How long before the dominoes fall?

Robert Fisk / The Independent

August 25, 2011

The remaining Arab potentates and tyrants have spent a second sleepless night. How soon will the liberators of Tripoli metamorphose into the liberators of Damascus and Aleppo and Homs? Or of Amman? Or Jerusalem? Or of Bahrain or Riyadh? It's not the same, of course.

The Arab Spring-Summer-Autumn has proved not just that the old colonial frontiers remain inviolate – an awful tribute to imperialism, I suppose – but that every revolution has its own characteristics. If all Arab uprisings have their clutch of martyrs, some rebellions are more violent than others.

As Saif al-Islam Gaddafi said at the start of his own eventual downfall, "Libya is not Tunisia, it's not Egypt...It will become civil war. There will be bloodshed on the streets." And there was.

And so we gaze into the crystal ball. Libya will be a Middle East superpower – unless we impose an economic occupation as the price of Nato's "liberating" bombardment – and a less African, more Arab country now that Gaddafi's obsession with central and southern Africa has disappeared. It may infect Algeria and Morocco with its freedoms. The Gulf states will be happy – up to a point – since most regarded Gaddafi as mentally unstable as well as mischievous.

Already, the West is offering lessons in democracy to New Libya, indulgently telling its unelected leadership how to avoid the chaos which we ourselves inflicted on the Iraqis when we "liberated" them eight years ago. Who will get the backhanders in the new regime – democratic or not – once it is in place?

But unseating tyrannical Arab rulers is a dangerous game when unelected Arab rulers join in. Who now remembers the forgotten 1977 war in which Anwar Sadat sent his bombers to pulverise Gaddafi's airbases – the very same airbases Nato has been attacking these past months – after Israel warned the Egyptian president that Gaddafi was planning his assassination? But Gaddafi's dictatorship outlived Sadat by 30 years.

Yet like all the others, Libya suffered from the cancer of the Arab world: financial – and moral – corruption. Will the future be any different? We have spent far too much time honouring the courage of Libyan "freedom fighters" as they scurried across the desert floor, far too little time examining the nature of the beast, the glutinous Transitional National Council whose supposed leader, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, has still been unable to explain if his own chums connived in the murder of their own army commander last month.

Already, the West is offering lessons in democracy to New Libya, indulgently telling its unelected leadership how to avoid the chaos which we ourselves inflicted on the Iraqis when we "liberated" them eight years ago. Who will get the backhanders in the new regime – democratic or not – once it is in place?

And just as all new regimes contain dark figures from the past – Adenauer's Germany as much as Maliki's Iraq – so Libya will have to accomodate Gaddafi's tribes. The scenes in Green Square yesterday were painfully similar to the crazed adoration on display at the same location for Gaddafi just a few weeks ago. Recall, then, the day De Gaulle was asked by an aide how the crowds greeting him after the 1944 liberation of France were as large as the crowds applauding Pétain a few weeks earlier. "Ils sont les mêmes," De Gaulle is said to have replied. "They are the same."

Not all. How soon will the world be knocking on the door of the supposedly dying Abdulbaset al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber – if indeed he was guilty of the crime – to discover the secret of his longevity and of his activities within Gaddafi's secret service? How soon will the liberators of Tripoli get their hands on the files of Gaddafi's oil and foreign ministries to find out the secrets of the Blair-Sarkozy-Berlusconi love affairs with the author of the Green Book? Or will British and French spooks beat them to it?

And how soon, we must ask, before the people of Europe demand to know why, if Nato has been so successful in Libya – as Cameron and his mates now claim – it cannot be used against Assad's legions in Syria, using Cyprus as a territorial aircraft-carrier, devastating the regime's 8,000 tanks and armoured vehicles as they besiege the country's cities. Or must we heed the neighbours; Israel still secretly hopes (as it shamefully did in the case of Egypt) that the dictator will survive to be a friend and make an ultimate peace over Golan.

Israel, which has been so skewed and immature in its response to the Arab awakening – why on earth did its leaders not welcome the Egyptian revolution, opening their arms to a people who showed they wanted the democracy which Israel always boasts of, instead of shooting dead five Egyptian soldiers in the latest Gaza shoot-out? – has much to ponder.

Ben Ali gone, Mubarak gone, Saleh more or less gone, Gaddafi overthrown, Assad in danger, Abdullah of Jordan still facing opposition, Bahrain's minority Sunni monarchy still suicidally hoping to rule for eternity. These are massive historical events to which the Israelis have responded with a kind of appalled, hostile apathy. At the very moment when Israel might be able to claim that its Arab neighbours are only seeking the freedoms that Israelis already possess – that there is a brotherhood of democracy that might go beyond frontiers – it sulks and builds more colonies on Arab land and continues to delegitimise itself while accusing the world of trying to destroy it.

But the Ottoman empire cannot be forgotten at so critical an hour. At the height of its power, you could travel from Morocco to Constantinople without papers. With freedom in Syria and Jordan, we could travel from Algeria to Turkey and onwards into Europe without so much as a visa. The Ottoman Empire reborn! Except for the Arabs, of course. Be sure they will still need visas.

We are not there yet. How soon will the Shiites of Bahrain and the listless Saudi masses, sitting atop so much wealth, ask why they cannot control their own countries and press on to overthrow their effete rulers? How gloomily Maher al-Assad, brother of Bashar and commander of Syria's infamous 4th Brigade, must have listened to al-Jazeera's last phone call to Mohammed Gaddafi. "We lacked wisdom and foresight," Mohammed complained to the world before gunfire broke across his voice. "They are in the house!". Then: "God is great." And the line went dead.

Every unelected Arab leader – or any Muslim leader "elected" through fraud – will have pondered that voice. Wisdom is certainly a quality much lacking in the Middle East, foresight a skill which the Arabs and the West have both neglected. East and West – if they can be divided so crudely – have both lost the ability to think of the future.

The next 24 hours is all that matters. Will there be protests in Hama tomorrow? What is Obama to say on prime time? What is Cameron to say to the world? Domino theories are a fraud. The Arab Spring is going to last for years. We better think about that. There is no "end of history".

http://en.harakahdaily.net/index.php/articles/analysis-a-opinion/3400-how-long-before-the-dominoes-fall.html

Activist: Syrian troops snatch, beat up cartoonist

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY - Associated Press | AP – 58 mins ago

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian security forces attacked a renowned anti-regime cartoonist early Thursday in Damascus and left him bleeding along the side of a road, human rights activists said.

Ali Farzat, who is in his 60s, was hospitalized after passers-by found him "heavily beaten and physically abused," said Omar Idilbi, a spokesman for the Local Coordination Committees, an activist group that helps organize and track the 5-month-old uprising in Syria.

