Libyan fighting reaches streets of Tripoli

[grantcart]

Source: Aljazeera

Sustained automatic gunfire and a series of explosions rang out in Tripoli overnight as rebels launched efforts to permanantly free the Libyan capital from Muammar Gaddafi's grasp, according to reports from witnesses and rebels.

Blasts and gunfire rocked the city after sunset on Saturday, and witnesses reported street protests and fighting in the eastern neighbourhoods of Souq al-Jomaa and Tajoura. Beginning at around 9pm local time, residents also took to the streets in the Fashloum, Fournaj, Sabah, Ghoud al-Shayal, Hanshir and Dahra areas, many of them emerging from mosques and chanting "God is great".

Expatriate Libyans speaking to family members in the capital said their relatives described men going out to protest, some with weapons, while children and women were asked to stay home. Meanwhile, NATO aircraft reportedly carried out bombing raids after nightfall.



Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/08/20118202337151705.html

---

Aljazeera Libyan blog has unconfirmed reports that fighting has reached Ghadaffi's compound and that there is evidence of more defections in Ghaddafi's old guard.

[dipsydoodle]

1. That's sporadic only

Sky News live from there , minutes ago , showed the reeeebels being 40 miles away. They are not going to try and take Tripoli until 3 separate groups meet there.

[joshcryer]

2. Sure, but it's different, they never rose up in Tripoli, they're causing Gaddafi...

...to fight on 3 external fronts while battling an internal insurrection. It's causing Gaddafi a big headache. I don't see how he can conceivably push it back now.

[Iterate]

3. Report from the Zawyat Aldihmani district

Tripoli district map: http://feb17.info/images/tripoli-districts-map-english-via-4adam/
Zawyat Aldihmani is north-central, along the coast.

2011feb17 Tweeting Tripoli
I can now safely say that 99% of Tripoli hates Gaddafi's guts. #feb17 #Tripoli #Libya 29 minutes ago

2011feb17 Tweeting Tripoli
I would like to ask Daffy, where are his 8 million supporters he showed us on his TV in Zawyia, Zliten, Sorman and Tripoli? #daydreamer

2011feb17 Tweeting Tripoli
The good news is: there is absolutely no sign of civil war. It is just Tripoli against a couple 100s of well armed thugs. #feb17 #Tripoli

2011feb17 Tweeting Tripoli
By this speed, if Zawiya FF reach Tripoli today, I suspect it's liberation by tomorrow. #feb17 #Tripoli

2011feb17 Tweeting Tripoli
#FF are not yet in my area but the people who used to display support for Gaddafi, removed his pictures and his flag. Nice. #feb17 #Tripoli

2011feb17 Tweeting Tripoli
In my neighborhood of about a 1000 homes, there used to be about 4 houses who raised Daffy's Green flag on their roofs. Today I see none

2011feb17 Tweeting Tripoli
Zawyat Aldihmani is where the old main State-TV HQ is. #feb17 #Libya #Tripoli

2011feb17 Tweeting Tripoli
Independence flags are everywhere in Zawyat Aldihmani. #feb17 #Libya #Tripoli 1 hour ago

[dipsydoodle]

4. Do tweets serve any useful purpose ?

:shrug:

[joshcryer]

5. Libya rebels say they control parts of Tripoli

http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7JK0NU20110821?sp=true">Libya rebels say they control parts of Tripoli
TRIPOLI, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Libyan rebels said they had seized control of pockets of Tripoli after a night of fighting, while allied forces advanced on the capital on Sunday, predicting a final showdown with Muammar Gaddafi.

The Libyan leader dismissed the rebels, fighting since February to topple him, as "rats" and said he would not yield.

In a coordinated revolt that rebels have been secretly planning for months to end Gaddafi's 41-year rule, shooting started on Saturday night across Tripoli moments after Muslim clerics, using the louspeakers on mosque minarets, called people on to the streets.

