On Tuesday 22nd February 2011, destruction of the runways at Benghazi airport was completed by Libyan government warplanes. The bodies of dead demonstrators were being left uncollected on the streets of Tripoli. Hospitals were ordered by the Government to treat all Libyan military casualties first, before attending to the civilian wounded. In an angry, shouted speech, Muammar Gaddafi ranted for seventy five minutes on Libyan state television, saying that he would fight to the death as a martyr to cleanse Libya house by house. "I am a fighter, a revolutionary from tents .... I am not a president to step down." The Libyan government finally lost control of the eastern part of the country (the Egyptian side), including most of the major oil installations. Convoys of medical supplies began to reach Benghazi by road via Salloum and Bardiyah.
By Wednesday 23rd February 2011, the Gaddafi dictatorship had been restricted to a few strongholds in and around Tripoli. Many of the private army of one hundred thousand foreign mercenaries, from places like Chad and Nigeria, engaged by Gaddafi security aide, Abdullah Senussi, were roaming the streets in gangs, shooting at random anyone who dared to venture outside. Later in the day, the mercenaries were ordered to start cleaning the streets in preparation for a staged media photo opportunity. A Libyan naval frigate left Libyan waters and sailed into the Maltese port of Valletta. The crew applied for political asylum.
Ad hoc anti-Gaddafi "popular committees" were set up in Benghazi, Tobruk, Shahat, Masrat, Misrata, Cyrenaica, Derna, Al-Bayda, Al-Kufra and other eastern cities. And to the west of Tripoli, Gaddafi forces were forced out of Zuara. In all these areas defecting soldiers and local militias were in complete control of security. Gaddafi sent a Libyan airforce Sukhoi Su-22 fighter-bomber to bomb Benghazi. The two pilots, Captain Attia Abdel Salem and Ali Omar Gaddah, ejected from the plane near the town of Ajdabia. The plane crash-landed in scrubland to the south.
Sayf al-Islam Gaddafi was said by a brother to be writing a new constitution for Libya which would retain his father, Muammar Gaddafi, in a semi-official position as "the big father". In the north west of the country, hundreds of Libyan refugees began to cross the border into Tunisia. Ahmed Gadhaf al-Dam, one of Gaddafi's top security officials and a cousin, defected to the opposition and travelled to Syria from Cairo on a private plane. A statement issued at his office said al-Dam had left the country in protest and to show disagreement with the Gaddafi clan's "grave violations to human rights and human and international laws".
On the morning of Thursday 24th February 2011, heavy gunfire was again heard in central Tripoli. Military warplanes were actively bombing groups of protestors. Thirty miles to the west of the capital there was a major battle for control of the oil terminal town of Al-Zawiyah. Libyan government forces began shooting protestors with heavy artillery at 6.00am and continued for five hours. They were trying to kill people, not warn them, aiming at the protestors' heads and chests. Upwards of one hundred demonstrators were killed. A Libyan army unit led by Gaddafi ally, Naji Shifsha, blasted the minaret off a mosque occupied by protestors. Libyan government forces attacked ambulances and killed their occupants and drivers. Street-by-street, hand-to-hand fighting with guns and swords was reported.
Speaking by telephone from an unknown location, thought to be close to Al-Zawiyah, Muammar Gaddafi told Libyan state television that Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda were responsible for the Libyan intifada. He said that the protestors were fueled by milk and Nescafé spiked with hallucinogenic drugs. The Swiss government froze all identifiable assets belonging to Gaddafi and his family. These were estimated to amount to $600 million. In London, £20 billion of Libya's liquid assets were frozen. Libyan government units used chemical weapons against demonstrators at Misrata airport. A group of Gaddafi operatives broke into the Qatar embassy in Tripoli. Gaddafi clan mercenaries were busy loading the bodies of protestors killed in Tripoli onto cargo planes. The corpses were flown to a desert airstrip near the town of Sirte, where they were dumped. Rumours began to spread in the US that Muammar Gaddafi had been shot dead by a Libyan soldier. This story caused downward oil price movements on several bourses.
On Friday 25th February 2011, news emerged that Libya’s chief prosecutor and head of judicial inspection had resigned. The BBC interviewed one of Muammar Gaddafi's most powerful associates in a house on the edge of Benghazi. Libyan Interior Minister General Abdel Fattah Younes al-Abidi was sent to Benghazi by Gaddafi to suppress the uprising. He changed sides and joined the opposition. Gaddafi ordered him assassinated. It was a near miss. One of his body guards was killed. Report here (25.02.11).