Farzat has said he had great hopes for President Bashar Assad when he became president in 2000, but in recent years he has become a vehement critic of the regime, particularly as the military launches a brutal crackdown on the country's protest movement.

Human rights groups said Assad's forces have killed more than 2,000 people since the uprising against his autocratic rule erupted in mid-March, touched off by the wave of revolutions sweeping the Arab world.

Assad has shrugged off international condemnation and calls for him to step down, insisting that armed gang and thugs are driving the violence, not true reform-seekers.

The crackdown has led to broad international condemnation and sanctions, although French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday ruled out intervening in Syria without international backing.

"As for Syria, the conditions for a military intervention are not in place ... France will not intervene without an international resolution. That's the basis," Sarkozy said during a news conference in Paris with Mahmoud Jibril, the head of Libya's opposition government.

"That doesn't mean that we can let the Syrian people get massacred by a regime that disqualifies itself from one day to the next," he said.

Also Wednesday, the European Union imposed sanctions against an elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, saying the Quds Force is providing equipment and other support to help Assad crush the revolt.

The sanctions broadened the international pressure against Syria by directly targeting its key ally Iran, which the U.S. and other nations have accused of aiding the crackdown.

The EU's official journal, which published the statement, said the Quds Force "has provided technical assistance, equipment and support to the Syrian security services to repress civilian protest movements."

Other new targets of the sanctions include several Syrian generals and close associates of Assad's younger brother, Maher, who is believed to be in command of much of the crackdown. Hassan Turkmani, a former defense minister and special envoy for Bashar Assad, also was named.

The EU blacklist on Syria now contains 50 people and nine entities who face asset freezes and travel bans as punishment for one of the deadliest government crackdowns of the Arab Spring. Syria already is under broad sanctions from the U.S. and European countries, but calls for stricter measures have been on the rise.

Despite the harsh words, the Syrian crackdown continued.

Tanks stormed the eastern city of Deir el-Zour and made sweeping arrests there Wednesday, according to Syrian activists. Deir el-Zour is an oil-rich but impoverished region known for its well-armed clans and tribes whose ties extend across eastern Syria and into Iraq.

On Tuesday, European nations and the U.S. circulated a draft U.N. Security Council resolution seeking an arms embargo and other sanctions.

Syria has banned foreign media and restricted local coverage, making it impossible to independently confirm events on the ground. While widespread witness accounts and amateur video footage describe a brutal crackdown by security forces, Syria's state-run news agency says security forces are the real victims of gunmen and extremists.

Assad has exploited fears of chaos in Syria, with the regime portraying him as the only man who can guarantee peace in a country with a potentially volatile mix of religious groups.

The opposition, however, says the protest movement is free of sectarian overtones and is simply demanding freedom and democracy. The opposition took steps toward forming a national council Tuesday, but serious divisions have prevented them from presenting a unified front.

Related Content

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  Syrians shop in Hamidiyeh market in the old city of Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Aug. …

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  In this photo taken Sunday, Aug. 14, 2011, Syrian cartoonist Ali Farzat poses in …

  
  

  
  

  http://news.yahoo.com/activist-syrian-troops-snatch-beat-cartoonist-073300862.html

From hiding, Gadhafi tells Libyans to free Tripoli

By BEN HUBBARD - Associated Press,KARIN LAUB - Associated Press | AP – 1 hr 52 mins ago

CORRECTS SPELLING OF MOAMMAR - Libyans holding a huge flag celebrate overrunning …

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — A defiant Moammar Gadhafi vowed Wednesday to fight on "until victory or martyrdom" and called on residents of the Libyan capital and loyal tribesmen across his North African nation to free Tripoli from the "devils and traitors" who have overrun it.

The broadcast came a day after hundreds of Libyan rebels stormed Gadhafi's Bab al-Aziziya fortress-like compound in the capital but found no sign of the longtime leader. On Monday, the rebels entered Tripoli, a metropolis of some 2 million people on the Mediterranean coast, pouring into the city in their thousands in a stunning breakthrough. They claim to control 80 percent of Tripoli.

In an address given from an unknown location and broadcast on the local Al-Ouroba TV, Gadhafi asked: "Why are you letting them wreak havoc?"

Sounding subdued and without his usually fiery rhetoric, Gadhafi said he would fight "the aggression with all strength until either victory or death."

The pro-Gadhafi TV channel earlier quoted the Libyan leader as saying he had left the Bab al-Aziziya compound in a "tactical move" after 64 NATO airstrikes reduced it to rubble.

Tuesday's ransacking of Bab al-Aziziya, long the nexus of Gadhafi's power, marked the effective collapse of his 42-year-old regime. But with Gadhafi and his powerful sons still unaccounted for — and gunbattles flaring across the nervous city — the fighters cannot declare victory.

Gadhafi's chief government spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, also managed to get word out in a phone interview with the same station, promising "we will be back to take Tripoli back."

Gadhafi has routinely addressed his supporters from state Libyan television, but the rebels have taken the channel off the air on Tuesday.

The rebel force entered the compound Tuesday after fighting for five hours with Gadhafi loyalists, using mortars, heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft guns. They killed some of those who defended the compound and hauled off thousands of rifles, crates of weapons and trucks with guns mounted on the back in a frenzy of looting.

Tripoli's new rebel military chief, Abdel-Hakim Belhaj, said at nightfall that a small area of the vast compound was still under the control of regime fighters and heavy shooting was heard across Tripoli toward midnight.

The atmosphere in the compound was a mix of joyful celebration and tension. The air was thick with smoke from the battles, and the boom of mortars and the crackle of gunfire was constant. Rebels chanted "Allahu akbar" or "God is great" and on loudspeakers they cried: "Al-Hamdullilah," or "Thank God."

Rebel fighters trample on a head of Moammar Gadhafi inside the main compound in Bab …

http://news.yahoo.com/hiding-gadhafi-tells-libyans-free-tripoli-065132342.html

Bahrain bans main opposition newspaper

AP – In this photo dated March 25, 2011, women work in a basement workshop in central Baghdad, Iraq, making …

– 1 hr 34 mins ago

MANAMA, Bahrain – Bahraini authorities have banned the country's main opposition newspaper in a widening effort to muzzle anti-government media.

The newspaper Al-Wasat did not publish Sunday after a message on state TV saying Bahrain's Information Ministry has ordered the paper to shut down. The state-run Bahrain News Agency says officials accuse Al-Wasat of "unethical" coverage of the Shiite-led uprising against the country's Sunni rulers.

Bahrain has sharply tightened Internet and media controls under military rule imposed last month after weeks of protests and clashes by groups seeking to break the monarchy's grip on power in the strategic Gulf nation, which is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

Al-Wasat's online edition also was blocked.