The fighting inside Tripoli, combined with rebel advances to the outskirts of the city, appeared to signal the decisive phase in a six month conflict that has become the bloodiest of the "Arab Spring" uprisings and embroiled NATO powers.

If they're employing tactics used in Misrata (barricading streets with sand and rubble), or hell, Oaxaca barricading streets serves a very very strong method to prevent invasion in a given territory.

We in the west take roads so much for granted. :rofl:

(If the London rioters employed those tactics it'd been a very different situation.)

[dipsydoodle]

6. I know what they're "saying"

but live coverage shows different.

I wouldn't really compare those wasters in London with anyone else. Now that our police have permission to use rubber bullets and armoured vehicles I wouldn't bank on a repeat exercise here anyway. They've now got permission to use not just street crowd control tactics like they would for a meet up between Arsenal's Gooners and Tottenham's Yid Army for example......Tottenham's firm call themselves the Yid Army : I didn't make that up and in this context its not an offensive expression.

What actually makes the UK different is that our police are not armed. The outfit who shot the guy in Tottenham was a special armed response unit in the course of an ongoing situation. I've never wanted our police in general to be armed but events of late are helping change my mind.

[joshcryer]

11. Yes, no reporter is in these "live pockets of Tripoli."

However, the sources are credible, and as I pointed out, Oaxaca-like tactics will render an entire neighborhood defended from encroaching forces. They'd have to go in on foot, and for people who haven't seen battle that is a tough decision.

AJE is reporting on credible callers, sources which say these areas are at least contested and not in Gaddafi's grasp.

[joshcryer]

17. Here's some "unreliable" twitter reports (from CNN journo in Rixos):

http://twitter.com/#!/mchancecnn/status/105306111900516354">@mchancecnn
Matthew Chance
Govt officials: Eastern suburbs of capital are out government control and in rebel hands #CNN #Libya #tripoli
5 minutes ago

http://twitter.com/#!/mchancecnn/status/105303641904263168">@mchancecnn
Matthew Chance
Govt officials: We are already hearing reports of many casualties from the fighting so far. More later #CNN #Libya #Tripoli
16 minutes ago

http://twitter.com/#!/mchancecnn/status/105303508940619776">@mchancecnn
Matthew Chance
Officials in Tripoli: Warning of a massacre unless fighting stops. #CNN #LibYa #Tripoli
17 minutes ago

http://twitter.com/#!/mchancecnn/status/105303196628549633">@mchancecnn
Matthew Chance
Govt sources: 65000 Gadhafi troops ready to defend Tripoli #CNN #Libya #Tripoli
19 minutes ago

http://twitter.com/#!/mchancecnn/status/105302812799414272">@mchancecnn
Matthew Chance
Govt sources: Suburb of Tajura said to be in rebel hands. Rebels burning tires on barricades #CNN #Libya #Tripoli
22 minutes ago

[EFerrari]

7. #Feb17 timeline is nearly useless.

It's full of socks and presstitutes. So different from the #Jan25 timeline, it usually reads like some kind of tone deaf parody.

[dipsydoodle]

8. off topic

Good morning !

:hi:

[joshcryer]

9. That's what happens when you cut off internet to an entire population.

:shrug:

The vast majority of tweets are from foreigners.

[Iterate]

10. If you know how to read it.

One person, one neighborhood, at one time. It's not authoritative information, like RT or en.pravda, it's networked information, a network that is based on trust. If an individual starts posting unreliable and inaccurate crap, they get dumped from the network (i.e. loose followers and retweets) pretty quickly. If it gets worse they are often publicly discredited.

One tweet is worthless, but if it fits within the information that others report (or even if it logically refutes it), then it can add to the overall picture. It's valuable because it's quicker than authoritative reports and often offers local detail that press reporters might miss.

If you prefer, there is this:

@AJELive
#Libya #AlJazeera's Zeina Khodr reports that rebels are in control of 3 #Tripoli neighbourhoods: Fashloum, Zawiyat Dahmani and Mansoura.

