Mallaba
JF-Expert Member
- Jan 30, 2008
- 2,554
- 47
The U.N. Security Council was holding an emergency meeting, and Western diplomats pressed for it to demand an immediate halt to Gahdafi's retaliation against protesters. With international condemnation mounting, nations around the world were scrambling for ways to get their citizens out of Libya, and oil prices surged.
The eruption of turmoil in the capital escalates a week of protests and bloody clashes in Libya's eastern cities that have shattered Gadhafi's nearly 42-year grip on the nation.
Many cities in the east appeared to be under the control of protesters, including some oil-producing regions, as units of Gadhafi's army defected. Protesters in the east claimed to hold several oil fields and facilities and said they were protecting them to prevent damage or vandalism. The regime has been hit by a string of defections by ambassadors abroad, including its U.N. delegation, and a few officials at home.
In response, Gadhafi's security forces have unleashed the bloodiest crackdown of any Arab country against the wave of protests sweeping the region, which toppled leaders of Egypt and Tunisia.
Anywhere from 233 to 250 people are known to have been killed so far, according to estimates by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the New York-based Human Rights Watch. Those numbers don't appear to include casualties from two days of deadly attacks on protesters in the capital, Tripoli - a sign of the difficulty of getting information out of the highly closed North African Nation.
The eruption of turmoil in the capital escalates a week of protests and bloody clashes in Libya's eastern cities that have shattered Gadhafi's nearly 42-year grip on the nation.
Many cities in the east appeared to be under the control of protesters, including some oil-producing regions, as units of Gadhafi's army defected. Protesters in the east claimed to hold several oil fields and facilities and said they were protecting them to prevent damage or vandalism. The regime has been hit by a string of defections by ambassadors abroad, including its U.N. delegation, and a few officials at home.
In response, Gadhafi's security forces have unleashed the bloodiest crackdown of any Arab country against the wave of protests sweeping the region, which toppled leaders of Egypt and Tunisia.
Anywhere from 233 to 250 people are known to have been killed so far, according to estimates by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the New York-based Human Rights Watch. Those numbers don't appear to include casualties from two days of deadly attacks on protesters in the capital, Tripoli - a sign of the difficulty of getting information out of the highly closed North African Nation.