Slideshow:Protests in Bahrain

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110403/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_bahrain_protests

Ratusan ribu tuntut Presiden Yemen letak jawatan

SEBAHAGIAN penunjuk perasaan menuntut Presiden Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh meletakkan jawatan di Sanna semalam.

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SANAA - Beratus-ratus ribu rakyat negara Yemen keluar beramai-ramai di sini bagi mengadakan demonstrasi mendesak Presiden Ali Abdullah Saleh meletakkan jawatan.

Para penunjuk perasaan itu berhimpun di setiap jalan utama di bandar ini dan mereka berterusan mendesak Ali yang telah memerintah selama 32 tahun supaya berundur.

Mereka turut menyalahkan sistem pemerintahannya yang mencetuskan kemarahan rakyat terhadap pemerintahannya.

Pihak pembangkang berharap seramai satu juta orang akan berhimpun untuk mendesak peletakan jawatan Ali. Ali sebelum ini enggan meletakkan jawatan kecuali ditewaskan dalam pilihan raya.

Pergolakan di Yemen berlaku ekoran kejayaan penunjuk perasaan di Tunisia dan Mesir yang mengakibatkan kedua-dua presiden di negara tersebut meletakkan jawatan.

Hosni Mubarak meletakkan jawatan sebagai presiden Mesir pada bulan Februari lepas selepas Zine El Abidine Ben Ali berundur pada Januari lalu ekoran tunjuk perasaan rakyat. - Agensi

http://www.kosmo.com.my/kosmo/content.asp?y=2011&dt=0402&pub=Kosmo&sec=Dunia&pg=du_01.htm

Kerajaan Syria letak jawatan

DAMSYIK: Kerajaan Syria yang berdepan dengan kekacauan politik sejak dua minggu lalu meletakkan jawatan semalam dan kerajaan baru akan dibentuk dalam masa 24 jam.

Dengan Presiden Bashar al-Assad berdepan dengan krisis paling buruk sejak menggantikan bapanya yang meninggal dunia pada 2000, puluhan ribu warga Syria berhimpun di pusat bandar raya Damsyik untuk menunjukkan sokongan kepada pemimpin itu, semalam.

Seorang pegawai kanan yang enggan dikenali berkata, kerajaan akan mengemukakan perletakan jawatannya hari ini (semalam) dan Kabinet baru akan dibentuk dalam masa 24 jam.

Kerajaan yang ada sekarang dibentuk oleh Perdana Menteri, Mohammed Naji Otri pada 2003. Kali terakhir ia dirombak ialah pada April 2009.

Syria dicengkam gelombang tunjuk perasaan yang semakin ganas sejak pertengahan Mac, meletakkan tekanan yang tidak pernah berlaku pada Bashar.

Penunjuk perasaan menuntut kebebasan bersuara dan pembaharuan.

Tunjuk perasaan menuntut perubahan kebanyakannya tertumpu di Daraa, wilayah selatan negara itu dan Latakia, bandar pelabuhan di utara.

Aktivis berkata, lebih 130 orang terbunuh dan ramai lagi cedera dalam pertempuran antara pasukan keselamatan dengan penunjuk perasaan.

Sementara itu, semua jalan menuju ke Dataran Bahrat di Damsyik dikawal ketat ketika penduduk Syria, termasuk kanak-kanak berhimpun sambil mengibarkan bendera dan menjulang gambar Bashar dan bapanya, Hafez al-Assad.

“Kami berada di sini untuk menunjukkan hasrat sebenar rakyat Syria dan untuk melindungi dan menyokong Bashar al-Assad, kata seorang wanita muda, Raghad. - AFP

http://www.hmetro.com.my/myMetro/articles/KerajaanSyrialetakjawatan/Article/index_html

Yemen's leader drops offer to leave by year's end

AP – A Yemeni boy, wearing a helmet and a gas mask, slautes along with anti-government protestors during a …

By AHMED AL-HAJ, Associated Press Ahmed Al-haj, Associated Press – Sun Mar 27, 1:56 pm ET

SANAA, Yemen – Yemen's president, clinging to power despite weeks of protests, scrapped an offer to step down by year's end on Sunday, as Islamic militants taking advantage of the deteriorating security took control of another southern town.

Opponents of President Ali Abdullah Saleh — a group that started with university students and has expanded to include defecting military commanders, politicians, diplomats and even Saleh's own tribe — had immediately rejected his offer a week ago to leave by the end of this year. Its formal withdrawal by the president indicates an attempt by both sides to negotiate a transfer of power to end the crisis has failed.

In a sign of what is at stake in Yemen if security further unwinds, Islamic militants seized control of a small weapons factory, a strategic mountain and a nearby town in the southern province of Abyan, said a witness and security officials.

A day earlier, militants believed to belong to Yemen's active al-Qaida offshoot swept into another small town in the area called Jaar. In both cases, the militants moved in with no resistance because police had withdrawn weeks earlier — as they did in several other parts of the country — in the face of challenges by anti-government protesters.

Saleh is a key ally of the United States in battling al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which the Obama administration considers the top terrorist threat to the U.S.

Washington is concerned that the cooperation could be imperiled if Saleh departs, and U.S. diplomats sat in on the political talks last week that failed to make progress on a possible transition of power.

"We have had a lot of counterterrorism cooperation from President Saleh and Yemeni security services. So if that government collapses or is replaced by one that is dramatically more weak, then I think we'll face some additional challenges out of Yemen," said U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on ABC TV's "This Week." "There's no question about it. It's a real problem."

Saleh himself warned that "Yemen is a ticking bomb" in a TV interview on Saturday night and said that without him in power, the country would descend into civil war.

The protesters behind weeks of demonstrations are demanding Saleh step down immediately and want a ban on future government positions for him and his family. For 32 years he has ruled over Yemen, an impoverished and deeply divided country stitched together by fragile tribal alliances.

Yemen is the poorest nation in the Arab world, is rapidly running out of water resources and oil and is buffeted by conflicts that include an on-and-off rebellion in the north and a secessionist movement in the south.

The protesters complain of corruption and the lack of jobs and political freedom. Their ranks swelled as many of the president's allies abandoned him over an escalating crackdown that has killed 92 protesters, according to the Shiqayiq Forum for Human Rights.

More than 40 of them were killed in a single day, as snipers firing from rooftops methodically picked off people in the main protest square in the capital, Sanaa, on March 18.

Increasingly isolated, Saleh convened a meeting Sunday of hundreds of members of his Congress Party's leadership committee.

A party statement released afterward said the meeting affirmed that "President Ali Abdullah Saleh should remain in his position until he finishes his constitutional term" in 2013.

