Qaddafi Forces Shooting From Ambulances, Witnesses Say

[underpants]

Source: NY Times

TRIPOLI, Libya — An increasingly gruesome picture began to emerge Saturday of the violent tactics used by the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi to quell protesters in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, with several witnesses confirming that forces loyal to the government had been shooting people from ambulances and using antiaircraft guns against crowds.

Witnesses to the violence in Tripoli, where a tense standoff held on Saturday, also said that the government had removed dead bodies as well as the wounded from hospitals in an effort to disguise the mounting death toll in the uprising against Col. Qaddafi sweeping Libya.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/world/africa/27libya.html?_r=1&hp

[wtmusic]

1. Time for UN security to step up to the plate

before there's an unmitigated slaughter.

If an international response has ever been justified, it's now.

[maddezmom]

2. Kadafi using civilian supporters to clear away Libyan protesters

Reporting from Cairo — Moammar Kadafi retained his stubborn grip on Tripoli on Saturday as irregular security forces largely cleared the streets of demonstrators a day after thousands protested against his government following prayer services.

Residents reported that many of those manning checkpoints and patrolling the streets in trucks Saturday were civilian supporters enlisted by the embattled Libyan leader in hopes that he might be able to continue his 42-year rule.

¬snip¬

"If you hear fireworks, don't mistake it for shooting," the 38-year-old Kadafi said, according to an account provided by Reuters. "Peace is coming back to our country."

But the journalists said they observed a desperate crush of people at the airport, fruitlessly pressing against the gate in an effort to leave the country. When the journalists attempted to interview people in the crowd, police and militia members intercepted them and detained at least one photographer.

more:http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-fg-libya-kadafi-20110227,0,6062616.story

[Baclava]

3. It's a bloody civil war

more from that article...

"In Tajoura, a neighborhood of the capital where there has been significant fighting since a peaceful demonstration there last Sunday, residents had barricaded a street with old television sets and cinderblocks to try to keep out pickup trucks full of men with machine guns. A doctor working at the local clinic here said he had seen 68 people killed and 150 injured in recent days of clashes, and that residents were braced for more violence.

The Tripoli airport has become a refugee camp packed with thousands of people trying to flee. The floors inside are a carpet of flesh and blankets, including families with children. Outside, a thick wall of thousands of refugees was waiting to get in, and at least two guards were beating them back — one with a billy club and the other a whip."

[Turborama]

4. Listening to a witness (Brit/Libyan Doctor) now on Sky News. Doctors are being disappeared, too

She was also saying that bodies of the victims who are murdered from the ambulances, or other means, are being thrown into the ambulances and 'vanished'.