Reply #3: Gaddafi's army will kill half a million, warn Libyan rebels

[pinboy3niner]

Gaddafi's army will kill half a million, warn Libyan rebels

Rebels flee Ras Lanuf and call on UN to impose no-fly zone as Gaddafi's forces recapture

strategically important towns

Chris McGreal in Benghazi
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 12 March 2011 18.14 GMT


Muammar Gaddafi's army won control of a strategic rebel-held Libyan town and laid siege to

another as the revolutionary administration in Benghazi again appealed for foreign military help

to prevent what it said would be the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people if the insurgents

were to lose.

...


The head of Libya's revolutionary council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, claimed that if Gaddafi's forces

were to reach the country's second-largest city it would result in "the death of half a million"

people.

The Arab League, meeting in Cairo, called on the UN security council to impose a no fly-zone on

Libya as Gaddafi's forces also began to move against Misrata, a city of 300,000 people about

125 miles from Tripoli. Misrata is the only town in the west of the country still under the control

of the insurgents after their defeat in a vicious battle for Zawiya. The rebels said that Misrata

was now surrounded by Gaddafi's forces, which included tanks.

"We are bracing for a massacre," Mohamad Ahmed, a rebel fighter in the city, said. "We know

it will happen and Misrata will be like Zawiya, but we believe in God. We do not have the

capabilities to fight Gaddafi and his forces. They have tanks and heavy weapons and we have

our belief and trust in God.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/12/gaddafi-army-kill-half-million

The rebel fighter quoted, Mohamad Ahmed, added:

"The fighters here and the people of Misrata hold the international community responsible for

the fall of Zawiya and for all the deaths that happened. Gaddafi is responsible, but they are

partners in crime."