Interview: Al Jazeera reporter from Libyan frontline
Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on 21 Aug 2011

Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr is traveling with Libyan rebels to the west of Tripoli.

She says that Libya's opposition are in control of three Tripoli neighbourhoods: Fashloum, Zawiyat Dahmani, and Mansoura.

Mansoura is close to Bab Al Aziziya, the location of Muammar Gaddafi's compound.

This is a live interview with Zeina from the frontline.
http://youtu.be/6LowbsX-gdM

Note that the lead-in was not followed up in the interview because they got distracted by her new info. They had their two minute format and that was it. Local tweeters or bloggers are not constrained in that fashion.

Personally I prefer a thorough mix of media that might begin with a individual report, but always seems to end with a history book decades later. I assume most readers will not want to wait for the final word.

[dipsydoodle]

15. Broadly speaking

twitters are those who can't even shut up when they're on their own.

I prefer live on the spot coverage from Sky's, BBC's and Al Jazz's on the spot foreign correspondents as it occures.

[existentialist]

12. This is now more than twelve hours old.

Anybody got an update?

[pinboy3niner]

13. Group of rebels from Zawiya got within 1,500 meters of Tripoli's western gate

Under fire, they pulled back to a position 2km away, according to Alex Crawford, Sky News:

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16053951


Also, Al Jazeera reports that rebels control three neighborhoods in Tripoli:

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-aug-21-2011-1407

[pinboy3niner]

14. "Tripoli will fall in next day or two, possibly as early as tomorrow"--Guardian correspondent

Peter Walker posts on The Guardian's live blog:

I've been speaking again with the Guardian's Luke Harding, who has moved from the front line south of Tripoli (see 10.50am) to that just west of the capital, getting close enough to see the city's main power station "shimmering in the distance".


He's now a couple of kilometres away from the coastal front line near the town of Mayah and says there has been heavy fighting around the 27 Bridge, named as it is 27km from Tripoli. Driving there from Zawiya, further west, he saw signs of battles and experienced fire from mortars and snipers. The pro-Gaddafi forces are "clearly in disarray, but they haven't given up".


However, he says, government troops have already retreated more than 12 miles today alone, and the ends seems imminent:

Having been at the front line it's clear to me, I think, the regime in Tripoli – it's a matter of days, or even hours, before it collapses. The rebels are advancing, they're more or less at the gates of Tripoli... My sense is that Tripoli will fall in the next day or two, possibly as early as tomorrow.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/middle-east-live/2011/aug/21/libya-syria-israel-middle-east-unrest#block-24

[bemildred]

16. Large Anti-Gaddafi Protests Erupt in Tripoli

(TRIPOLI, Libya) — Anti-regime protests erupted Sunday in several Tripoli neighborhoods where thousands braved the bullets of snipers perched atop high buildings, residents and opposition fighters said. At the same time, hundreds of rebel forces advanced to within 15 miles west of the capital and were rushing forward in pickup trucks and on foot.

Heavy machine gun fire and explosions rang out across many parts of Tripoli on the second day of attacks by rebels belonging to "sleeping cells" inside the city that has been Muammar Gaddafi's stronghold throughout the 6-month-old civil war. (See pictures of Gaddafi's 40 years in power.)

Mukhtar Lahab, a rebel commander closing in on Tripoli and a former captain in Gaddafi's army, said relatives inside the capital reported mass protests in four neighborhoods known to be sympathetic to the opposition: Fashlum, Souk al-Jouma, Tajoura and Janzour. He said mosques there were rallying residents with chants of "Allahu Akbar" or "God is great," broadcast on loudspeakers.

Snipers on high buildings were firing on protesters in at least one of the four neighborhoods, said Lahab. Residents contacted in the city by telephone also reported snipers firing on civilians.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2089681,00.html

[killbotfactory]

18. Don't let the door hit you on the way out...

[Iterate]

19. Cenrtral Tripoli liberated!

pick your network or media, it's all there. Celebration, fireworks, crowds gathering.