Libya conflict: Heavy gunfire erupts in Tripoli Skip to main content

Libya conflict: Heavy gunfire erupts in Tripoli

A destroyed building in Tripoli. Photo: Nato is continuing to carry out air strikes on Tripoli
Explosions and sustained gunfire have been heard in parts of Tripoli, as rebels close in on the Libyan capital.
A credible source told the BBC there had been heavy fighting in some districts. A rebel official said the uprising had begun in Tripoli.
But Col Muammar Gaddafi said his forces had eliminated "rats". He accused the rebels of trying to destroy Libya.
The rebels earlier captured the city of Zlitan, 160km (100 miles) east of Tripoli, and Zawiya, 30km to the west.
However, pro-Gaddafi forces have been fighting back at the oil port of Brega, with the rebels admitting that they fell back from the eastern town's industrial zone under heavy bombardment.
'Zero hour' There were reports of protests and gunfire in areas to the north and east of Tripoli, including the Tajoura district, where there was trouble at the start of this uprising against Col Gaddafi, the BBC's Matthew Price in the capital reports.

Start Quote

Those rats... were attacked by the masses tonight and we eliminated them”
Col Muammar Gaddafi
Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, vice-chairman of the rebel National Transition Council (NTC), was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency: "The zero hour has started. The rebels in Tripoli have risen up."
"There is co-ordination with the rebels in Tripoli. This was a pre-set plan," said Mr Ghoga.
But Col Gaddafi's Information Minister Moussa Ibrahim later put the trouble down to "small armed gangs".
"Tripoli is safe, and completely under the control of the armed people committees and the volunteers and the honourable people of Tripoli," the minister said.
"Some gunmen entered two or three areas of Tripoli. They were confronted and everything ended within half an hour."
In an audio broadcast shortly afterwards, Col Gaddafi congratulated his supporters for repelling the rebels.
"Those rats... were attacked by the masses tonight and we eliminated them," he said.
The Libyan leader certainly has support in Tripoli, our correspondent says.

At the scene

Over the last week, since the rebel advances, I have detected greater sense of nervousness among some of the government employees and also a sense of nervousness and the desire to known what they should do next among some of the ordinary people.
However, at the same time everybody appears to be remarkably relaxed when I visited Tripoli's Green Square at night time.
They say they don't believe that Col Gaddafi is going anywhere any soon and he is going to fall.
But certainly this is a city under greater pressure than it has been before.
In recent weeks at night more and more checkpoints have sprung up across the city. Pro-Gaddafi men and women have received weapons training.
However, the momentum is clearly against Col Gaddafi and his supporters, our correspondent adds, with rebels having better weaponry.
Heavy shelling A rebel military spokesman, Col Ahmed Bani, earlier confirmed that rebel forces had fallen back in Brega.
Brega, home to Libya's second-largest hydrocarbon complex and the place where the country's main oil fields feed into for refining, has repeatedly changed hands during the six-month-old conflict.
"Yesterday, the industrial zone was under our complete control, but the truth is that today the situation has changed due to heavy artillery shelling," Col Bani said on Saturday.
"We withdrew to the eastern part of the industrial zone."
After visiting Zlitan, the BBC's Orla Guerin said the rebels appeared to have a firm grip on the town, controlling the centre and manning checkpoints.
However, small-arms and mortar fire could still be heard, and rebels told the BBC that beyond a strategic bridge in the centre, there was still a risk of attack.
The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Zawiya says pro-Gaddafi forces no longer control the area
In Zawiya, the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes said the rebels had succeeded in pushing Col Gaddafi's forces out of the city and were now in complete control there.
The rebels burned Col Gaddafi's green flag and stamped on the pictures of the Libyan leader.
Our correspondent says the bodies of several of Col Gaddafi's fighters were found. The rebels said they were foreign mercenaries from Chad.
Rebel forces have also moved towards Tripoli from the south.
Nato, enforcing a UN-mandated no-fly zone to protect civilians since March, controls sea access to Tripoli.
Workers stranded Meanwhile, reports suggest fresh senior figures in the Gaddafi camp may have defected:
  • Abdel Salam Jalloud, who helped Col Gaddafi come to power in 1969 but fell out with him in the 1990s, is believed to be making his way to Europe from neighbouring Tunisia
  • Libyan Oil Minister Omran Abukraa failed to return to Libya on Thursday after a visit to Italy and went to Tunisia instead, Tunisian sources said
Libya's conflict broke out in February, inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt which toppled the presidents of those countries.
Rebels in the east rapidly consolidated their gains, but a stalemate developed in the west as rebels there faced overwhelming military force.
The fighting has stranded thousands of migrant workers - many of them Egyptians - in Tripoli.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said it was planning to evacuate them in the coming days.
Since the conflict in Libya began, an estimated 600,000 migrant workers have fled the country, many with the help of the IOM, but many remain.
Libya fighting map
Are you in any of the areas affected by the fighting? Send us your comments and experiences using the form below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14605391

