence continued, he said.
In reality, there has been little sign of Islamist involvement in Libya’s unprecedented unrest. Nor was there in the uprisings in Tunisia or Egypt.
In a rambling speech Saif al-Islam repeatedly said Libya was “not Egypt or Tunisia”, neighbouring countries whose leaders were swept from power in recent weeks.
“Muammar Gaddafi, our leader, is leading the battle in Tripoli, and we are with him,” Saif al-Islam said. “The armed forces are with him. Tens of thousands are heading here to be with him. We will fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet.”
“People are in the street chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is great) and throwing stones at photos of Gaddafi,”an expatriate worker told Reuters by telephone from Tripoli. “The police are firing teargas everywhere, it’s even getting into the houses.”
According to a Reuters report, Libyan soldiers said they had defected and were joining the protests.
An intelligence source reported that 150 soldiers and officers who disobeyed orders and refused to shoot at protesters would be executed.
Estimates of the total number of fatalities over six days of unprecedented unrest ranged from 233 – the latest figure given by Human Rights Watch – to 285. But some opposition sources gave figures as high as 500.
Two of Gaddafi’s other sons, Khamis and Saadi, and intelligence chief Abdullah Sanussi were reportedly commanding efforts to crush the protests in Benghazi, where buildings were ransacked and troops and police forced to retreat to a compound to pick off demonstrators with sniper and artillery fire.
As-Sharq al-Awsat, the Saudi newspaper, quoted sources close to the Gaddafi family as saying they would “die on Libyan soil” rather than give up power like the presidents of Egypt and Tunisia.
Facts were hard to pin down in the face of a news blackout that included jamming of the signal of the al-Jazeera TV network and interference with telephone and internet connections.
The Libya al-Yawm news website quoted one local doctor as saying that 285 people had died in Benghazi alone.
“Now people are dying we’ve got nothing else to live for,” a student blogger told the Guardian. “It’s like a pressure cooker. People are boiling up inside. I’m not even afraid any more. Once I wouldn’t have spoken at all by phone. Now I don’t care.”
In other signs of mounting domestic anger at Gaddafi, Libya’s representative to the Arab League, Abdel Monein al-Honi, announced that he was resigning in protest at the suppression of the unrest. Libya’s ambassador to China, Hussein Sadiq al-Musrati, resigned on air while on al-Jazeera Arabic, calling on the army to intervene, and urged all diplomatic staff to resign. In another striking development, the leader of a powerful tribe in eastern Libya warned that oil exports to the west – vital for the country’s economy – would be halted within 24 hours unless the authorities stopped the “oppression of protesters”.
20 thoughts on “Gaddafi has left Libya – Press TV, Al Arabiya reporting”
Get up Abesha!
Smell it freedom is arround the cornner. The day of tyrany is OVER. I can see it. Democratic Ethiopia for all is coming. Get up and tell the thives and thugs of WOYANE it is OVER. GAME OVER! GAME OVER! I swer to GOD it is OVER. You will see Meles and his associates in denial and hiding very very soon. GOD is great.
With the latest development in Libya and story like this from CBS’s 60 Minutes Tunisia: The Spark, this time around, the time is really up for Horn Africa leaders: Zenawi of Ethiopia, Afewerqi of Eritrea and Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan.
Professor Fouad Ajami of John Hopkins U. on Bahrain, Libya & Repressions of Arab Countries (CNN Transcript):
Look, all this — the praise of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain is a fraud. This has always been a tyranny. This has always been a Sunni-ruling regime ruling a restive Shia population — 75 percent of the population of Bahrain are Shia. They’re cut out of power. They have no say in the country. Bahrain is — as you said, is in the shadow of Saudi Arabia. They receive support from Saudi Arabia. It’s a flash point, if you will, between Iran on the one side and Saudi Arabia on the other. It’s a rotten regime. It’s a corrupt regime. It’s a tyrannical regime. And we now see it for what it is. Well, look at Gadhafi. Look at this great Arab upheaval. It broke out in Tunisia. It skipped Libya and moved east to Egypt. So there he sits with Egypt on one side and Tunisia on the other, and they both had their moments of rebellion. Moammar Gadhafi has long ceased to be a clown. He’s a killer. He is a terrible ruler. And he holds Europe to ransom. He has oil. And he has also threatened them always that he would unleash on them waves of immigrants, African immigrants. Not a subtle man, he said he will make Europe black. He will just simply flood them with immigrants. And so he runs this big penal colony, Libya. It is all his. It’s his. It’s his sons’. And it is this odd creature, this Libyan state. And if there was any decent order of states, there would be an expeditionary force that would liberate the Libyan people from this tyrant. But with oil money and with the location he has, he holds Europe to ransom. And the Americans, for our part, we gave him a reprieve several years ago because supposedly he turned over his weapons of mass destruction. So, in 2004, we basically said, ah, maybe Gadhafi, he is now coming in from the cold. He hasn’t changed. This is a monster. And the Libyan people are suffering for this. And this is the longest serving Arab ruler. He’s called the dean of Arab rulers. Look, these Arab autocrats have had it very good for a long time. What they have done is they have run what I insist on calling penal colonies. They basically imprison their people. And they have told the rest of the world —
Imagine if a libyan people wants revolution imagine what the ethiopian people would do
to this hated tribal regime which was killing for 20 years and i think time has come to
withdraw this killer group to bring a democracy and freedom …
Amen. I hope he will never come back.
