Libya’s premier late yesterday denounced a plot to turn his country into a terrorist base, as anti-regime protests reached the capital and world powers denounced an iron-fisted crackdown said to have cost hundreds of lives.
As the death toll continued to rise, world leaders stepped up their pressure over strongman Muammar Gaddafi’s response to the unprecedented challenge to his four-decade rule of the oil-rich North African country.
In what was the first high-level public reaction to six days of bloody protests, Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmudi told EU ambassadors in Tripoli, without elaborating, that there are “very precise plans, destructive and terrorist, that want Libya to become a base for terrorism.” And he said Libya has the “right to take all measures to preserve its unity, stability and people, and to assure the protection of its riches and preserve its relations with other countries,” state news agency Jana reported.
Mr Mahmudi also lashed out at “foreign news media,” whose reports he said were a “mixture, without distinction, of reality and lies.”
But in a significant crack in the regime’s public face, Libya’s envoy to the Arab League announced he was “joining the revolution”.
“I have submitted my resignation in protest against the acts of repression and violence against demonstrators (in Libya) and I am joining the ranks of the revolution,” Abdel Moneim al-Honi said.
Ironically, Libya currently holds the rotating presidency of the 22-member Arab League.
While Mr Mahmudi gave no details to support his claims, an official said earlier yesterday that security forces had foiled an attempt by saboteurs to set fire to oil wells at the Sarir field.
He said six Libyans had been arrested and that the “gang received its weapons from outside Libya and got its instructions through the internet”.
And another official told AFP that Islamist gunmen had stormed a military depot and the nearby port of Derna on Wednesday and Friday and seized weapons and vehicles after killing four soldiers.
They also took hostages, both soldiers and civilians, and were “threatening to execute them unless a siege by security forces is lifted” in nearby Al-Baida.
With most of this week’s violence concentrated in the east of the country, unrest hit the capital itself last night, one resident told AFP. Speaking from the working-class district of Gurgi, on Tripoli’s western approaches, the source said “there are demonstrations. You can hear slogans shouted against the regime and gunfire. Tear gas has got into my house.” Another witness spoke of tyres burning in the neighbourhood.
Earlier, witnesses told AFP by telephone that security forces clashed with anti-regime protesters in the Mediterranean city of Misrata, 200 kilometres from Tripoli.
The witnesses said security forces, backed by “African mercenaries”, fired on crowds “without discrimination”.
In the eastern city of Benghazi, which has borne the brunt of the violence, protests continued, lawyer Mohammed al-Mughrabi said by telephone.
“Lawyers are demonstrating outside the northern Benghazi court; there are thousands here. We have called it Tahrir Square Two,” he said of the Cairo square central to protests that brought down Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Separately, others are “storming the garrison” and “taking fire from snipers”, Mr Mughrabi said, without elaborating.
He said “at least 200 have been killed altogether (since the unrest began) but we can’t verify from hospital. We are pleading for the Red Cross to send field hospitals. We can’t take it any more”.
The United States strongly condemned the use of lethal force in Libya and called on Tripoli to allow peaceful protests after “credible reports” of hundreds of casualties.
Leader’s son Seif al Islam admits mistakes
The Libyan leader’s son Seif al Islam announced in a televised address after midnight this morning that protesters had seized control of some military bases.
He admitted that the police and the army had made some mistakes because they are not trained to deal with riots.
He blamed terrorist elements, separatist movements and escaped prisoners for the unrest, while saying he understood the protesters’ anger at the deaths that occured. He said, however, that the figure of 250 people killed is “a huge exaggeration”.
Europe speaks against repression of protests despite Gaddafi’s threat
Europe urged Libya yesterday to stop violently repressing protesters and listen to their demands, despite a Libyan threat to retaliate to criticism by opening the floodgates to illegal immigration.
As the autocratic regime in Libya responded to protests with deadly force, European Union foreign ministers met for dinner in Brussels to discuss how to handle the reform fever spreading across the Arab world.