The delegates also reasserted that dialogue is the only way to end the crisis and ensure a peaceful transition of power.

Just days earlier, Saleh had pledged in a meeting with senior officials, military commanders and tribal leaders that he would step down by the end of the year. But that offer was quickly rejected by opposition leaders who dismissed it as a political maneuver.

In the south, Islamic militants who have battled Saleh's government were trying to make gains on the turmoil. On Sunday, militants set up checkpoints around an old factory making bullets for Kalashnikov assault rifles and did the same in the town of al-Husn, where they patrolled the streets and searched cars, said resident Wahib Abdul-Qader.

The fighters were not from the al-Qaida offshoot, but one of the many other militant groups roaming southern Yemen called the Salafi Jihad.

They also seized control of the nearby Khanfar Mountain, where a radio station and a presidential guest house are located, said Ali Dahmash, an expert on Islamic militant groups who lives nearby.

A day earlier, residents in the nearby small town of Jaar said militants suspected of belonging to the al-Qaida offshoot seized that area.

Al-Qaida has seized control of towns in southern Yemen before, but in the past was vigorously confronted by Saleh's security forces.

In the central Marib province, suspected al-Qaida gunmen killed seven soldiers and wounded seven others in an attack on a military post on Sunday, security officials said. Marib is one of several provinces where the militant group is active and only under nominal government control.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief the media, said the attackers set fire to a pickup truck mounted with a machine gun and made off with an armored vehicle belonging to the post.

Slideshow:Yemenis rally against government

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110327/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_yemen

Under pressure, Syria says more freedom possible

AP – Anti-Syrian government protesters flash V sign as they protest in the southern city of Daraa, Syria, …

By HUSSEIN MALLA and ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press Hussein Malla And Zeina Karam, Associated Press – 1 hr 49 mins ago

DARAA, Syria – The Syrian government pledged Thursday to consider lifting draconian restrictions on political freedom and civil liberties in an attempt to quell a week-long uprising that protesters say has left dozens fatally shot by security forces.

The pledges appeared unlikely to satisfy demonstrators in the southern city of Daraa, where thousands have been calling for liberty, defying the crackdown as they take to the streets for funeral marches.

Presidential adviser Buthaina Shaaban blamed the unrest on outside agitators but told reporters in the capital, Damascus, that President Bashar Assad's government would consider lifting a state of emergency, in place since 1963, that allows people to be arrested without warrants and imprisoned without trial.

She said the government was drafting a law that would allow political parties besides the ruling Baath party, and loosen restrictions on media. It is also raising salaries for public servants, giving them health insurance, and looking at better ways to fight corruption, she said.

Shaaban said Assad had given orders for security forces not to open fire in Daraa even if attacked but "there were, maybe, some mistakes."

Media access to the marches in Daraa was restricted but an Associated Press reporter heard sporadic bursts of gunfire echoing through the city in the afternoon. Almost all shops were shuttered, the streets were virtually empty and soldiers and anti-terrorism police stopped people at checkpoints and manned many intersections — the heaviest security presence since the unrest began.

An activist who is in contact with residents of Daraa told The Associated Press that massive crowds shouted "Syria, freedom!" as they marched toward one of the agricultural hub's main cemeteries.

Inspired by the wave of pro-democracy protests around the region, the uprising in Daraa and at least four nearby villages has become the biggest domestic challenge since the 1970s to the Syrian government, one of the most repressive in the Middle East. Security forces have responded with water cannon, tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition.

Abdul-Karim Rihawi, who heads the Syrian Human Rights League, said authorities had begun a campaign of detentions against activists, writers and bloggers in different parts of Syria.

Rihawi said the last to be detained was Mazen Darwish, a journalist who headed the independent Syrian Media Center. He said Darwish was summoned to a security office Wednesday noon and has not been seen since then. Also detained were well-known writer Loay Hussein and blogger Ahmad Hdaithi.

"These arrests will only increase tension," Rihawi said.

A statement posted Thursday on the Facebook page "The Syrian Revolution 2011" held Syrian authorities responsible for the violence and called on Syrians to hold protests in all provinces on Friday, which it dubbed "Dignity Friday."

A resident of Daraa who was reached by phone from Damascus said witnesses there reported seeing at least 34 people slain when police launched a relentless assault Wednesday on a neighborhood sheltering anti-government protesters, fatally shooting many in an operation that lasted nearly 24 hours.

He said at least 20 bodies were brought to Daraa National Hospital, and seven others taken to hospitals in neighboring areas. In the early evening, people from the nearby villages of Inkhil, Khirbet Ghazale and al-Harrah tried to march on Daraa but security forces opened fire and hit them with rifle butts as they approached. The resident said seven more were killed in that shooting. Hundreds were wounded, he said.

The resident spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

"It was a very difficult, bloody day," he said. "There is a state of undeclared curfew in Daraa, whenever troops see four or five more people gathered they open fire," he said.

"Daraa today is like a ghost town, we are very scared," he said. "Everything is closed and the streets are empty, everywhere you look there's security."

Troops were in total control of the area around al-Omari mosque, where protesters had sought shelter and most of Wednesday's fighting occurred. Syrian officials escorted a small group of photographers to the mosque to show they were now in control.

There were no traces of fighting inside the mosque, except for a broken door to an office.

Elsewhere, the only evidence of fighting were rocks that littered the streets and the remains of tires that had been set on fire by protesters the day before.

Ahed Al Hendi, a Syrian dissident and Arabic program coordinator for the U.S.-based human rights organization cyberdissidents.org, said at least 45 people were killed on Wednesday.

The Washington-based Al Hendi said he is in daily contact with Syrians inside Daraa and provided a list with the names of the 45 killed. The report could not be independently confirmed.

Al Hendi said he expected more protests Friday.

Shabaan blamed media "exaggeration" for inflated figures and said 34 people had been killed in the weeklong conflict in the city.

She said investigations were ongoing, adding: "There are indications and evidence of foreign funding and arms that were smuggled and given to some people but I cannot say yet which party was behind it."

An official at the Daraa National Hospital told The Associated Press by telephone that the hospital received a large number of casualties Wednesday and was "overwhelmed" with wounded people. He declined to say how many people were dead or hurt, saying he was not authorized to give out numbers or talk to the press.

He said the hospital had not received any new casualties since Wednesday night and that Daraa was "very quiet this morning."

Videos posted by activists on Youtube and Twitter showed dead and wounded people lying on a street in Daraa, as heavy gunfire crackled nearby and people shouted in panic.

One video showed a man with a bloodied face, apparently shot in the head, raising his index finger and saying "There is no God but Allah" — the credo Muslims are required to say before they die.

