* In Benghazi, the starting point of the revolt, three witnesses said that special military forces called in as reinforcements had instead helped the protesters take over the local army barracks. “The gunshots you hear are the gunshots of celebration,” said Abdel Latif al-Hadi, a 54-year-old Benghazi resident whose five sons were out protesting.
* In the Libyan capital Tripoli witnesses interviewed by telephone on Sunday night said protesters were converging on the capital’s central Green Square and clashing with the heavily armed riot police. Young men armed themselves with chains around their knuckles, steel pipes and machetes. The police had retreated from some neighborhoods, and protesters were seen armed with police batons, helmets and rifles commandeered from riot squads.
* Under Colonel Qaddafi’s idiosyncratic rule, tribal bonds remain primary even within the ranks of the military, and both protesters and the security forces have reason to believe that backing down will likely mean their ultimate death or imprisonment. – New York Times– The New York Times
* Libya’s ambassador to India has resigned in protest at his government’s violent crackdown on demonstrators calling for the ouster of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported on Monday. The BBC, on its Arabic service website, said Ambassador Ali al-Essawi also accused the government of deploying foreign mercenaries against the protesters. The BBC confirmed to Reuters it had spoken to Essawi. – Reuters
* Among other unconfirmed reports out of Libya right now, one is that Qaddafi’s sons, Muatassem and Saif al-Islam, fought each other, with the former shooting the latter. It’s hard to know much right now, since media coverage out of Libya has gone virtually black. Al Jazeera explains that its signal was disrupted from a building in southern Libya, which seems to be something of a niche industry for Qaddafi’s regime—for a few years the Libyans were found to be blocking a channel owned by exiled Syrian opposition figures, presumably at the request of the government in Damascus. – Weekly Standard
* Members of a Libyan Army unit told Benghazi residents on Sunday they had defected and “liberated” Libya’s second city from troops supporting veteran leader Muammar Qaddafi. Habib Al-Obaidi, who heads the intensive care unit at the main Al-Jalae hospital, and lawyer Mohamed Al-Mana, told Reuters members of the “Thunderbolt” squad had arrived at the hospital with soldiers wounded in clashes with Qaddafi’s personal guard. “They are now saying that they have overpowered the Praetorian Guard and that they have joined the people’s revolt,” Al-Mana said by telephone.
2 thoughts on “Libya special forces started to support the people”
Libya’s Gadafi is an angel when Compare him with the rest of african leaders at least he pays when any one want to continue education overseas and i know for fact he is dictator but in the way the US and other world body describe him as crazy actually his vision is different with the rest of the ARABS in so many ways. look even the libyan people are already fed up his ruling 40 years is so much they need change , imagine this woyanes are thinking the ethiopian people are happy of their ruling when the people are actually living in poverty and absolutely with out hope. I can’t wait to see a day change will come to the new generation to live free of hate and
anger.
Who would have thought other than dreaming a few months ago things to unfold so rapidly and ferociously they way we are witnessing now. I am convinced now, the same thing is going to happen in our country and I can smell the liberation of our people. There is no match for people’s power. The oppressors are a handful but the people are by the millions. By assembling an armada of all kinds of weaponery and some hodams, dictators think they are invincible, and rule over their subjects for ever. They live in their own bubbles, and have no idea how the people feel; think, and act. That’s why they are unprepared for any eventualities and fall so suddenly. Our own weyane will face the inevitable, it is just a matter of time. History is going to be made soon and no force can stop it’s dynamic. I am sure weyane is taking a valuable lesson from what is happening all around it and devising it’s strategy. The most valuable lesson for the tplf rats should be, no force can stop the ‘power of the people.’