Libya protests break out after Friday prayers
Gaddafi forces put on show of strength as demonstrators gather in Tajura area
of Tripoli
* Peter Beaumont in Tripoli and Mark Tran
* guardian.co.uk, Friday 4 March 2011 13.26 GMT
Libyan protesters in Benghazi Demonstrators shout anti-Gaddafi slogans after
Friday prayers in Benghazi in the rebel-held east of Libya. Photograph: Suhaib
Salem/Reuters
Security forces have used teargas and live ammunition to disperse hundreds of
anti-government protestors who marched in Tripoli after prayers.
Several hundred demonstrators gathered in Tajura, an area east of the capital,
chanted: "Gaddafi is the enemy of God."
Protesters tore down posters of the Libyan leader and spray-painted walls with
graffiti reading: "Down with Gaddafi" and "Tajura will dig your grave."
Scores of police cars descended on the area, forcing journalists from the
scene, and at least one person was detained.
Soon after the march began, officers fired teargas at the crowd. The protesters
scattered, but quickly regrouped before security forces fired live ammunition,
scattering the protesters again. It was not immediately clear if the shots had
been fired in the air or at the marchers.
"I am not afraid," one marcher told the Associated Press. The 29-year-old said
one of his relatives had been shot dead in protests a week ago not by
militias, but by a pro-Gaddafi infiltrator at the demonstrations. "There are
many spies among us. But we want to show the world that we are not afraid," he
said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of fears of retaliation.
Earlier, security officials set up checkpoints in Tripoli backed by tanks and
armoured personnel carriers. The checkpoints blocking many of the routes into
Tajura, where demonstrations took place last week, were manned by well-trained
forces who subjected vehicles to thorough searches.
Officials tried to stop foreign journalists leaving their hotel in Tripoli,
claiming it was for their protection, but later allowed them out, although they
were not permitted to go to Tajura.
The opposition called for protesters to march out of mosques after noon prayers
in demonstrations against Gaddafi, who has vowed to fight to the "last man and
bullet". In protests last Friday, pro-regime militiamen opened fire immediately
on the marchers, killing and wounding a still unknown number. Since then,
Gaddafi forces have seized suspected dissidents in night raids. Bodies of
people who disappeared have been left in the street and militiamen have
searched hospitals for the wounded to take away.
Opponents of the regime said they were expecting government forces to respond
violently to this Friday's marches.
"We do not have any weapons. We will go to the mosque and then say Gaddafi
should leave," Mohammed, a Tajura resident, told Reuters. "They [pro-Gaddafi
militias] will attack."
As troops loyal to Gaddafi locked down the capital, a large force from a
brigade led by one of his sons was reported to have attacked Zawiyah, the
closest opposition-held city to Tripoli, about 30 miles away. A resident said
the troops from the Khamis brigade, named after Gaddafi's son, attacked
Zawiyah's western side, firing mortars and then using heavy machine guns and
automatic weapons to fight armed residents and allied army units.
"Our men are fighting back the force, which is big," the resident told
Associated Press. Zawiyah has beaten back several assaults the past week in
what is turning into a military stalemate. Gaddafi's forces have been unable to
take back significant ground while his opponents, ragtag citizen militias
backed by mutinous army units, lack the resources to take Tripoli.
Rebel forces are moving towards the major oil terminal of Ras Lanuf, 400 miles
east of the capital. They are about 25 miles east of the port and expected to
reach it by Friday evening or early Saturday morning.
"We're going to take it all, Ras Lanuf, Tripoli," one of the rebels, Magdi
Mohammed, told Reuters.
Earlier, a Libyan warplane dropped bombs just beyond the walls of a military
base, used to store huge amounts of ammunition, now held by rebels, in the
eastern town of Ajdabiyah.
"We were sat here, heard the jet, then the explosion and the earth shook. They
fell outside the walls," Hassan Faraj, who was guarding the munitions store at
the Haniyeh base, told Reuters.
Meanwhile, the head of Libya's rebel national Libyan council has vowed to fight
to victory or death.
"We are people who fight, we don't surrender," Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the former
justice minister, told cheering crowds in al-Bayda in the rebel-held east of
the country. "Victory or death. We will not stop till we liberate all this
country
The time of hypocrisy is over.".
The crowd chanted: "Libya is free and Gaddafi must go." Another chant said
rebels would take their uprising to Tripoli. "The next round shall take place
in the capital," they shouted.
Abdel Jalil said: "There could be members of the old regime here among us. Your
enemy can still put his people among you. Don't listen to them and let them
ruin our revolution."
He said the old regime was over. "You must keep all of Libya safe. Stop
destroying buildings. They are ours now. It is being a bad Muslim to do
something like this."
Abdel Jalil made the short speech in al-Bayda's central square, next to the
burned out state security headquarters.
Barack Obama called on Thursday for Gaddafi to stand down on the grounds that
he has "lost the legitimacy to lead" Libya after Tripoli's violent response to
the protests. Obama issued his strongest condemnation of the Libyan leader as
the international criminal court announced that Gaddafi and his sons are to be
investigated for possible crimes against humanity.
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