This is another piece of the worst piece of earthly filth who has been taking a dump on his people since 1969. Did y’all watch how he delivered his speech at the UN general assembly last year? What was that? That is his way of showing him being more civilized than anyone else. Above all, he was bestowed kingship by some ‘you-must-be-ashamed-of-yourself’ joint in West Africa. With all the revenue that Libya has been earning from oil for more than 50 years, it should have been the most industrially developed nation in all of Africa by now. But the wing-nut squandered most of its revenue on buying the most advanced military airplanes and other defense ‘artifacts’. I said artifacts because when he bought the most sophisticated jets from the Soviet Union for his air force, no one was qualified to fly those jets for years. In fact, there was news that came out of Libya in the 70’s and 80’s that told stories of his pilot being unable of bringing the fighters back to their bases. Can you imagine living anywhere in Libya in those days not knowing when you were going to be squashed to death by some jets falling out of the sky? Even Idi Amin’s pilots were able to at least bring their fighter jets back to base. They always missed their targets but at least they were capable of returning to their bases. What a cockalorum muttonhead much ado about nothing!!!! Do any of you remember in the 70’s when he was threatening to send his ‘indomitable’ air force against Israel? I bet you the Israeli pilots then were just salivating to madness to see any of his fighter jets in droves on the air space any where East of El Alamein. What a sight that could have been? An Exhilarating kind of Nintendo call of duty game!!! But besides these idiotic traits, he was also a merciless killer of his own people. Above all, he is one heck of a jalabiya touting coward. It was told that he soiled his underwear when Reagan sent one of his SR-71’s and F-111’s and nearly missed him 1986. If it was not for that Italian leftist thug Bettino Craxi who warned him about a possible an air strike, Reagan would have gotten his terrorist behind once for good. What was Gaddafi’s response? He came down on his own people and slaughtered them in hundreds and possibly in thousands. They were labeled American and Zionist spies. That has been his excuse whenever he finds any tangible dissent. Just listen to what his son is lambasting about the current uprising now?
I hope this most news about his flight is true. I hope he is cornered somewhere. Good riddance!!!
Meles must be shitting on his pant by now.Zenawi wake up.If I were you,I would do what ever i can to transfer power peacefully before kicked out.But dictators can’t learn from others.they will wait till things get out of control
God bless those who have the gut to fight for their freedom. I rather die with a bullet than starve to death like in Ethiopia, that simply is prolonging death. I really believe Melese and TPLF will not give up power with out a blood shade, let it be their blood instead of other Ethiopian. Therefore, I suggest it is a good Idea to stash all kind of weapons for the coming war. War where its roots should be inside the city. Enough is Enough. Democracy is not free, all countries including here in USA patriot paid with their life. After watching what is happening in North Africa, Ethiopians only have to fear not Mellese but fear itself. Once the Tunisian , the Egyptian and now the Libyan people conquer their fear, the rest become a proud history of people revolution for democracy. The opposition politician are damaged goods, don’t expect much from them. Only You the new generation of Ethiopia have the power to confront the evil dictator. I hope and pray, the older generation unlike the red terror time will have the courage to follow their children to the street.
he is a liar boys he is a fox and i am sure he didnt leaveee he is still there in tripoli
Find yourself and be yourself.Dictators don’t learn what they supposed to learn because they don’t see the reality with their minds’ eyes.At the beginning,when the revolution broke out in Tunisia,Mubarak thought it would never be coming to him;he was dead wrong.The world witnessed it and people told him that revolution breeds a revolution,and a revolution doesn’t have a border neither does need a visa.But Mubarak remained adamant and more of being stubern.Finally,he was ousted.Ben Ali flew to Saudi for good;what else could he do.
Meles Zinawi is surely running out of time leaving him very little space to move around and very little time to think and very few options to choose from.Well,Ethiopians will not compromise with their freedom that for surre will get it sooner.what options does Meles Zinawi have before he runs out of the little time he has? Officially apeaar and stand firmly before Ethiopians and surrender himself to the people.Otherwise,anything less this will lead him to being engulfed with the volcanic revolution and tunrn into sooted spiral plastic.
GUYS,This time to wake up ignite the revolutin inside and outside ethiopia,call all ethiopians for change.donot wait those bastard
opposition partis(dealers) make public revolution,be ready to sacrifice
stand firme.we need our freedom amd dignity not agenda.
These are exciting times.Now the great lunatic dictator,after 42 years of brutal rule,is sure to fall.Nothing would save him.His mercenary goons would not save him.His oil would not save him.His flirtation with the prime minister of Libya’s former colonial power,
Berulusconi,would not save him.