The authenticity of the videos could not be independently confirmed.

Play Video Reuters – Syrian forces fire on protesters

• Slideshow:Unrest in Syria's Omari

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110324/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_syria

Thousands shout for freedom in southern Syria

AP – Anti-Syrian government protesters flash V sign as they protest in the southern city of Daraa, Syria, …

By HUSSEIN MALLA and ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press Hussein Malla And Zeina Karam, Associated Press – 1 hr 10 mins ago

DARAA, Syria – Thousands called for liberty Thursday in the southern Syrian city of Daraa, defying a deadly government crackdown as they took to the streets in funeral marches for protesters killed by police gunfire, an activist said.

Media access to the marches was restricted but an Associated Press reporter heard sporadic bursts of gunfire echoing through the city in the afternoon. Almost all shops were shuttered, the streets were virtually empty and soldiers and anti-terrorism police stopped people at checkpoints and manned many intersections — the heaviest security presence since the unrest began.

The activist in contact with residents of Daraa told The Associated Press that massive crowds shouted "Syria, freedom!" as they marched toward one of the agricultural hub's main cemeteries.

Others in Daraa held a sit-in in the al-Mahata neighborhood to protest the killing of residents in clashes between security forces and anti-government protesters, the activist said.

Inspired by the wave of pro-democracy protests around the region, the uprising in Daraa and at least four nearby villages has become the biggest domestic challenge since the 1970s to the Syrian government, one of the most repressive in the Middle East. Security forces have responded with water cannon, tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition.

Syrian police launched a relentless assault Wednesday on a neighborhood sheltering anti-government protesters, fatally shooting many in an operation that lasted nearly 24 hours, witnesses said.

A resident of Daraa who was reached by phone from Damascus said witnesses there reported seeing at least 34 people slain.

He said at least 20 bodies were brought to Daraa National Hospital, and seven others taken to hospitals in neighboring areas. In the early evening, people from the nearby villages of Inkhil, Khirbet Ghazale and al-Harrah tried to march on Daraa but security forces opened fire and hit them with rifle butts as they approached. The resident said seven more were killed in that shooting. Hundreds were wounded, he said.

The resident spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

"It was a very difficult, bloody day," he said. "There is a state of undeclared curfew in Daraa, whenever troops see four or five more people gathered they open fire," he said.

"Daraa today is like a ghost town, we are very scared," he said. "Everything is closed and the streets are empty, everywhere you look there's security."

Presidential adviser Buthaina Shaaban told reporters that 10 people were killed Wednesday in what she called an attempt to target Syria because it supports resistance against Israel.

"What is being targeted is Syria's position, Syria's security and ability to be a pillar of resistance against Zionism and U.S. schemes," she said.

She said the Syrian government had no objection to peaceful protests, and claimed that demonstrators in Daraa had attacked security forces.

"The demands of the people are being studied night and day and Syria will witness important decision that meet the ambitions of our people," she said.

Abdul-Karim Rihawi, who heads the Syrian Human Rights League, said authorities had begun a campaign of detentions against activists, writers and bloggers in different parts of Syria.

Rihawi said the last to be detained was Mazen Darwish, a journalist who headed the independent Syrian Media Center. He said Darwish was summoned to a security office Wednesday noon and has not been seen since then. Also detained were well-known writer Loay Hussein and blogger Ahmad Hdaithi.

"These arrests will only increase tension," Rihawi said.

A statement posted Thursday on the Facebook page "The Syrian Revolution 2011" held Syrian authorities led by President Bashar Assad responsible for the violence and called on the Syrian people to hold protests in all Syrian provinces on Friday, which it dubbed "Dignity Friday."

An official at the Daraa National Hospital told The Associated Press by telephone that the hospital received a large number of casualties Wednesday and was "overwhelmed" with wounded people. He declined to say how many people were dead or hurt, saying he was not authorized to give out numbers or talk to the press.

He said the hospital had not received any new casualties since Wednesday night and that Daraa was "very quiet this morning."

Videos posted by activists on Youtube and Twitter showed dead and wounded people lying on a street in Daraa, as heavy gunfire crackled nearby and people shouted in panic.

One video showed a man with a bloodied face, apparently shot in the head, raising his index finger and saying "There is no God but Allah" — the credo Muslims are required to say before they die.

The authenticity of the videos could not be independently confirmed.

In a tacit admission that the protests hitting the Arab world have reached Syria, Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa said in remarks carried by state-media that "the developments in the Arab world should should be a catalyst to build nations and not for undermining national unity."

Play Video Reuters – Syrian forces fire on protesters

• Slideshow:Unrest in Syria's Omari

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Power crumbling, Yemen leader warns of civil war

AP – Anti-government protestors gesture during a demonstration demanding the resignation of Yemeni President …

By AHMED AL-HAJ and LEE KEATH, Associated Press Ahmed Al-haj And Lee Keath, Associated Press – Tue Mar 22, 9:24 pm ET

SANAA, Yemen – Yemen's U.S.-backed president, his support crumbling among political allies and the army, warned that the country could slide into a "bloody" civil war Tuesday as the opposition rejected his offer to step down by the end of the year. Tens of thousands protested in the capital demanding his immediate ouster, emboldened by top military commanders who joined their cause.

Ali Abdullah Saleh's apparent determination to cling to power raised fears that Yemen could be pushed into even greater instability. In a potentially explosive split, rival factions of the military have deployed tanks in the capital Sanaa — with units commanded by Saleh's son protecting the president's palace, and units loyal to a top dissident commander protecting the protesters.

The defection on Monday of that commander, Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a powerful regime insider who commands the army's 1st Armored Division, has been seen by many as a major turning point toward a potentially rapid end for Saleh's nearly 32-year rule.

The question is whether the Yemeni chapter of the uprisings sweeping the Middle East will read more like Egypt — where the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak set the country on a relatively stable, if still uncertain, move toward democracy — or like Libya, which has seen brutal fighting between armed camps.

Already, clashes broke out late Monday between Saleh's Republican Guard and dissident army units in the far eastern corner of the country. On Tuesday, Republican Guard tanks surrounded a key air base in the western Red Sea coastal city of Hodeida after its commander — Col. Ahmed al-Sanhani, a member of Saleh's own clan — announced he was joining the opposition.

The turmoil raised alarm in Washington, which has heavily backed Saleh to wage a campaign against a major Yemen-based al-Qaida wing that plotted attacks in the United States.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, on a trip to Russia, said Tuesday that "instability and diversion of attention" from dealing with al-Qaida is a "primary concern about the situation." He refused to weigh in on whether Saleh should step down.

