Latest On Libya 2011 Crisis / Revolt

Libya's leader, Muammar Gaddafi, has dismissed reports that he had fled amid the unrest sweeping the country, calling foreign news channels "dogs".

Speaking to state TV from outside a ruined building, he said "I am in Tripoli and not in Venezuela," after rumours that he had flown to Caracas.

Col Gaddafi's statement came after security forces and protesters clashed in the capital for a second night.

The UN Security Council is to meet in closed session to discuss Libya.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made the announcement, after speaking to Col Gaddafi on Monday.

"I urged him that the human rights and freedom of assembly and freedom of speech must be fully protected," said Mr Ban.

Witnesses said warplanes and helicopters had fired on protesters in Tripoli. To the west, sources said the army was fighting forces loyal to Col Gaddafi.

Earlier, the newly established General Committee for Defence said its forces would cleanse Libya of anti-government elements.

A statement described the protesters as "terrorist gangs made up mostly of misguided youths", who had been exploited and fed "hallucinogenic pills" by people following foreign agendas.

But Libya's diplomats at the United Nations in New York called for international intervention to stop the government's violent action against street demonstrations in their homeland.

Deputy Permanent Representative Ibrahim Dabbashi said Libyans had to be protected from "genocide", and urged the UN to impose a no-fly zone.

Ali Aujali, Libya's most senior diplomat in the US, also criticised the country's leader. He told the BBC he was "not supporting the government killing its people".

'Satisfied'

Col Gaddafi appeared for less than a minute on state television shortly after 0200 local time (0000 GMT) on Tuesday.

He sat in the passenger seat of an old, white vehicle and held up an umbrella to shield himself from the rain while speaking.

"I am satisfied, because I was speaking in front of the youth in the Green Square tonight, but the rain came praise to God, it is a good omen," he said.

"I want to clarify for them that I am in Tripoli not in Venezuela. Do not believe these channels - they are dogs. Good-bye."

It has been raining in Tripoli for much of the past two days.

A resident of Tripoli called the comment an insult.

"We thought that he'd just say he was sorry, or that he would just fix [it] or whatever, but something like this? This is insulting," he told the BBC.

Speculation mounted throughout Monday that Col Gaddafi had been forced to flee Libya.

UK Foreign Minister William Hague had said he had "seen information" suggesting Col Gaddafi was on his way to Venezuela.

Bombing raids

The BBC's Jon Leyne, in neighbouring Egypt, says Col Gaddafi has now lost the support of almost every section of Libyan society.

Foreign journalists work under tight restriction in Libya, and much of the information coming from the country is impossible to verify.

But the authorities have accepted that eastern cities such as al-Bayda and Benghazi - traditional pockets of resistance to the government - are now under the control of the opposition.

The unrest had not touched Tripoli until Sunday, when hundreds of protesters flooded the streets, only to be suppressed by security forces.

On Monday, state TV reported that a renewed operation had begun against opposition elements.

"Security forces have started to storm into the dens of terror and sabotage, spurred by the hatred of Libya," it said.

A witness in Tripoli told the BBC he could see people being shot down by aircraft.

Another eyewitness in the capital said the suburbs of Fashloom and Zawiyat al-Dahmani had been cordoned off by security forces.

Protesters were out on the streets, and flames and smoke could be seen rising from the areas, the witness said.

Witnesses estimate that more than 50 people have been killed in Tripoli since Sunday.

Before the unrest spread there, Human Rights Watch estimated that 233 people had been killed. Other groups said the figure was much higher.

'Outraged'

Amid the turmoil on the streets, senior officials have begun to desert the regime. Justice Minister Mustapha Abdul Jalil quit the government because of the "excessive use of violence", the Quryna newspaper said.

Libya's envoy to the Arab League, Abdel Moneim al-Honi, announced he was "joining the revolution".

The US joined "international community in strongly condemning the violence in Libya," said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"Now is the time to stop this unacceptable bloodshed," she added.

EU foreign ministers released a statement condemning the "ongoing repression against demonstrators", and said they deplored the violence and death of civilians.

The violence has helped to push up oil prices to their highest levels since the global financial crisis of 2008. International firms including BP, one of the world's biggest oil companies, are preparing to pull their staff out.

Thousands of Europeans have already fled the country.



Source: BBC

Embattled Libyan strongman, Muammar Gaddafi has threatened to blow up oil pipelines. If the threat is carried out it could trigger off global economic crisis of dire dimensions. The threat is part of a desperate bid to rein in the mounting opposition in his country.

Agency reports yesterday put the death toll in the country at 1000 in the latest round of bloodshed as the defiant leader clings to power.

Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini said the death toll of 1000 in the unrest was "credible," a higher toll than previously estimated based on reports from rights groups.

President Goodluck Jonathan has reacted to the situation by directing that Nigerians residing in the troubled countries of the Middle East be evacuated immediately.

Also, the federal government has condemned what it described as " disproportionate use of force to disperse protesters in Libya and elsewhere in the Middle East."