On Saturday 26th February 2011, Senior Fruitcake and Junior Fruitcake again spoke on Libyan state television. They spouted a series of familiar, head-in-a-bubble fantasies. Flanked by bodyguards on top of the ramparts of an old Crusader fort overlooking Green Square, Tripoli, Muammar Gaddafi said: "Dance, sing and prepare. Prepare to defend Libya, to defend the oil, dignity and independence. At the suitable time we will open the arms depot so all Libyans and tribes become armed, so that Libya becomes red with fire." Sayf al-Islam Gaddafi described what is happening in Libya as an "armed insurrection" which will end. Misrata would return to Libyan state control. It is a city of 550,000 people, which "won't cave in to 40 or 50 armed people". The Gaddafis sounded like a pair of wind-up clowns unaware that their circus had left town.
The Libyan state police were forced out of working-class areas of Tripoli, such as Tajoura, by new, coordinated protests. "Gaddafi is the enemy of God!" the protestors chanted. British Foreign Office officials contacted senior Gaddafi aides, one by one, and explained that if they quickly changed sides and publicly joined the Libyan opposition protests, they would not be brought to account for war crimes and genocide at the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
The United Nations Security Council imposed an international travel ban on the following Gaddafi régime principals: Liaison office head Dr Abdulqader Mohammed al-Baghdadi, Gaddafi's bodyguard chief Abdulqader Yusef Dibri, external intelligence agency boss Abu Zayd Umar Dorda, defence minister Major General Abu Bakr Yunis Jabir, Utilities secretary Matuq Mohammed Matuq, alleged hit squad chief Sayyid Mohammed Qadhaf Al-dam, military intelligence director Colonel Abdullah al-Senussi, the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, Gaddafi's daughter Aisha, sons Hannibal Muammar, Khamis Muammar, Mohammed Muammar, Mutassim, Saadi, Saif al-Arab and Saif al-Islam.
By Sunday 27th February 2011, anti-Gaddafi liberation forces were in complete control of the western city of Zawiyah, despite the fact that Gaddafi operatives had been shooting at crowds of demonstrators with rocket-propelled grenades. The tricolor flag of the former Libyan monarchy - now a symbol of revolution - flew from one of the bullet-riddled buildings in Zawiyah. Hundreds of people chanted "Gaddafi out" and "Free, Free Libya." Many streets were blocked by palm tree trunks or metal barricades. An effigy of the Libyan leader hung from a light pole in the main square with "Execute Gaddafi" emblazoned across its chest.
In the centre of Tripoli, banks were open but bread and petrol remained tightly rationed as the anti-Gaddafi opposition's grip on large swathes of the nation disrupted the distribution of basic goods. All over the country, Libyan army personnel were reported to be changing sides and joining the anti-Gaddafi liberation forces.
At a press conference, the newly formed National Libyan Council in Benghazi said its aim was to be a "political face" for the revolution. "We will help liberate other Libyan cities, in particular Tripoli, through our national army, our armed forces, of which part have announced their support for the people." The Network of Free Ulema, claiming to represent some of Libya's most senior and most respected Muslim scholars, issued a statement urging "total rebellion" against Gaddafi and endorsing the formation of a new interim government for the country.
The UK revoked Muammar Gaddafi's diplomatic immunity. The move was an unprecedented step by Britain against a serving head of state. Signs emerged that the US was beginning to interfere in the internal politics of the Libyan revolution. American Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said: "We are reaching out to many different Libyans in the east, and as the revolution moves westwards, there as well. It is too soon to see how this is going to play out." A spokesman for the new National Libyan Council said his group did not want any foreign intervention.
Developing situation updates and commentary here (28.02.11), here (27.02.11), here (27.02.11), here (27.02.11), here (27.02.11), here (27.02.11), here (26.02.11), here (26.02.11), here (26.02.11), here (26.02.11), here (26.02.11), here (25.02.11), here (25.02.11), here (25.02.11), here (25.02.11), here (24.02.11), here (24.02.11), here (24.02.11), here (23.02.11), here (23.02.11), here (23.02.11), here (23.02.11), here (23.02.11), here (22.02.11), here (22.02.11), here (21.02.11), here (21.02.11), here (21.02.11), here (21.02.11), here (21.02.11), here (11.02.11) and here (continually refreshed).