Tunesia, Egyt and now Yemen: a domino effect in the Middle East?

Oh, my.

I don't really like to make too many comparisons. Every country is different and so are the political dynamics behind every conflict.

But as I report events from Tripoli live on Al Jazeera, I can not help recalling the events of April 2003.

I had spent a month in the Palestine Hotel, as Baghdad was bombarded from the air. My thoughts are with my friends and colleagues now being held in Tripoli's Rixos hotel, which has become one of the flashpoints in this latest conflict.

In Iraq in 2003, so many mistakes were made. Thousands of ordinary Iraqis, government officials as well as security and military personnel, were alienated and then excluded from the political process.

This time, there is one very big difference: there is no foreign invading army.

But the NTC of Libya still face a difficult balancing act.

Hardly reassuring words from the man Russia's put in charge of mediating the conflict in Libya.

Mikhail Margelov, the president's special envoy to Africa, said in an interview with the Russian Izvestia newspaper that the regime of Muammar Gaddafi has "a suicidal plan” in place if rebels move to seize Tripoli.

“The Libyan premier told me, 'If the rebels take over the city, we will cover it with missiles and blow it up,'" he said.

Rebels in Libya's western Nafusa Mountains have burned and damaged homes, looted hospitals and shops and beaten suspected regime loyalists during fighting over the past month, according to a report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) released on Wednesday.

The rebel military commander in the Nafusa, Colonel El-Moktar Firnana, admitted to HRW that his forces were responsible for the abuses but said the lootings and beatings had gone against orders and that some rebels had been punished as a result.

But he also sought to explain the attacks, saying they were a consequence of local residents' loyalty to the embattled regime of Muammar Gaddafi.

Al Jazeera has found evidence of a possible mass execution of political activists in Libya.

Visiting a hospital in Tripoli on Thursday, Al Jazeera's James Bays said he saw the bodies of 15 men suspected to have been killed a few days earlier as the rebels closed in on the Libyan capital.

"The smell here is overpowering," Bays said from the hospital where a number of bodies lay.

"I have counted the bodies of 15 men we were told there were 17 here. Two bodies were taken away by relatives for burial."

"We are told these men were political activists who have been arrested over the last few days and weeks and being held near the Gaddafi compound. When the opposition fighters started to enter the compound we are told they were killed.

"Everyone I have spoken to who has looked at these injuries, all the medical staff, they say they believe that the injuries they see on the bodies of these men have the hallmark of a mass execution."

Bays said there were no forensic scientists at the hospital. Doctors there had taken photos of the exit and entry wounds on the bodies, with the intention of showing it to an expert at a later stage.

The grisly discovery came amid rumours that rebels had surrounded a Tripoli building where Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader now on the run, is reportedly hiding along with some of his sons.

But what do I know a grandmother sitting at her computer a thousand miles away....

From inside a makeshift prison across the street from Muammar Gaddafi’s compound, Osama Mansour el-Hadi listened to the beginning of the end.

It was Tuesday, and rebels had begun to overrun the sprawling 6km-square complex, known as the Bab al-Aziziya, where Gaddafi’s palace and the homes of his innermost clique sat in a warren of offices and military bunkers.

Gunfire rang out, Hadi told Al Jazeera, and cries of “God is great!” echoed over the compound’s walls.

For many Libyans, it was a joyous moment; the most symbolic assault yet on the reviled regime that had shackled the country for more than 40 years.

But for Hadi and 25 other civilian men, held by armed Gaddafi loyalists at a rundown apartment building now serving as an warzone detention center, a horrific massacre was about to begin.

As machine gun and artillery fire engulfed at the compound across the street, the captors marched Hadi and the other men into the street at gunpoint. They were lined up with the walls of the Bab al-Aziziya behind them as the sounds of the regime’s downfall split the air.

Then Gaddafi’s gunmen opened fire, spraying a barrage of bullets into their captives’ heads, necks and chests.

