Internet down, pro-Gadhafi fighters set up checkpoints in Tripoli ahead of planned protest

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Fighters loyal to Moammar Gadhafi are setting up checkpoints around the capital ahead of planned anti-government protests Friday.

Internet services, which have been spotty throughout Libya's upheaval, appeared to be halted completely in Tripoli and Benghazi, the opposition's stronghold in the east.

Gadhafi opponents have called for protests in Tripoli after noon Friday prayers. Last Friday, protesters were attacked by pro-Gadhafi militiamen.



Read more: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/nationworld/sns-bc-af--libya,0,7641627.story

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Internet down, pro-Gadhafi fighters set up checkpoints in Tripoli ahead of planned protest

[maddezmom]

1. Sky News reporting that journalists are being barred from going out in Tripoli

Gov't has warned if there is bloodshed it will be the fault of the media.

[maddezmom]

2. BBC: Tripoli tense before Friday prayers...reports arrests overnight, mosque closures....

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'Arrests'

There are unconfirmed reports overnight of mosques having been closed, arrests and the internet being shut down.

Protests last week after Friday prayers in several districts of the city were fired on by Gaddafi supporters, witnesses of the shootings have said.

Security forces have reportedly carried out a wave of detentions, killings and disappearances in the city in recent days in order to quell the opposition.

A Libyan warplane bombed the rebel-held coastal town of Ajdabiya on Friday, narrowly missing a munitions dump.

more:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12644435

[maddezmom]

3. NYT: Terror Quiets Libyan Capital as Rebels Battle in the East

Terror Quiets Libyan Capital as Rebels Battle in the EastBy DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: March 3, 2011
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The climate of fear suggests just how effectively the government’s ruthless application of force in Tripoli has locked down the city and suppressed simmering rage, even as the rebels have held control of the eastern half of the country and a string of smaller western cities surrounding the capital.

“I think the people know that if they make any protest now they will be killed, so all the people in Tripoli are waiting for someone to help them,” one resident said. “It is easy to kill anybody here. I have seen it with my own eyes.”

Several people in the two neighborhoods, Feshloom and Tajura, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of Colonel Qaddafi’s secret police, said militias loyal to the colonel were using photos taken at last week’s protest to track down the men involved. “They know that there are people who have energy and who are willing to die, so they pick them up,” another resident said.

Residents of Feshloom showed reporters cellphone photographs taken at Tripoli Central Hospital of a large wound in the chest of a neighbor, Nagi Ali el-Nafishi, 56, and they pointed out a bloodstain on the concrete where he had been shot after leaving a mosque last Friday. A doctor who examined him told reporters that the bullet had exploded his heart and lungs, causing him to die of blood loss within minutes

more:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/world/africa/04libya.html?_r=1&hp