After a month of street protests — led mainly by students and pro-democracy advocates — against his nearly 32-year rule, Saleh became dramatically more isolated after security forces opened fatally shot more than 40 demonstrators on Friday.

The killings set off an avalanche of defections by top figures in his ruling party, influential tribal leaders and, most damagingly, al-Ahmar and a string of other top generals.

In a meeting Tuesday with his still-loyalist military commanders, Saleh railed against the dissidents, calling them "weak" and saying they "dropped away like autumn leaves."

"Those who want to climb to power through a coup should know that things won't stabilize. The nation won't be stable, it will turn into a civil war, to a bloody war, so they should think carefully," he said.

At the same time, he issued a softer statement, saying he "sympathizes with the youth" and calling on protesters to enter a dialogue. He said he believed their movement could "renew the democratic energy" in the country."

Monday night, Saleh pledged in a meeting with senior officials, military commanders and tribal leaders that he would step down by the end of the year, according to a presidential spokesman, Ahmed al-Sufi. Saleh had earlier rejected such a proposal, making a more limited concession of promising not to run for re-election when his term ends in 2013.

But the opposition said the new offer was too little, too late.

"The president's statements are just another political maneuver," said chief opposition spokesman Mohammed al-Sabri. "What was acceptable yesterday is not acceptable for us today."

"There is only one option, that the president announces his resignation and hands over power. Only then can we meet with the president to agree on transferring power," he said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Saleh's resignation at year-end would be positive "if this is something that many people respond to and it meets their aspirations."

"What we're looking for is dialogue that leads to a peaceful solution," Toner told reporters.

Protesters massed by the tens of thousands Tuesday afternoon in the downtown Sanaa plaza they have dubbed "Taghyeer," or "Change" square. Crowds ululated, chanted and painted each other's faces in the red, white and black colors of the national flag. Conservative tribesmen bought their wives to the protest, and the women bought their children, all basking in a carnival atmosphere.

The wave of defections and resignations since Friday have included army commanders, ambassadors, members of Saleh's ruling party, lawmakers, provincial governors and some managers of the state-run media. With most pillars of his rule knocked away, Saleh's strongest card remains his family and the loyalist military units they command.

Throughout his rule, Saleh has stayed in power through manipulation and patronage. He has used money to keep the loyalty of powerful tribes, seeded the military with close family members and courted Islamic fundamentalists, using militants as pro-regime fighters against opponents.

Even while his hold on power in Sanaa seemed entrenched, the deeply impoverished nation has been crumbling around him for several years. A powerful secessionist movement has torn apart the south, which was once an independent nation. In the north, Shiite rebels rose up against his military. In many parts of the mountainous nation, which has little infrastructure, discontented tribes all but shook off his authority.

The defections, however, throw the protest movement into the thick of Yemen's deeply complicated politics. The new factions joining in are hardly a unified force.

Al-Ahmar is mistrusted by some. He had a complex relationship with Saleh, seen as both a key ally and a potential rival. He also has close ties to Yemen's Salafis, an ultraconservative Islamic movement that in some ways mirrors al-Qaida's ideology. Yemen's most influential Salafi, Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, already announced his support for the protesters.

Al-Ahmar is also unpopular in the south, where secessionists have largely backed the protests against Saleh. Al-Ahmar is a veteran of the 1994 civil war that saw Saleh's army suppress an attempt by southern Yemen to secede.

Some protesters expressed fears their movement, which has focused on establishing democratic rule, could be hijacked.

"There are worries, especially after some extremist Salafi and military elements joined," said Bushra al-Maqtari, a leading activist among the protesters. "But we are watchful ... We don't refuse anyone who supports the revolutionaries, even those once linked to the regime. But we are all in agreement that they don't have the right to speak in the name of the revolution."

Also joining the protesters have been top figures from Yemen's most powerful tribe, the Hashid, to which Saleh himself and al-Ahmar belong. Among them are the tribe's leader Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar and his brothers — Hamid, an influential businessman who has long been a critic of the president, and Himyar, formerly the deputy parliament speaker.

Sheik Sadeq spoke to protesters in Change Square on Tuesday, trying to reassure them. "Don't be afraid or listen to rumors that say that the tribes or military will hijack the revolution," he said. "We are with you. We will support your demands. We will not be an alternative. Don't listen to rumors."

But the Hashid support also raised worries the tribe is seeking to maintain its status by backing Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar as a successor to Saleh.

A top American concern is that al-Qaida or other Islamic militants could fill any power vacuum. Several hundred al-Qaida militants are believed to be operating in the country, taking refuge in remote areas.

Late Tuesday, Yemen's Interior Ministry said in a statement that 12 al-Qaida fighters had been killed in clashes with the army in the town of Lawder in the southern province of Abyan.

The country has a strong Islamic radical movement, not directly belonging to al-Qaida, including thousands of veterans of "jihad" in other countries.

Ironically, those radicals could also be a card in Saleh's hand. In the south in particular, his regime has used militants to put down seccessionists.

For the past two days, armed Islamic militants have been on a rampage in the southern city of Aden, breaking into nightclubs, throwing out patrons and setting fire to buildings. They spraypainted graffiti on buildings around the city, reading "The people want the rule of God."

Slideshow:Yemenis rally against government

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Keath reported from Cairo.

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Yemen leader loses more of his eroding power base

AP – A Yemeni army officer reacts holding up his AK-47 as he and other officers join anti-government protestors …

• Slideshow:Yemenis rally against government

By AHMED AL-HAJ and HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Ahmed Al-haj And Hamza Hendawi, Associated Press – Mon Mar 21, 6:08 pm ET

SANAA, Yemen – A top military commander and at least 18 other senior officers defected Monday to the opposition movement demanding the ouster of Yemen's embattled president, depriving the U.S.-allied ruler of most of his power base.

The looming collapse of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime throws into doubt the American campaign against a major al-Qaida wing that plotted attacks in the United States.

Monday's defections led to rival tanks being deployed in the streets of Yemen's capital, Sanaa, creating a potentially explosive situation and prompting Saleh's defense minister, Mohammed Nasser Ahmed, to announce the military remained loyal to the longtime leader.

The armed forces will counter any plots against the government, Ahmed declared on state television, following a meeting of the National Defense Council, which is led by Saleh and includes Ahmed, the prime minister and the intelligence chief.

The defection of Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a longtime Saleh confidante and commander of the army's powerful 1st Armored Division, was seen by many as a turning point. It followed a major escalation in the regime's crackdown on demonstrators, when more than 40 people were killed in bloody clashes Friday.

Speaking in Paris, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe called Saleh's resignation "unavoidable" and pledged "support to all those that fight for democracy."