Hadi collapsed into a pile of shuddering bodies, his shoulder, hand and right thigh shattered by bullets. Another prisoner escaped, Hadi said, and the murderers fled. As of Thursday, there had been no arrests or any known investigation into the grisly killing.

Hadi tells of detention

The bodies were found a day later and taken to Tripoli’s Mitiga Hospital, a facility once-reserved for Gaddafi’s military brass and high-ranking officials that now lies in rebel-controlled territory.

It was here, in a sparse and filthy hospital room, that Hadi told his story to Al Jazeera on Thursday. He was the only known survivor of the summary execution.

Elsewhere in the hospital, 15 of his fellow prisoners were laid out in the corner of the car park under a metal roof. Covered only partially by blood-stained, plastic sheets, some of the victims’ ghastly wounds were exposed. The smell was gagging.

Some men had been identified. One man, Abdelsalem, came from the town of Taghma. Others were simply marked "non-Muslim" for burial purposes.

In the hospital room, Hadi’s forehead creased with pain as he spoke. Someone had draped the tri-colour rebel flag behind his head and over his shoulders. His father, in a pristine-white jalabeya and skullcap, stood watching at his bedside.

Hadi originally comes from Badr, in the western Nafousa Mountains. Rebels there led the advance on Tripoli, but Hadi’s town was sympathetic to Gaddafi. He and his father were not. During the final push on the capital, the two left for the capital.

Hadi was arrested on August 15, five days before the uprising began in the city. He said he had been staying at a house in the Janzour district when 15 armed men came, blindfolded him and took him away. He said he was innocent and claimed to not have been part of the opposition.

Others he met in the makeshift prison had been there longer, for more than two weeks. Most, he said, claimed they were civilians, picked up off the street while walking or riding bicycles.

The guards gave their captives little food to eat, cursed at them, and doused them with urine, Hadi said.

Talk of more mass killings

Outside Hadi’s room, the packed intensive care unit testified to the ongoing clashes in Tripoli. Nearly 30 young men lay injured, awaiting treatment.

Youssef Hodiry, an orthopedic surgeon from the United Kingdom and had recently arrived from Misrata, said the hospital had few medical staff, most had run away or were too afraid to come to work.

By Thursday, Mitiga Hospital was running low on tetanus shots and immunoglobin syrums, doctors said. Representatives from the International Medical Corps had arrived to assess the situation. They photographed the bodies of the dead prisoners as well.

According to Mohammed Rashed, a general surgeon from the United Kingdom who had arrived in Tripoli from Misrata just days ago, the hospital had no forensic surgeons to examine the murdered men.

Nobody had conducted any autopsies, he said, adding that two of the bodies had already been taken away by relatives for a funeral.

Tripoli is these days flooded with rumours of other massacres. Locals speak of prison executions and rebel corpses found in shipping containers.

As the truth comes out, the dead men who were laid in a car park at Mitiga Hospital are hard evidence that the fall of Tripoli had not been free of war’s atrocities.

But the bodies of pro-Gaddafi troops, who appeared to have been bound with plastic handcuffs before being shot, have also been discovered in Tripoli.
One eyewitness described seeing the bodies of at least 30 loyalist troops riddled with bullets, lying in a pile close to where there had previously been intense fighting.

According to reports the some of the dead men were wearing military uniforms, while others were dressed in civilian clothing.

Some of the dead did not appear to be native Libyans, prompting suggestions that they could have been African mercenaries, hired by Gaddafi following the uprising in February.

Spendi, have you got a Muslim dating site banner at the bottom of your screen as well?

I hadn't noticed it though until you mentioned it.

And yet, as i understand the internet ad game, they still get some revenue from you, Spendi.

Egypt's government offers to resign as protests grow
Jack Shenker in Cairo
The Guardian, Tuesday 22 November 2011/Guardian

Generals have opened crisis talks with civilian political leaders after widespread violence continued to plunge Egypt into turmoil


Egypt's cabinet tendered its resignation as clashes raged in Tahrir Square between police and protesters demanding democratic change in the country. Photograph: Mahmud Khaled/AFP

Egypt's ruling generals have opened crisis talks with civilian political leaders after the entire government tendered its resignation and widespread street violence continued to plunge the country into turmoil.

