Protests agains Gaddafi (Update Libya)

As many as 233 people have been killed in violent protests in Libya to demand the overthrow of Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi. Anti-government protesters rallied in Tripoli s streets against Gaddafi and asked him to step down. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resignation has joined Libyans to press for another Arab leader s removal.  According to a Libyan resident, the Libyan people are like many of the Arabs who live in the region; now, we are able to understand and realise our demands very well. But unfortunately, some of the Arab leaders don t realise that because they are dictators with despotic policies. Gaddafi should leave and his regime should be toppled entirely. By Monday afternoon, a witness saw armed militiamen firing on protesters who were clashing with riot police. As a group of protesters and the police faced off in a neighborhood near Green Square, in the center of the capital, ten or so Toyota pickup trucks carrying more than 20 men — many of them apparently from other African countries in mismatched fatigues — arrived at the scene. Holding small automatic weapons, they started firing in the air, and then started firing at protesters, who scattered, the witness said. “It was an obscene amount of gunfire,” said the witness. “They were strafing these people. People were running in every direction.” The police stood by and watched, the witness said, as the militiamen, still shooting, chased after the protesters. The escalation of the conflict came after Colonel Qaddafi’s security forces had earlier in the day retreated to a few buildings in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, fires burned unchecked, and senior government officials and diplomats announced defections. The country’s second-largest city remained under the control of rebels. Witnesses in Tripoli interviewed by telephone on Monday said protesters had converged on the capital’s central Green Square and clashed with heavily armed riot police for several hours after Mr. Qaddafi’s speech, apparently enraged by it. Young men armed themselves with chains around their knuckles, steel pipes and machetes, as well as police batons, helmets and rifles commandeered from riot squads. Security forces moved in, shooting randomly. By the morning, businesses and schools remained closed in the capital, the witnesses said. There were several government buildings on fire — including the Hall of the People, where the legislature meets — and reports of looting.