His recent romance with that most vain,opportunist and shallow of all of British Prime ministers,Tony Blair would not save him.His Foreign secretary,Jack Straws’s christening of Ghadafi’s tyranny as
‘statesmanship’ would not save him.
His shameless son’s,groomed to be his successor,’rivers of blood’ scaring talk and rant would not save him.
This season’s new friends of of African autocrats,the business-like Chinese would not save him.
The carpet is taken off under his feet.Ghadafi’s sun has set.
Let every tyrant tremble.Let every ayatollah tremble.Let an Afeworki tremble.Let an Albashir tremble.Let a Museveni tremble.Let a Mugabe tremble.
Meles,the bloody Ethiopian tyrant,whom the West has propped up and elevated to be its African statesman,after 20 years of brutal and cruel rule,must go,too.
His U.S and British backers must read the writing on the wall and ‘advise’ him to retire.
Oppressed and traumatized people in the Middle East and North Africa have lost their fear.Courage is contagious.Victory is here.Victory to my Libyan brothers and sisters.Victory to the Ethiopian people! Victory to the rest of Africa’s subjugated.
The political tsunami will flow upstream of the Nile and will soon engulf the Tyrannical Regime of the brutal Weyane. Meskel square will be as historic as Tahrir square. The Agazi Army is a minority of the Ethiopian defence forces, and there is no doubt in my mind if the people revolt this time, they majority of the forces will be demonstrate their professionalism. The US and EU have been caught off guard, and they are struggling to be on the other side of history. They know now that supporting dictators will not be the modus operandi from now on.
He is there and we must do our homework first at home.It is not our problem. Meles is first our mainn target.
Thank you ER for the good news. Who would have ever thought Gadafi would be humiliated to the extent of fleeing Libya in disgrace.
I smell good coffee coming from our country and Eritrea
Meles is finished. He has no where to run. He will be forced to bring back the 2 billions he stole and deposited in foreign banks under his and his wife’s names. He is scared to death. His wife Azeb has no sleep for the last two months. They are busy with how to quash the protest, where to hide money, which country to run to. All this preemtive preparation is futile. Your days are numbered. Soon, you will be history.
This stupid saif, he is educated in west knows the value of democracy but repeating his father’s talk.why his father isn’t speaking? that indicate the end is near. free Africa, free middle east from dictators, especially our beloved Ethiopia need to be free from the woyane mafia. let us hold this momentum and strive for freedom. may ALLAH save our country!Amin
Yes, Gaddafi’s son is right in saying that there is a plot against the Libyans because his own father had taken the entire Libyan people as his hostage and brainless slave laborers, ruled them with brute force and exploited the entire national natural resources for his personal benefits while Libya stayed a back ward closed medieval society of the poor.
What kind of moron is this Gaddafi’s, son, Seif al-Eslam, when he goes on the national television and tells the public that there are no political parties in Libya but only ethnic and clan groups with ONLY oil resource being what binds them.
If it is only oil that binds the divergent Libyan people, as Gaddafi’s son put it, and that binding oil has/is being completely owned and monopolized by dictator Gaddafi and families themselves, who also deliberately banned and prevented any inception of any political party since according to dictator Gaddafi, it might competed with Gaddafi’s totalitarian dictatorship, so the fundamental source of the problem is the 40 long years of Gaddafi’s totalitarian dictatorship itself.
At least now at this point the same British politicians hungry for Libyan oil who have for the same reason a while ago freed Gaddafi’s so called “Lockerbie bomber” from jail are again rushing to the Egyptian military rulers to secretly help save the super rich Gaddafi and his circles in exchange for continuous sweet oil flows. MONEY TALKS!
And now the dictator and his son are rubbing coarse salt to the long standing open wounds of the poor Libyan people by way of recruiting and importing foreign killing machine mercenaries to massacre peacefully demonstrating people who are only asking for their basic rights, after 40 long years of criminal brutalities and inhuman dictatorship.
It is time for us to give our support to ESAT so that the Ethiopian people get informed on what is going on around the world dictators. For now the Woyane Junta is blocking all sort of information about the civil unrests in different region of Africa and Middle East. By supporting ESAT we can make possible that our people can get information on how to bring down the tyranny of Meles Zenawi
It is time for us to give our support to ESAT so that the Ethiopian people get informed on what is going on around the world dictators. The time is crucial; if we stand united we can certainly bring down the Meles Regime
Let us support ESAT, and prodemocracy websites
It ia a matter of time Gaddafi will flee very soon.His strongest support appear to be foreign merceneries from the Sudan and Chad,reportedly stationed mainly at the Air port and conrtrole of the main bulovardes in Tripoly.At one point the Libians will be expected to resolve their internal fued and turn in unison to drive the merceneries out of their country. The Countries eastern state where Begihazi is the capital seems to be holding up against Gaddafi.The U.N is convend to impose no fly zone in Tripoly.If any good will come out of this for the people at this time I cant tell-all varables are unknowen,but Gaddafi will certinly flee.With his departure we might even anticipate a renewd uprising in Khartum.Sudanes must have been upset by Bashir’s mercenery act to save Gaddafi from the wrath of the Libian public.