Speaking after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting yesterday presided over by vice-president Namadi Sambo, the minister of information and communications, Mr. Labaran Maku and his foreign affairs counterpart, Odein Ajumogobia told State House correspondents that, "Government deplores the violence; it also condemns the disproportional use of force to disperse protesters. The crisis can and should be resolved through dialogue in those countries".

As a mark of solidarity with the Lybian people, international community might have started mobilising against Gaddafi and his family.

According to a report, a plane conveying Gaddafi's daughter, Aisha, to Malta was turned back. Also another plane carrying his son's daughter was refused landing rights in Beirut, the Lebanese capital.

Meanwhile, there were strong indications that President Barack Obama of the United States of America is under pressure to make a statement on the Libyan crisis.

News of the growing unrest came as a former Libyan justice minister claimed Gaddafi personally ordered the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988.

Mustapha Abdeljalil told Swedish newspaper the Expressen that he had evidence that the Libyan leader was behind the deadly attack.

The Italian government in its assessment of the situation said Gaddafi had lost control of the eastern half of Libya amid growing deadly unrest.

Mr. Frattini said Gaddafi's regime had perpetrated a "horrible bloodbath" and was no longer in control of the eastern province of Cyrenaica, one of the three regions which make up Libya and includes the country's second city Benghazi, where the rebellion against his iron hand rule began.

The BBC reported that Ghadafi's control was limited to parts of capital Tripoli and the southern city Sabha.

Sky News broadcast the first live images to emerge from Libya, which showed an opposition rally in the city of Tobruk, the eastern-most major city.

Mr Frattini also warned that the collapse of Gaddafi's regime would spark a mass influx of Libyans towards Italy, the former colonial power in the north African oil producer.

Italy is already struggling to deal with a wave of post-revolution refugees from Tunisia.

"There would be an exodus of biblical proportions, a problem that Italy cannot, must not underestimate," Minister Frattini said.

China, India, South Korea, France and the United States, among other countries, have scrambled to evacuate their citizens from the turbulent nation, as the international community condemned the crackdown a day after Gadhafi vowed to defend his rule and called on supporters to crack down on anti-government protesters.

Gadhafi's retaliation has already been the harshest in the wave of anti-government protests sweeping the Middle East.

The Libyan ambassadors in the US, the UN, India and Bangladesh have already quit their posts in protest against the brutal acts of Ghadafi's regime.

Defections of senior officials and diplomats continued, with Libya's ambassador to Indonesia, Salaheddin M. El Bishari, becoming the latest to quit in protest.

"Soldiers are killing unarmed civilians mercilessly using heavy weaponry, fighter jets and mercenaries against its own people. It is not acceptable," El Bishari told The Jakarta Post.

In parliament yesterday, Australian foreign minister, Kevin Rudd labelled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi a "dictator out of control" and called for sanctions against the north African nation. Mr Rudd said Gaddafi had described protesters as "rats" who needed purging from his country.

"These are not the words of a responsible political leader. These are the words of a dictator out of control," Mr Rudd said.

Meanwhile, Libya's interior minister is believed to have been kidnapped in Benghazi after he resigned to join protesters, state media reported.

Libya's interior minister Abdul Fattah Younis announced his defection yesterday, shortly after leader Muammar Gaddafi threatened violence in an address on state TV.

Al Jazeera reported that another senior official, an aide to Gaddafi's eldest son Saif al Islam Gaddafi, had resigned in protest against the violence.

French energy giant Total said yesterday that it was "starting to suspend" part of its oil production in Libya adding to concerns over the impact of Arab unrest on oil price.

AL-EGILA, Libya – Libyan rebels took back a key oil town and pushed westward Sunday toward the capital, seizing momentum from the international airstrikes that tipped the balance away from Moammar Gadhafi's military.

Brega, a main oil export terminal in eastern Libya, fell after a skirmish late Saturday and rebel forces moved swiftly west, seizing the tiny desert town of Al-Egila — a collection of houses and a gas station — on their way to the massive oil refining complex of Ras Lanouf.

"There was no resistance. Gadhafi's forces just melted away," said Suleiman Ibrahim, a 31-year-old volunteer, sitting in the back of a pickup truck. "This couldn't have happened without NATO. They gave us big support." He said that rebels had already reached Ras Lanouf.

Ras Lanouf and Brega combined would be responsible for a large chunk of Libya's 1.5 million barrels of daily exports, which have all but stopped since the uprising that began Feb. 15 and was inspired by the toppling of governments in Tunisia and Egypt.

"As they move round the coast, of course, the rebels will increasingly control the exit points of Libya's oil," British Defense Secretary Liam Fox told the BBC. "That will produce a very dynamic and a very different equilibrium inside Libya. How that will play out in terms of public opinion and the Gadhafi regime remains to be seen."

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the international action appeared to be a success.

"The key here was establishing a military mission that was achievable, was achievable in a limited period of time and could be sustained," he told CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.

Read more here.....................Libyan rebels takes Brega and Al-Egila, key oil centers

Although this speculate that he has been captured.

http://www.nigerianelitesforum.com/n...l-council.html

Muammar Gaddafi is now confirmed dead.