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Sri Bhaddanta Chandramani Mahathera

The Life Story of A Distinguished And Outstanding Bhikkhu The Most Venerable Saradawpharagree Sri Bhaddanta Chandramani Mahathera The Buddhist missionary Saradaw Ashin U Chandramani was endowed with great gifts and led a famous and long life. He was a very well known, distinguished and outstanding Bhikkhu Mahathera. While living in the Kushinagar Monastery, a place close to where the Lord Buddha had passed away to Nirvana, the Government of India had offered, and he had accepted, the highest, most honourable and respected title "Guru Guru MahaGuru". He became the first ever President of all Buddhists in India.A World Buddhist Conference took place in Kathmandu during the reign of King Mahindra of Nepal. The Conference was very well attended by over one hundred thousand Buddhists from various parts of the world and it was opened by King Mahindra himself. As requested by the King, Saradawpharagree blessed all the participants with the power of Triple Gems...

Thai penis whitening trend raises eyebrows

Image copyright LELUXHOSPITAL Image caption Authorities warn the procedure could be quite painful A supposed trend of penis whitening has captivated Thailand in recent days and left it asking if the country's beauty industry is taking things too far. Skin whitening is nothing new in many Asian countries, where darker skin is often associated with outdoor labour, therefore, being poorer. But even so, when a clip of a clinic's latest intriguing procedure was posted online, it quickly went viral. Thailand's health ministry has since issued a warning over the procedure. The BBC Thai service spoke to one patient who had undergone the treatment, who told them: "I wanted to feel more confident in my swimming briefs". The 30-year-old said his first session of several was two months ago, and he had since seen a definite change in the shade. 'What for?' The original Facebook post from the clinic offering the treatment, which uses lasers to break do...

Three Dead, Seven Injured by Artillery Shells in Two Incidents in Myanmar’s Mrauk-U

By MIN AUNG KHINE 2 December 2019 Sittwe, Rakhine State –Three Mrauk-U township residents died and four others were injured when an artillery shell struck their community in the Ale Zay quarter of Mrauk-U town on Monday afternoon after 4 p.m. A month-old girl, a 4-year-old boy and a 30-year-old woman died, according to Dr. Khin Maung Yin, the head of Mrauk-U hospital. He said, “A man and three other women were injured. One of the women sustained severe injures to her left leg and her right knee was dislocated. The injured will be operated on.” Details of what occurred were not yet known. A few hours earlier, three civilians were injured when an artillery shell fell on the village of Na Leik in Mrauk-U Township, Rakhine State, western Myanmar, on Monday at around 1 p.m., according to Yan Aung Pyin village-tract administrator U Sein Hla Aung. Two females, aged 13 and 27, and an 18-year-old male were injured in the incident, he said. Three people were hit by shrapnel and we have...