Parts of Tripoli defy Qadhafi

TRIPOLI, Feb 26: Poor neighbourhoods of the Libyan capital openly defied Muammar Qadhafi on Saturday as his grip on power after 41 years of rule looked increasingly tenuous in the face of nationwide revolt. Security forces had abandoned the working-class Tajoura district after five days of anti-government demonstrations, residents told foreign correspondents who visited the area. The residents, unwilling to be identified for fear of reprisals, said troops fired on demonstrators who tried to march from Tajoura to central Green Square overnight, killing at least five people. The number could not be independently confirmed. A funeral on Saturday morning for one of the victims turned into another show of defiance. "We will demonstrate again and again, today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow until they change," a man who called himself Ali, aged 25, said. The scene contradicted what Qadhafi`s son Saif Al-Islam said. "If you hear fireworks don`t mistake it for shooting," the younger Qadhafi, 38, had said earlier on Saturday. He had maintained that the rebels were few and isolated. Much of the east of the oil-producing country, including the second city Benghazi, is in opposition hands. Diplomats say some 2,000 or more people have been killed across the country. From Misrata, a major city 200km east of Tripoli, residents and exile groups said by telephone that a thrust by forces loyal to Qadhafi, operating from the local airport, had been rebuffed by the opposition. "There were violent clashes last night and in the early hours of the morning near the airport," one resident, Mohammed, said. "An extreme state of alert prevails in the city." He said several mercenaries from Chad had been detained by rebels in Misrata. The report could not be verified but was similar to accounts elsewhere of Qadhafi deploying fighters brought in from African states. The pace of Libya`s revolt has still come as a surprise to the West. It once treated Qadhafi as a pariah due to his support for militant groups around the world and incidents such as the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing. But Western powers later sought a rapprochement in quest of Libyan oil deals and other business. Libya supplies two per cent of the world`s oil, the bulk of it from wells and supply terminals in the east. The opposition says it controls nearly all oilfields east of Ras Lanuf. Industry sources said that crude oil shipments from Libya, the world`s 12th-largest exporter, had all but stopped because of reduced production, a lack of staff at ports and security concerns. Qadhafi`s closest European ally, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, said in Rome on Saturday that the Libyan leader no longer appeared to be in control of his country.—Reuters