Tanks, armored vehicles and soldiers directed by al-Ahmar fanned out around the Sanaa square that has become the epicenter of the opposition movement, moving in for the first time to protect demonstrators.

Al-Ahmar also sent tanks to the state television building, the Central Bank and the Defense Ministry. Just miles away, at least a dozen tanks and armored personnel carriers belonging to the Republican Guards, an elite force led by Saleh's son and one-time heir apparent, Ahmed, were deployed outside the presidential palace.

The deployment of al-Ahmar's troops in Sanaa was greeted by wild jubilation from protesters, many of whom posed with soldiers for photographs, greeted them with military style salutes or offered them roses.

Calling Al-Ahmar's defection "a turning point," Edmund J. Hull, U.S. ambassador to Yemen from 2001 to 2004, said it showed "the military overall ... no longer ties its fate to that of the president."

"I'd say he's going sooner rather than later," Hull said.

In a sign of the Obama administration's growing alarm over the regime's crackdown on demonstrators, State Department spokesman Mark Toner called on the Yemeni leader to refrain from violence.

"We abhor the violence. We want a cessation of all violence against demonstrators," Toner said, calling on Saleh to "take the necessary steps to promote a meaningful dialogue that addresses the concerns of his people."

The 65-year-old president and his government have faced down many serious challenges in the past, often forging fragile alliances with restive tribes to extend power beyond the capital. Most recently, he has battled a seven-year armed rebellion in the north, a secessionist movement in the south and an al-Qaida offshoot that is of great concern to the U.S.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, formed in 2009, has moved beyond regional aims and attacked the West, including sending a suicide bomber who tried to down a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day with a bomb sewn into his underwear. The device failed to detonate properly.

Yemen is also home to U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have offered inspiration to those attacking the U.S., including Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is accused of killing 13 people and wounding dozens in a 2009 shootout at Fort Hood, Texas.

Saleh has been a key, though not entirely reliable, U.S. ally in the fight against al-Qaida, frustrating his Washington backers with the delicate balancing act he has undertaken to maintain the goodwill of powerful tribes providing refuge to operatives from the terror network.

He has also earned a reputation for milking the "al-Qaida card," demanding millions of dollars in military aid that he has used to bolster the capabilities of units loyal to him rather than take on al-Qaida.

A Saleh successor would not be much different since Yemen's complex tribal system would stay intact after he is gone.

Al-Ahmar and two other senior army officers who defected Monday belong to Saleh's Hashid tribe and a tribal leader said it was rallying behind al-Ahmar as a possible replacement for Saleh, eager to keep the president's job for one of its own. The leader spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

A key Hashid leader, Sadeq al-Ahmar, said he and his supporters were also joining the protest movement. Speaking to Al-Jazeera television from Sanaa, he said the death of scores of protesters on Friday made him decide to back the opposition after weeks of trying to mediate between Saleh and the protesters.

"The demands of the protesters are the demands of the Yemeni people," he said. "I can no longer fool myself, it is not the custom of men or tribes to do so."

Monday's defections included at least 15 other top military figures. Among them were Sanaa's military commander, a former defense minister who served as a presidential adviser and a military police brigadier who is a member of the president's personal security detail.

Several top diplomats also said they were joining the opposition, including Yemen's ambassadors to Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Japan and the Arab League. Lawmakers, editors of state-owned newspapers, parliament's deputy speaker and the governor of the southern province of Aden also quit their jobs to join the opposition and urge Saleh to step down.

Meanwhile, in a sign of the deepening divisions in the armed forces, gunfire broke out late Monday between the central security force protecting the presidential compound in the port city of Mukalla and the Yemeni army outside, security officials said. The compound, where Saleh stays when he is in town, is about a half-mile (kilometer) from where hundreds of protesters have been camping out to call for is ouster.

Maj. Gen. al-Ahmar has been close to Saleh for most of the Yemeni president's 32 years in power. He has close associations with Islamist groups in Yemen that are likely to raise suspicions in the West about his willingness to effectively fight al-Qaida operatives active in the country.

He is a veteran of the 1994 civil war that saw Saleh's army suppress an attempt by southern Yemen to secede. Al-Ahmar also fought in recent years against Shiite rebels in northern Yemen.

His support for the opposition was welcomed by protesters, but the warm reception may not guarantee him a political career in a post-Saleh Yemen given his close links to the president.

"He comes from the very heart of Saleh's ruling dynasty," Yemeni analyst Mansour Haiel said of al-Ahmar, who has sometimes been seen as a rival to the president and his son, Ahmed.

"He could easily become the head of the next ruling dynasty."

In the southern port city of Aden, Muslim militants set fire to a jazz club and a bar, objecting to their serving alcohol, a security official said. The men were part of an Islamist group taking advantage of the city's security void, as police were busy dealing with demonstrations, the official said.

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Hendawi reported from Cairo.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110321/ap_on_bi_ge/ml_yemen

Libya offers cease-fire after UN no-fly zone vote

AP – Men, who used to work in Libya and fled the unrest in the country, wait to be repatriated in a refugee …

By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI and RYAN LUCAS, Associated Press Hadeel Al-shalchi And Ryan Lucas, Associated Press – 32 mins ago

TRIPOLI, Libya – Libya declared an immediate cease-fire Friday, trying to fend off international military intervention after the U.N. authorized a no-fly zone and "all necessary measures" to prevent the regime from striking its own people. A rebel spokesman said Moammar Gadhafi's forces were still shelling two cities.

The cease-fire announcement by the Libyan foreign minister followed a fierce government attack on Misrata, the last rebel-held city in the western half of the country. A doctor said at least six people died.

Mustafa Gheriani, a spokesman for the rebels, said attacks continued well past the announcement.

"He's bombing Misrata and Adjadbiya from 7 a.m. this morning until now. How can you trust him?" Gheriani said.

The U.N. Security Council resolution, which was passed late Thursday after weeks of deliberation, set the stage for airstrikes, a no-fly zone and other military measures short of a ground invasion. Britain announced that it would send fighter jets, Italy offered the use of its bases, and France was making plans to deploy planes. The U.S. had yet to announce its role. NATO also held an emergency meeting.

With the international community mobilizing, Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa said the government would cease fire in line with the resolution, although he criticized the authorization of international military action, calling it a violation of Libya's sovereignty.

"The government is opening channels for true, serious dialogue with all parties," he said during a news conference in Tripoli, the capital. He took no questions.

In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the first goal of international action is to end the violence in Libya.

Click image to see photos of protests in Libya

AFP/Patrick Baz

"We have to see a very clear set of decisions" by Gadhafi's forces, she said. Clinton said government forces must pull "a significant distance away from the east" — where the rebels now hold sway.