At least 33 people have been killed and more than 2,000 injured following a third day of clashes in Cairo and beyond, with confirmation emerging for the first time that security forces have been firing live ammunition at demonstrators.

With under a week to go until nationwide parliamentary elections are due to begin, beleaguered interim prime minister Essam Sharaf announced he and his cabinet were willing to step down in a bid to quell the growing unrest. But the offer – which at midnight on Monday had yet to be accepted by the military junta – appeared unlikely to appease demonstrators who continued to flock to city centres across the country demanding that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) cede power and hand Egypt over to civilian rule.

In a late-night statement to the nation, the army generals appealed for calm and expressed 'deep regret' for the deaths of protesters. But as fierce fighting between revolutionaries and armed police showed no sign of letting up and video footage of police and army brutality against unarmed demonstrators continued to circulate, their calls for self-restraint seemed destined to fall on deaf ears.

"The Scaf only have two choices – they obey the will of the people, or Egypt burns," said Ramy el-Swissy, a leading member of the April 6th youth movement which is one of several organisations that has announced plans for a 'million-man' occupation of Tahrir today.

A broad coalition of revolutionary movements from across the political spectrum, including leftist, liberal and Islamist organisations, also threw their full weight behind the protests. "We confirm our readiness to face all the forces that aim to abort the revolution, reproduce the old regime, or drag the country into chaos and turn the revolution into a military coup," said a joint statement by 37 groups.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest organised political movement, added its voice to the chorus of discontent, accusing Scaf of contradicting 'all human, religious and patriotic values' with their callousness and warning that the revolution that overthrew former president Hosni Mubarak earlier this year was able to rise again.

"What happened is a heinous crime, expressing a dark deep desire, an attempt to lure faithful patriotic citizens in order to crush them and spread chaos everywhere," said the Brotherhood in a statement. "All this proves that there are certain parties who have no problem burning Egypt, our homeland, and killing young people in order to herd the entire public into blind obedience, into tyranny and corruption and slavery yet again."

The organisation also announced it was temporarily suspending all electoral activities, but unlike many liberal and leftist parties it has yet to cancel its campaign.

Earlier in the day a last-ditch effort by the junta to stem the violence by offering concessions to their critics – including the passing of a long-awaited "treachery law" that would bar former members of Hosni Mubarak's now-disbanded ruling party from running in the upcoming elections, which are now less than a week away – appeared only to galvanise resistance, as did the later announcement of Sharaf's proposed resignation.

"The Egyptians have accepted being beaten, arrested and lied to by their political leaders for sixty years, but after everything we went through, we are not going to accept it anymore." said Gamila Ismail, a parliamentary candidate who has now suspended her campaign and joined the protests in central Cairo.

"The message being sent to Scaf by Egypt's youth is: 'shoot me in the eye, burn away my flesh, and then I will go and fix myself up at the field hospital and come straight back to the struggle'," she added. "They used to dream of cars, houses and leaving the country; now they dream of standing in Tahrir. The age of authoritarianism is over, no one can tell the Egyptians what to do anymore." ...<cont>

23 min 48 sec ago - Egypt

Egyptian protesters say they have been brutally assaulted by security forces over the past few days.

Al Jazeera visited a morgue in Alexandria and spoke with people who say they have family members who were killed in the crackdown over the past few days.

At least 33 people are dead and hundreds more injured since recent demonstrations in multiple cities.

Al Jazeera's Jane Arraf reports from the Egyptian capital Cairo.

There is probably a more up-to-date A2K thread covering the recent clashes in Egypt between the military & the protesting civilians over the past three days, but I can't locate it.

You mean this thread, or the most recent events in Cairo & other Egyptian cities?