CNN’s Ben Wedeman on the situation in Tripoli. Richard Engel said he recently spoke to rebels who claim that they’re not sure if Gaddafi has left. Meanwhile, Reuters is reporting that Tripoli residents received a text message telling them to ”go out in the squares and streets to eliminate the armed agents.” (follow our ongoing coverage of Libya)
Reports from Tripoli say Muammar Gaddafi and two of his sons Hannibal and Mua’atsam have left Libya escaping the advance of the rebels on Tripoli tonight.
The rebels have moved in on Tripoli from the west coming from Zawiya 40 kilometers away.
Eyewitnesses from within Tripoli are saying that parts of Tripoli have already fallen in the hands of the rebels who are taking controls of strategic facilities.
Gaddafi’s prime minister Baghdadi Mahmoudi have also escaped and abandoned his position. The whereabouts of Mahmoudi are not known as yet.
The rebels have announced that operation “Dawn of the Sea Pride” has begun tonight, the operation of of liberating the Libyan capital Tripoli.
UNCONFIRMED: Muammar Gaddafi is said to have left Libya, a number of folks, including NBC’s Richard Engel, are reporting. Please take with grain of salt until we learn more.
Lots going on tonight in Libya: Word is that the rebels are attempting to storm Tripoli and end this whole Gaddafi mess once and for all. A lot’s happening really quickly, though, so we’re trying to figure out what to make of all of it. In recent days, rebels have taken other cities and gotten closer to a possible endgame in the country. We’ll be watching tonight, all.
nhaler asks: RE: Gaddafi
But do you think he WILL leave? Not two weeks ago, you guys called BS on another prediction that he'd step down, citing his unerring obstinacy. Indeed, the Americans had a minor interest in Gaddafi remaining in power, hoping the uprising would blow over and leave Libya on the path to Liberalisation that it was now on. Do you think those ambitions have been abandoned?
» SFB says: These stories keep cropping up. I added the question mark myself, because as has been proven with the situation regarding Saleh in Yemen, these dictators and longstanding leaders will do everything they can to hold power — even when they say they’re going to resign. My feeling: If Gaddafi leaves Libya, it’ll be by force. — Ernie @ SFB
If he desires to stay in Libya, we will be the ones to determine the place and there will be international supervision on all his movements and communications.Mustafa Abdel Jalil, a rebel leader in Libya • He’s saying that Gaddafi can stay in Libya after he resigns, so long as he has supervision. It just shows that rebels are more eager to get to a peace deal. Rather than having him exiled, they’re willing to let him hang around after he’s out of power. This is all coming in response to a proposal from the African Union that rebels have interpreted as saying that Gaddafi shouldn’t have any sort of power anymore. source (via • follow)
Libya: Gaddafi’s got a warrant out for his arrest. Uh-oh: The International Criminal Court issued the warrant, along with another one for his son Saif al-Islam and another for intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, over crimes against humanity. source
» Harsh words for the dictator: One of the players to defect, goalie Juma Gtat, put his feelings as such: ”I am telling Col Gaddafi to leave us alone and allow us to create a free Libya. In fact I wish he would leave this life altogether.” This is significant for a number of reasons — first, it comes after some notable military defections, and secondly, soccer is particularly huge in North Africa. That means that Gaddafi just lost some pretty significant allies in a public relations war.
Video: Using Scraps and Salvaged Parts, Libyan Rebels Turn Toys Into Robo-Warriors
Faced with arms shortages and continual bombing by NATO and the forces of Muammar Gaddafi, rebels in Libya are becoming DIY weapons manufacturers. A school in Misrata has been transformed into a makeshift factory, where toys and trucks are turning into machine gun-equipped robots.
Al Jazeera took a tour of the DIY weapons depot, where a Power Wheels toy was transformed into a robot with a machine gun. Mohammad bin Saud’s team designed the car, which can be remotely operated.
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Those Libyan rebels are getting mighty creative. The idea of mounting a machine gun to a Power Wheels is clever enough, but the fact that they actually got it to work shows that these guys have some real engineering chops.
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We will not kneel! We will not surrender: we only have one choice – to the end! Death, victory, it does not matter, we are not surrendering!Muammar Gaddafi • More or less affirming the attitude he’s been exemplifying for months. His defiant remarks came during a phone call to Libyan state television, during which the sounds of low-flying aircraft were audible over the line, and he quickly hung up. NATO’s offensive strikes in Libya have intensified recently — perhaps the result of President Obama agreeing with British PM David Cameron that it was time to ‘turn up the heat’ on Gaddafi and his forces? In any event, this much seems clear: Gaddafi would rather die than relinquish command, and NATO doesn’t intend to leave him in power. Gaddafi might get his wish on this one. source (via • follow)
From the cockpit of a British Apache helicopter: The British Ministry of Defense released a selection of videos of helicopter strikes at various Libyan targets, including the clip above. The Telegraph, where we grabbed the video above, suggests that the footage emphasizes a key point; by knocking out these relatively small targets one-by-one, both the rebels and the forces are slowly wearing away at Gaddafi’s infrastructure. “Helicopters and war planes will take out the check-points from the air; the rebels seize the ground,” writes Richard Spencer, who suggests the coalition has formed an alliance with the rebels on the ground in all but name. If it sounds like this is going to take a freaking long time, that’s because it probably will. source
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