Gaddafi forces shell west Libya's Misrata, 25 dead

[Turborama]

Source: Reuters

Fri Mar 18, 2011 10:36am EDT

Tariq, a doctor based in Britain who has been regularly calling residents inside the city, said: "They are still shelling as we speak. The foreign minister obviously lives in a different time zone. It's indiscriminate."

Rebels said the attack on Misrata started at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT), hours after the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution endorsing a no-fly zone and military attacks on Gaddafi's forces to protect civilians.

Shells hit several mosques, schools and residential buildings, they said.

=snip=

"On behalf of all the people of Misrata, the women, the children and the elderly, we call on the international community to do something before it's too late. They must act now," he said. "They already failed us before and were late in taking a decision, they should not repeat the same mistake."

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/18/libya-misrata-bombard-idUSLDE72H0MV20110318?pageNumber=2

---

Resident of Misurata on the phone to AJE just now giving an eyewitness account of what's going on there. I'll post a clip if it gets uploaded.

No let-up as Gaddafi jet bombs city of 660,000

Colonel Gaddafi continued his attacks on the Libyan people today as the rebel-held town of Misurata was bombarded with heavy weapons.

Tanks and heavy artillery rained shells on to the coastal city of 660,000, where hours earlier the streets had been filled with people celebrating wildly the news of the UN Security Council vote.

"The bombardment started about two or three hours ago and it has continued until now," said Saadoun al-Misurati, a member of the anti-Gaddafi movement. An unspecified number were reported to have been killed or wounded.

Misurata is the last rebel-held city in western Libya. Located 130 miles east of Tripoli, it has been the centre of heavy fighting in recent days with government troops encircling the city and Colonel Gaddafi's war planes repeatedly flying bombing runs.
London Evening Standard

Full article: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23933430-no-let-up-as-gaddafi-jets-bomb-city-of-660000.do

[FLPanhandle]

1. Like anyone intelligent ever believed his "ceasefire"

Just a tactic to delay a response.

[ReturnoftheDjedi]

2. Gadhafi's forces will be destroyed in 2 days time. Bet on it.

[groundloop]

3. But does the UN resolution authorizing a no-fly zone allow attacking his ground troops?

I don't know the answer to that, just asking. I kinda' think not, but can't say for sure.

[Turborama]

4. Yes, page 3 under "Protection of civilians" authorizes more than just a no-fly zone.

Here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x677397

[ReturnoftheDjedi]

5. we can't send in ground troops, but we can bomb them.

[Aerows]

6. I sincerely hope you are right...

...we don't need another Afghanistan (or Vietnam). Wading into the middle of civil wars hasn't historically worked out all that well for us.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Tiggeroshii]

8. well this settles it

...i hope Britain and France get their asses in there right away and kick ass!

[Turborama]

9. BREAKING Almanara correspondent A comprehensive update from the clashes that occurred in Misratah

Translated: BREAKING comprehensive update from eyewitness cameraman in Misratah today
Posted on March 18, 2011 by Admin

This post is being constantly updated
All times are in Libyan local time GMT +2

18:37 BREAKING Almanara correspondent A comprehensive update from the clashes that occurred in Misratah today from Almanara correspondent. We have translated the entire video which is linked to the last video we posted from Misratah a short while ago.

Libyafeb17.com Translation:

In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Mawan Al Misrati from Misratah. I was in the battle from from 30 mins ago. I was there for 4 hours. Today Gaddafi’s forces expanded their action in the city. They managed to enter the city but the revos managed to stop them. Some of their vehicles, because they brought in tanks and snipers were cornered and didn’t know to escape. So they started shooting randomly and shelling the buildings and the areas they entered from.

They entered from Benghazi and Tripoli, they also entered from Borwayya which we call the coastal highway. This means they entered from East, West and South. After that, the revos managed to stop the guys coming in from Borwayya area. The tanks managed to reach Al Jazeera area which is 10km away from the centre of the city where two of the tanks were destroyed. After that, the forces coming in from the west retreated to their bases outside the city. We can now hear random bombardments here in the outskirts of Misratah. We are approximately 5km away from the city centre. There was random shelling by the forces after they were cornered and they started shelling houses and residential areas. I was personally present near the People’s Hall where 8 shells landed continuously in less than 5 minutes. They were randomly and thankfully the media and press were with us and they too managed to record these shells landing. The shells were random and lethal. The residents were targeted and some of them died as martyrs at the hands of snipers. We were unable to collect their bodies due to the widespread of snipers and our inability pinpoint their positions due to their use of silencers, so you can’t hear where the shot is coming from or where they are.

