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Libya: Revolution in Making ?

It is quite horrible, he ordered Bombers to actually bomb the Protesters...
Hope for a better future for the Libyan people.
 
Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi's son warned early Monday that the country faces a bloody civil war if protesters refuse to accept reform offers, in a speech broadcast as gunfire rang out in the capital, saying that his father remained in charge with the army's backing and would "fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet."

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi condemned the unprecedented uprising against his father's 41-year rule as a foreign plot, but admitted mistakes were made in a brutal crackdown and urged citizens to build a "new Libya".

"Libya is at a crossroads. If we do not agree today on reforms, we will not be mourning 84 people, but thousands of deaths, and rivers of blood will run through Libya," he said.

Human Rights Watch gave a new death toll on Monday and said at least 233 people have been killed in Libya since the anti-regime protests broke out on Feb. 15 after similar uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt which ended the long rule of two veteran leaders.
Hundreds of Libyans, some armed with knives and guns, meanwhile, attacked a South Korean-run construction site in Tripoli, sparking a clash in which at least four foreigners were hurt, Seoul's foreign ministry said.

The rioters stormed the site at around 11 p.m. (local time), left and then returned a few hours later, a foreign ministry official told Reuters.

Three South Korean workers were wounded, one of them stabbed, and one or two Bangladeshi workers were hurt, the official said.

Gaddafi's son gave a lower toll than the United States and rights watchdogs who said that hundreds are feared dead in an offensive to crush the uprising carried out by the military, reportedly backed by mercenaries.

A U.S. official said early Monday that the United States was weighing "all appropriate actions" in response to Libya's violent crackdown on protesters and is analyzing the televised address by the son of Libyan leader Gaddafi to see if there are prospects for meaningful reform.

President Barack Obama was being briefing regularly on fast-moving developments in Libya, and his administration will seek "clarification" from senior Libyan officials as it presses for an end to violence against peaceful demonstrators, the official said.

Heavy gunfire broke out in central Tripoli and several city areas Monday for the first time since the anti-regime uprising began, witnesses and an AFP journalist reported.

A witness in the working-class Gurgi area said security forces fired tear gas to disperse protesters.

But confusion prevailed in the city after Gaddafi's speech and unconfirmed rumors that his father had left Libya triggered sounds of celebration, with women ululating and drivers hooting their car horns.
"Libya is not Egypt, it is not Tunisia"

The unrest has spread from the flashpoint city of Benghazi, where demonstrations began on Tuesday, to the Mediterranean town of Misrata, just 200 kilometers (120 miles) from Tripoli.

"This is an opposition movement, a separatist movement which threatens the unity of Libya," Gaddafi said in a fiery but rambling speech which blamed Arab and African elements for fomenting the troubles.

"We will take up arms... we will fight to the last bullet," he said. "We will destroy seditious elements. If everybody is armed, it is civil war, we will kill each other."

"Libya is not Egypt, it is not Tunisia," he said, adding that attempts at another "Facebook revolution" would be resisted.

"Moammar Gaddafi, our leader, is leading the battle in Tripoli, and we are with him."

"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," he said in a rambling and sometimes confused speech of nearly 40 minutes.

But Saif al-Islam Gaddafi's threats betrayed a note of desperation, and he suggested that the eastern city of Benghazi, Libya's second city, was now out of government control.

"At this moment there are tanks being driven by civilians in Benghazi," he said, insisting the uprising was aimed at installing Islamist rule and that it would be ruthlessly crushed.

And despite the tough talk and finger-wagging, Gaddafi also made some concessions -- pledging a new constitution and new liberal laws with more media freedom.

"If you want us to change the flag and national anthem, we will."

He also admitted "mistakes" on the part of the army in containing the riots, saying they were "not trained to contain riots" and were responding to attacks by "people on drugs."
"Destructive and terrorist" plans

n a performance which veered between threats and concessions, Gaddafi underscored Libya's vast oil wealth and issued a trenchant warning to foreign companies.

"We have one resource that we live on and that is petrol," he said. "All the foreign companies will be forced to leave the country."

Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmoudi meanwhile told EU ambassadors in Tripoli that there are "very precise plans, destructive and terrorist, that want Libya to become a base for terrorism."

But in a significant crack in the regime's public face, Libya's envoy to the 22-member Arab League announced he was "joining the revolution."

"I have submitted my resignation in protest against the acts of repression and violence against demonstrators and I am joining the ranks of the revolution," Abdel Moneim al-Honi said.

In Benghazi, which has borne the brunt of the violence, protests continued, lawyer Mohammed al-Mughrabi told AFP by telephone.

"Lawyers are demonstrating outside the Northern Benghazi court; there are thousands here. We have called it Tahrir Square Two," he said of the Cairo square central to protests that forced Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to step down.

Witnesses told AFP by telephone that security forces also clashed with anti-regime protesters in Misrata, saying security forces, backed by "African mercenaries," fired on crowds "without discrimination."

International condemnation

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, meanwhile, called for "the non-use of force and respect for basic freedoms" in North African and Middle Eastern countries wracked by mass uprisings.

"The secretary-general reiterates his call for the non-use of force and respect for basic freedoms," a U.N. spokesman said in a statement, adding that Ban, who had been in contact with regional leaders to discuss the situation, stressed the importance of exercising utmost restraint by all concerned.

The United States and the European Union strongly condemned the use of lethal force in Libya.

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the Obama administration was "very concerned" about reports that Libyan security forces had fired on peaceful protesters in the eastern city of Benghazi.

