Reply #54: On Ship of Evacuees From Libya, Harrowing Tales [View All]

[pinboy3niner]

Source: New York Times

By C.J. CHIVERS

Published: April 18, 2011


ABOARD THE IONIAN SPIRIT —

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“Thank God for this ship,” said Mohamed Youssif, whose right leg was amputated on Sunday after he was struck by shrapnel while riding in a pickup truck near Tripoli Street, one of Misurata’s fronts.


In other cabins were more victims — a nine-year-old boy struck with shrapnel in the teeth, and an anti-Qaddafi sniper shot through his mouth, a bald and bearded man peppered with shrapnel holes.


One deck also held several evacuees of Philippines nationality, some of whom said that more than a dozen of their friends and colleagues in Misurata had been missing since mid-March, when the pro-Qaddafi forces had attacked Tripoli Street and occupied the neighborhood near their apartment building.


“They were at their homes, and the Qaddafi military came and we haven’t seen them since,” said Lilian Rosales, 53, a nurse from Mindanao. “We could not go home to look for them because of the snipers.”

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/world/africa/19evacuees.html