Security forces in Libya cordoned off the Fashloom suburb of Tripoli and were shooting anyone who moves on the streets — including those who are trying to retrieve bodies, said Mohamed Abdallah, spokesman for the National Front for the Salvation of Libya opposition group. Abdallah attributed the information to four eyewitnesses on the ground.
“We heard a lot of gun shots, explosions, demonstrations and the sound of sirens,” said the witness, who is not being identified for security reasons. The witness added that firefighters have not been able to extinguish a fire at the People’s Hall government building and that a massive protest was expected for Tuesday night.
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And a man in the Gargaresh suburb of western Tripoli said there was a shortage of food in the area. He said a number of gas stations closed Tuesday morning because they ran out of fuel. The man said Tripoli residents believe the fuel outage was another tactic by the regime to limit people’s ability to move around.
The Gargaresh man said several sport-utility vechiles were driving around his neighborhood Monday night ordering people inside their homes and warning of mercenaries attacking people. But he said the vehicles were not from the neighborhood, and residents believe the event might have stemmed from Moammar Gadhafi’s regime trying to create fear in order to keep people in their homes.
Meanwhile, a senior source close to the Libyan government said ammunition depots had been attacked and that millions of pieces of ammunition and guns were “everywhere.” The source said the country was fighting “Islamic extremists.”
The unrest in Libya entered an eighth day on Tuesday, fueled by protesters demanding freedom and decrying high unemployment under Gadhafi’s nearly 42-year-old regime.
Citing hospital sources, Human Rights Watch said at least 233 people have been killed during the unrest. CNN has been in communication with medics and witnesses in Libya, whose accounts appear to corroborate the Human Rights Watch report. But Ibrahim Dabbashi, Libya’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, has said the toll could be as high as 800.
Gadhafi, 68, made a brief television appearance early Tuesday to announce that he was in Libya, denying reports that he had fled the country in the face of a spreading revolt.
Speaking to a state television reporter in front of his Tripoli home, Gadhafi said he wanted to show people “that I am in Tripoli, not in Venezuela. Don’t believe those dogs in the media.”
But as Gadhafi asserts his power, he continues to gain the ire of Libyans worldwide.
About 250 protesters stormed into the Libyan Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Tuesday, chanting and calling for Gadhafi to step down, a counselor at the embassy told CNN. Osama Ahmed said the majority of the protesters were Libyan students studying in Malaysia. The protests were relatively peaceful, and embassy security let the protesters stay for two hours.
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Protests and Demonstrations
Al Musrati isn’t the only Libyan official who turned against Gadhafi’s regime and declared solidarity with Libyan protesters.
“Whenever people are getting to the streets, whenever they are demonstrating peacefully, the army and militias are shooting at them,” Dabbashi told CNN on Monday. But Gadhafi “cannot survive” this uprising, Dabbashi said.
Gadhafi’s 40-second appearance on state TV came after his government unleashed warplanes and helicopter gunships Monday in an attempt to bottle up the revolt that captured Benghazi, the country’s second-largest city, over the weekend. Witnesses said the aircraft were attacking anti-government demonstrators around Tripoli, the capital.
Libya’s government denied it was turning its air force against civilians. Gadhafi’s second-oldest son, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, told the state news agency Al-Jamahirya the warplanes were targeting weapons depots in remote areas.
But one witness, who agreed to be identified only as “Adam,” said helicopters landed troops “armed to the teeth” in Tripoli’s Green Square on Monday.
“They have been using aerial tactics, along with men on the ground, to disperse and shoot indiscriminately into crowds,” he said. The force included both government troops and mercenaries working for Gadhafi, he said. But residents responded by barricading themselves in their homes and setting up makeshift checkpoints to keep cars full of gunmen out of their neighborhoods.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Libya on Monday to immediately stop the “unacceptable” attacks on anti-government demonstrators.
“Like you and many others around the world, I have seen very disturbing and shocking scenes, where Libyan authorities have been firing at demonstrators from warplanes and helicopters,” Ban said from Los Angeles. “This is unacceptable. This must stop immediately. This is a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”
Earlier in the day, Ban “had an extensive discussion” with the Libyan leader Monday, the United Nations said, and “reiterated his call for respect for basic freedoms and human rights, including peaceful assembly and information.”
CNN could not immediately confirm reports for most areas beyond Benghazi. The Libyan government maintains tight control on communications and has not responded to repeated requests for access to the country, though CNN has interviewed numerous witnesses by phone.
Libyan state television reported that government security forces were demanding citizens’ cooperation. It showed a crowd in Green Square chanting pro-government slogans and holding a sign supporting the regime.
Two Libyan pilots defected to Malta after being asked to bomb Libyan citizens, a Maltese government source said. The defecting pilots’ French-built Mirage F1 jets were armed with rockets and loaded machine guns when they landed in Malta, according to the source.
Video posted on YouTube showed what CNN was told were the charred remains of six Libyan troops in open body bags. Opposition sources in Libya say the dead were soldiers who refused to shoot at anti-government demonstrators.
The minute-long video was captured on a mobile phone camera and posted on Monday, but it was not clear when it was taken. It depicts a crowd gathered around the bodies, which were burned beyond recognition, and the opposition sources said many more bodies were found in an adjacent military barracks.
Libya is the latest Arab nation to fall into turmoil since January’s ouster of Tunisian strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Similar protests toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on February 12 and have spread across the region, from Morocco to Bahrain.
In Tripoli, a woman, who asked not to be identified, reported seeing violence in the streets.
The Arab League will hold an urgent summit Tuesday to discuss Libya, Egypt’s official news agency MENA reported Monday, and Arab League Secretary-General Amre Moussa called for an end to the violence. He criticized the younger Gadhafi’s assertion that Tunisians and Egyptians were to blame for Libya’s revolt, saying demands for reform, development and change were the “legitimate rights” of the Arab people.