"We've condemned that violence," Rice told "Meet the Press" on NBC. "Our view is that in Libya, as throughout the region, peaceful protests need to be respected."

"We are working to ascertain the facts, but we have received multiple credible reports that hundreds of people have been killed and injured in several days of unrest -- and the full extent of the death toll is unknown due to the lack of access of international media and human rights organizations," U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged Tripoli to open a dialogue with protesters.

"The EU urges the authorities to exercise restraint and calm and to immediately refrain from further use of violence against peaceful demonstrators," she said during a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

"The legitimate aspirations and demands of the people for reform must be addressed through open and meaningful Libyan-led dialogue," Ashton said in a declaration on behalf of the 27-nation bloc.

Western countries have expressed concern at the rising violence against demonstrators in Libya. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he spoke to Seif al-Islam by phone and told him that the country must embark on "dialogue and implement reforms," the Foreign Office said.
Isolation

The Internet has been largely shut down, residents can no longer make international calls from land lines and journalists cannot work freely, but eyewitness reports trickling out of the country suggested that protesters were fighting back more forcefully against the Middle East's longest-serving leader.

68-year-old Gaddafi has been trying to bring his country out of isolation, announcing in 2003 that he was abandoning his program for weapons of mass destruction, renouncing terrorism and compensating victims of the 1986 La Belle disco bombing in Berlin and the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Those decisions opened the door for warmer relations with the West and the lifting of U.N. and U.S. sanctions. But Gaddafi continues to face allegations of human rights violations. Gaddafi has his own vast oil wealth and his response to protesters is less constrained by any alliances with the West than Egypt or Bahrain, both important U.S. allies.

Libya has the largest proven oil reserves in Africa with 44 billion barrels as of January 2010, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, but it's still a relatively small player compared with other OPEC members.

In January, OPEC said Libya produced 1.57 million barrels of oil per day. That puts it behind Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Venezuela, Nigeria and Angola.
Gaddafi's son warns of "rivers of blood" in Libya
 
Libya: Colonel Gaddafi 'flees' to Venezuela as cities fall to protesters
Credible Western intelligence reports say that Muammar Gaddafi has fled Libya and is on his way to exile in Venezuela, according to William Hague, the foreign secretary.

Following an emergency EU meeting of foreign ministers on the situation in Libya, Mr Hague was asked if Britain, or other Western countries, knew if Col. Gaddafi had left Tripoli.

“About whether Col. Gaddafi, is in Venezuela, I have no information that says he is although I have seen some information that suggests he is on his way there,” he said.

British officials stressed that Mr Hague was referring “not to media reports but information from other channels”. “This is credible information,” said a diplomat.

Mr Hague said that the foreign office was offering “every possible assistance” to the 3,500 British nationals currently in Libya.

“There should be restraint instead of violence, dialogue instead of repression in Libya. Human rights should be respected. We are concerned at this stage about our nationals in Libya,” he said.
Governments and companies have scrambled to get people out of Libya after security forces loyal to Col. Gaddafi warned he would “fight to the last bullet”.

As foreign ministers met in Brussels, they heard intelligence reports that the Libyan regime was close to collapse as the city of Benghazi fell to anti-government protesters.

A senior source in the Venezuelan government denied the reports that Col. Gaddafi was travelling to the South American oil-producing nation led by his ally President Hugo Chavez.

An official said the information that the Libyan leader was heading into exile was “unfounded rumours”.
Libya: Colonel Gaddafi 'flees' to Venezuela as cities fall to protesters - Telegraph
 
LIBYA: Colonels defected to Malta rather than bomb protesters

The pilots of two Libyan military jets that landed in Malta on Monday are "senior colonels" who were ordered to bomb protesters, Al Jazeera satellite network reports.

The colonels say they refused to bomb protesters demonstrating against Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi and instead defected to Malta, according to Al Jazeera reporter Karl Stagno-Novarra in Malta.

The pilots reportedly told Maltese officials they were based in Tripoli and ordered to attack protesters in Benghazi. After seeing fellow pilots begin bombing, the colonels changed course and headed for Malta, according to Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera has been relaying eyewitness reports of airstrikes Monday, but cautioned that the bombings could not be verified.

Clashes in the Libyan capital of Tripoli on Monday left 160 dead, Al Arabiya network quoted eyewitnesses as saying Monday.
LIBYA: Colonels defected to Malta rather than bomb protesters | Babylon & Beyond | Los Angeles Times
 
The airspace over the Libyan capital Tripoli has been closed until further notice, said a spokesman for the Austrian Army, which sought to evacuate European nationals from Libya on a military plane.
 
Libyan Muslim leaders order followers to rebel


A coalition of Libyan Muslim leaders has issued a declaration telling all Muslims it is their duty to rebel against the Libyan leadership.

"They have demonstrated total arrogant impunity and continued, and even intensified, their bloody crimes against humanity. They have thereby demonstrated total infidelity to the guidance of God and His beloved Prophet (peace be upon him)," said the group, called the Network of Free Ulema of Libya.

"This renders them undeserving of any obedience or support, and makes rebelling against them by all means possible a divinely ordained duty," the group said in a declaration obtained by Reuters on Monday.
 
You know something is wrong when Hizbullah said they are Praying for the "Revolution" in Libya to succeed... And then Joins in:
Prominent Sunni thinker Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who is considered the spiritual leader of the global Muslim Brotherhood movement called for the assassination of Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi during an interview with Al-Jazeera news network.
 

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