Warplanes bomb Tripoli
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Feb. 22: Libya’s Col. Muammar Gaddafi used tanks, helicopters and warplanes to fight a growing revolt, witnesses said on Tuesday, as the veteran leader scoffed at reports he was fleeing after four decades in power.
Warplanes bombed portions of the capital Tripoli on Tuesday in new attacks in the Mediterranean coastal city, and mercenaries fired on civilians, Al Jazeera reported.
In the eastern town of Al Bayda, one Mr Marai Al Mahry said 26 people including his brother Ahmed had been shot dead overnight by Gaddafi loyalists. “They shoot you just for walking on the street,” he said, sobbing uncontrollably as he appealed for help. Protesters were being attacked with tanks and warplanes, he said. “The only thing we can do now is not give up, no surrender, no going back. We will die anyway, whether we like it or not. It is clear that they don’t care whether we live or not. This is genocide,” said Mr Mahry, 42.
Hundred of refugees streamed into Egypt on Tuesday, piled onto tractors and trucks, describing a wave of killing and banditry unleashed by the revolt. “Five people died on the street where I live,” said Mr Mohamed Jalaly, 40, at Salum on his way to Cairo from Benghazi. “You leave Benghazi and then you have ... nothing but gangs and youths with weapons,” he added. “The way from Benghazi is extremely dangerous,” he said.
Security forces have cracked down fiercely on demonstrators across the country, with fighting now spreading to Tripoli after erupting in Libya’s oil-producing east last week, in a reaction to decades of repression and following uprisings that have toppled leaders in Tunisia and Egypt.
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