After the area near the People’s Hall was bombarded, a residential block was shelled and the 5th and 6th floor were completely destroyed. This apartment block is directly on Tripoli street, we don’t know if people were in their apartments at the time. The revos were unable to go in and check because the bombardment was so vicious and ruthless and random. I can’t describe it. There is no will or power except through God.

After that, a number of snipers were cornered in Benghazi street. Some of them were with personnel carriers and tanks, and the revos managed to destroy one tank after which the rest of the convoy withdrew to an area which is 3km away from the center of the city. Some of the snipers lost the way they came from so headed to the Humanities College where they were cornered. Praise be to God the revos managed to capture a number of them. Thank God, the revos were victorious of them. The sad thing is that these snipers were not Libyan, they were from Africa and were professionally equipped and well trained.

After that 2 personnel carriers entered Abdullah Al Ghareeb Street in an attempt to reclaim and relocate a destroyed personnel carrier in As Souq Al Moghlaq area. They started to shell the houses randomly. The revos tried to stop them but were unable to due to how random the shelling was. Praise be to God though, some revos managed to sneek behind the 2 tanks and disabled one tank but the other one got away. Their aim was to prevent the media from filming the destroyed tank so they can say “We have indeed implemented the ceasefire and are no longer firing”, but they failed miserably. And God willing everything is confirmed with footage and we will be uploading it over the next hour. And may peace be with you all.

Video here: http://www.libyafeb17.com/2011/03/egypts-military-has-begun-shipping-arms-over-the-border-to-libyan-revolutionaries/

[oberliner]

10. Gaddafi forces shell Misrata hours after ceasefire

Source: Reuters

Rebels said the attack on the city, located 200 km (130 miles) east of Tripoli, started at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT), hours after the U.N. Security Council resolution endorsing a no-fly zone and attacks on Gaddafi's forces to protect civilians.

Shells hit mosques, schools and residential buildings, they said. "It's the heaviest bombardment I have seen so far. We believe they (Gaddafi's forces) want to enter the city at any cost before the international community starts implementing the U.N. resolution," said Saadoun, a rebel fighter.

"On behalf of all the people of Misrata, the women, the children and the elderly, we call on the international community to do something before it's too late. They must act now," he said. "They already failed us before and were late in taking a decision, they should not repeat the same mistake."

Gaddafi's forces have repeatedly attacked Misrata in the past two weeks. Water supplies have been cut off, there are frequent power cuts and communications are very difficult, residents said.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/18/libya-misrata-bombard-idUSLDE72H2A220110318?pageNumber=2

[Drale]

11. You mean Gaddafi isn't trustworthy??

Color me shocked! :wow:

[Kennah]

12. Oopsie, our bad.

[msongs]

13. when we do the same thing it is called drone attacks nt

[dipsydoodle]

14. said Saadoun, a rebel fighter.....

First hand independent news would have more credibility. That statement implies the news was received at a distance.

Libya it has been reported is not an everyday twitter and FB state. I find it odd that only one sector appears to using such things - the "rebels".

[Posteritatis]

15. Almost as if the government tries to control communications.

Imagine!

[oberliner]

16. Abdulbasid Abu Muzairik, a resident in the western coastal town, told Al Jazeera there was shelling

from artillery and tanks.

"The Gaddafi forces are at the outskirts of the city but they continue to shell the centre of the city," he said. "The ceasefire has not taken place; he is still continuing up until now to shell and kill the people in the city."

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/03/2011318124421218583.html

[notesdev]

19. I share your skepticism

this doesn't appear to be very well sourced at all

[JanDutchy]

17. Come on: they need our support; even with waepons I dislike!

But when you use a waepon - not as a stupid selfdefence as industry in USA wants - it is becaus for freedom of all!
'

Only theb it is legitimate! '


So deliver your waepons people of the USA - I don't have it as a lot of people - to uour police.

As an act of brain-self-defence!

"See the day's are coming that .....................

[Posteritatis]

18. ...Wha? (nt)

[joshcryer]

English is not his first language, he's saying he dislikes weapons but they can be liberating...

...in the right hands fighting a tyrant.

[Turborama]

20. Claims of Gaddafi defying ultimatum (Video report from Al Jazeera English)

Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, is facing a stark ultimatum to either stop the attacks on civilians, or face military action.

But even after the ceasefire was announced, people on the ground were telling Al Jazeera of new attacks.

An opposition spokesperson told Al Jazeera English he could hear shelling from tanks as the army tried to enter the city of Misurata.
Witnesses speaking to our Arabic sister channel said the city of Ajdabiya, further east, was also being bombarded.

