Libya: Regime Loses Control Of More Cities
By MISNA
From the Egyptian border west to Misrata, stopping by Tobruk and Benghazi, the protest front has managed to overcome the forces loyal to Mu’ammar Gheddafi and is now said to be controlling a wide range of territory.
Several sources report this despite the fact that there is uncertainty over the number of casualties, or the actual extent of the regime’s resistance and the internal organization within the protest front.
Misrata is the last city to have fallen to the insurgents, while the news that many army soldiers have defected to the rebellion in Tobruk has been confirmed.
The images and news spread by those who still manage to use internet inside the country are reaching the outside world through ‘social networks’ that, as already happened in other Arab countries hit by the revolts have become the primary communication and information tool.
Some videos suggest the Tripoli beach as having become a mass grave site for the victims of the clashes and the government’s repression.
Other video footage posted on ‘You Tube’, show demonstrators destroying the symbols of power, singing slogans very similar to those heard in Tunis and Cairo.
The state of chaos, fueled also by the regime’s use of mercenaries, is forcing thousands of people to flee.
While Westerners and Turks (the latter running many companies) are leaving Libya aboard aircraft, Egyptians, Algerians and Tunisians are fueling a continuous flow in the direction of the land borders.
Current estimates suggest that at least 5,700 Tunisians have so far crossed the border at Ras Jedir; at least 20,000 Egyptians have reached the border on the opposite side.
It is difficult if not impossible to provide a certain and verifiable toll of the casualties, though there are rumors, accredited by diplomatic sources, that at least a thousand people have been killed.