The Libyan government has denied the claims, as Al Jazeera's Gerald Tan reports. (Mar 19, 2011)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra6rhSSJo9Y

[Lars77]

21. Libya forces fire rockets at Misrata & Zintan: report

Source: Al Arabya

Libya revolutionary sources said Muammar Gaddafi's forces fired rockets at the western towns of Zintan and Misrata on Friday, Al Arabiya reported.

It was unclear whether the rockets were fired after the government declared a ceasefire in its offensive to crush the Libyan revolt after the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution authorizing military action against Gaddafi's forces.

"Gaddafi's forces are bombing the city with artillery shells and tanks. We now have 25 people dead at the hospital, including several little girls," Dr Khaled Abou Selha told Reuters by satellite phone.

"They are even bombing ambulances. I saw one little girl with half of her head blown off," he said, crying.

Read more: http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/03/18/142065.html

---

People need to understand the difference between stopping this, and invasions based on lies like Iraq and Afghanistan. This is like the intervention in Kosovo.

[Igel]

22. Let's hope not.

The problem is whether or not the "revolutionary leaders" are 100% reliable. Look at it this way: We hear that Gaddafi's folk shelled Misrata. We heard that they bombed at least one ambulance. We hear that in fighting civilians are killed.

We don't hear if the fighting was before or after the ceasefire. If after, it's bad. If before, well, there was a revolution on and nobody guarantees every revolution 100% chance of a blood-free success. The "revolutionary leaders" have no interest in clarifying the issue unless it all occurred after the ceasefire was to start. It also matters if the lines of communication are open--there were reports of jamming Libyan military communication. "This is General Gaddafi. I hearby order you (hiss, hiss, crackle crackle)."

We don't hear if the ambulance was targeted or just hit. Artillery bombardments aren't errorless. (Unless the way we think of NATO bombardments. In Afghanistan, we know that they're quite fallible and kill scores. In Libya, we know they're infallible and won't harm a soul, just Libyan soldiers.)

We don't hear if the bombardment was because of activity by the revolutionaries or not. In Ajdabiyah, were the rebels trying to take territory after the ceasefire? They're not going to say. They're the good guys.

In many respects it might be like Kosova. For months the press was full of reports of police stations taken over and policemen killed. Of villages being under essentially martial law and of ethnic minorities being terrorized. Of the government losing control. Then the government decided to go in and everybody assumed, because *they* didn't read about the dead policemen and the like ahead of time that the Kosovars were utterly innocent. Even after the fact, a number of "progressives" found excuses for ethnic cleansing, funneling arms into groups destabilizing neighboring territories, running drugs, etc. It was important to cleanse the news stream to ensure that we were supporting the right side--and the fact that the side we supported wasn't ratting themselves out was taken as evidence that they were good, clean, upright, and virtous. Even the war crimes trials got less notice. (It was the same in Bosnia. There was a minor massacre of Serbs by Bosnian Muslims that was cited as one of the reasons for the lack of mercy at Srebrenica. Nobody noticed the allusion; therefore the allusion wasn't acknowledged. Bad acts by our buddies are forgiveable; bad acts by our enemies are magnified to crimes against humanity.)

[Lars77]

23. Ceasefire? Do you believe that?

A regime that has used AA guns with explosive shells to slay down crowds of people, bombing unarmed civilians with their airforce and artilley, why on earth would you suppose they are telling the truth?

Remember this guy?

[pinboy3niner]

24. There's no question here

This began with the bloody suppression of unarmed, peaceful protesters (who were not attacking police stations).

Even Human Rights Watch, which has been documenting Gaddafi's abuses for decades, THIS TIME called for international intervention--based, primarily, on its investigation and documentationon of the regime's most recent wave of disappearances and killings of civilians on a broad scale.

Here, there is no question that Gaddafi has used, and continues to use, his armed forces to attack civilian population centers. That he didn't target that little girl to blow her head off is beside the point.

[Matilda]

26. What reason do you have for thinking there ever was a ceasefire?

It doesn't appear to have existed except on the paper read from in the UN. From the Al Jazeera accounts, it looks as though Gaddafi's forces were advancing then and kept right on going towards Benghazi.

I can't prove it, but I'd bet my life savings on it, and I'm not a betting person.

Edited to add from Australian Broadcasting Corporation:

"Sustained bombing has rocked the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi as residents say Moamar Gaddafi's forces are attacking the rebel stronghold despite a ceasefire."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/19/3168434.htm


The ceasefire officially exists right now, according to Gaddafi, and yet
the attacks are continuing. I think this is pretty unambiguous.

[Turborama]

25. This is now officially a war crime

Details: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4777913