The rebels, once confident, found themselves in danger of being crushed by an overpowering pro-Gadhafi force using rockets, artillery, tanks, warplanes. That force has advanced eastward along the Mediterranean coast in recent days.

A large crowd in the Benghazi, the city where the uprising started on Feb. 15, watched the U.N. vote on an outdoor TV projection and burst into cheers, with green and red fireworks exploding overhead. In Tobruk, another eastern city, happy Libyans fired weapons in the air to celebrate.

"We think Gadhafi's forces will not advance against us. Our morale is very high now. I think we have the upper hand," said Col. Salah Osman, a former army officer who defected to the rebel side. He was at a checkpoint near the eastern town of Sultan.

Western powers faced pressure to act quickly as Gadhafi's forces gained momentum. The U.S. has positioned a host of forces and ships, including submarines, destroyers, and amphibious assault and landing ships with some 400 Marines aboard. It also could provide a range of surveillance.

In an interview with Portuguese television broadcast just before the U.N. vote, Gadhafi pledged to respond harshly to U.N.-sponsored attacks. "If the world is crazy," he said, "we will be crazy, too."

The Libyan government closed its airspace Friday, according to Europe's air traffic control agency, Eurocontrol.

Government tanks rolled into Misrata, 125 miles (200 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli, early Friday, shelling houses, hospitals and a mosque for several hours before pulling back to the city's outskirts, witnesses said. At least six people were killed, raising the total death toll in two days of fighting to nine, a local doctor said.

Misrata is the rebels' last western holdout after Gadhafi recaptured a string of other cities that fell to the opposition early. Its fall would leave the country largely divided, with the rebels bottled up in the east near the border with Egypt.

The city has been under a punishing blockade that has prevented aid ships from delivering medicine and other supplies, the doctor said.

"They haven't stopped shelling us for a week — we sleep to shelling, and wake up to shelling. They are targeting houses and hospitals," he said, adding the hospital had been overwhelmed.

"We have had to perform surgeries in the hallways using the light from our cell phones to see what we're doing. We are also using some clinics around the town, some only have 60 beds, which isn't enough," he said.

Another doctor claimed Gadhafi's forces had surrounded some neighborhoods and were shooting at people who ventured outside. "Militias used two ambulances to jump out of and shoot at innocent people indiscriminately," he said.

Gadhafi troops encircled the city of Ajdabiya, the first in the path of their march, but also had some troops positioned beyond it toward Benghazi, the second largest Libyan city, with a population of about 700,000.

Libya's unrest began in Benghazi and spread east to Tripoli. Like others in the Mideast, the uprising started with popular demonstrations against Gadhafi, rejecting his 41 years of despotic and often brutal rule. The tone quickly changed after Gadhafi's security in Tripoli forcefully put down the gatherings there.

Soon rebel forces began arming themselves, quickly taking control of the country's east centered on Benghazi. Some Libyan army units joined the rebels, providing them with some firepower, but much less than Gadhafi's remaining forces.

There are no reliable death tolls. Rebels say more than 1,000 people have been killed in a month of fighting, while Gadhafi claims the toll is only 150.

Play Video AP – Raw Video: Benghazi celebrates UN no-fly zone

• Slideshow:Anti-government protests in Libya
• Play Video Video:Raw Video: UN approves no-fly zone over Libya AP
• Play Video Video:Military strikes on Libya within hours: France AFP

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Lucas reported from Benghazi, Libya. Associated Press writers Slobodan Lekic in Brussels and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

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Yemeni snipers open fire on protesters, kill 40

AP – Anti-government protestors carry a boy shot in the head during clashes in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, March …

• Slideshow:Yemenis rally against government

By AHMED AL-HAJ and ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press Ahmed Al-haj And Zeina Karam, Associated Press – 12 mins ago

SANAA, Yemen – Yemeni government snipers firing from rooftops and houses shot into a crowd of tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Friday, killing at least 40 people and injuring hundreds demanding the ouster of the autocratic president.

The protest in the central square was the largest yet in the popular uprising that began a month ago — and the harsh government response marked a new level of brutality from the security forces of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a key — if uneasy — ally in the U.S. campaign against al-Qaida who has ruled Yemen for 30 years.

Saleh declared a nationwide state of emergency hours after the shootings in the capital, formally giving the security forces a freer hand to confront the demonstrators. There was no word on how long the emergency laws would remain in place.

Dozens of enraged protesters stormed several buildings that were the source of the gunfire, detaining 10 people including paid thugs who they said would be handed over to judicial authorities.

Demonstrators have camped out in squares across Yemen for over a month to demand that Saleh leave office. Security forces and pro-government thugs have used live fire, rubber bullets, tear gas, sticks, knives and rocks to suppress them. The protesters say they won't go until Saleh does.

"They want to scare and terrorize us. They want to drag us into a cycle of violence — to make the revolution meaningless," said Jamal Anaam, a 40-year-old activist camping out in the square that the protesters call "Taghyir Square" — Arabic for "Change."

"They want to repeat the Libyan experiment, but we refuse to be dragged into violence no matter what the price," he said.

Before the shooting Friday in Sanaa, a military helicopter flew low over the square as protesters arrived from prayers. Gunfire soon erupted from rooftops and houses above the demonstrators, where witnesses said beige-clad elite forces and plainclothes security officials took aim.

A state TV report denied government forces were behind the gunfire.

Police used burning tires and gasoline to make a wall of fire that blocked demonstrators from fleeing down a main road leading to sensitive locations, including the president's residence.

Panic and chaos swept the square, where dozens of dead and wounded sprawled on the ground. Witnesses said the snipers aimed at heads, chests and necks. Protesters carried their friends, scarves pressed over bleeding wounds.

"It is a massacre," said Mohammad al-Sabri, an opposition spokesman. "This is part of a criminal plan to kill off the protesters, and the president and his relatives are responsible for the bloodshed in Yemen today."

Saleh announced a press conference later Friday. Opposition groups also planned an emergency meeting to discuss their next steps.

Before the protests, Yemeni elite forces fortified the president's residence, the Interior Ministry, the Defense Ministry and the building housing the ruling party, apparently fearing demonstrators would storm those areas, as they have done elsewhere in uprisings across the Middle East.

Doctors at the makeshift field hospital near the protest camp at Sanaa University confirmed at least 40 dead, three of them children. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Interior Minister Gen. Mouthar al-Masri, who is in charge of internal security forces, put the number of dead at 25 and the injured at 200.

Medical officials and witnesses say hundreds were wounded in Friday's violence, which marks a dramatic escalation of the crisis that has engulfed Yemen.

The protests are just one of the problems in this extremely poor, tribal country. Saleh's weak central government also faces one of the world's most active al-Qaida branches, a secessionist rebellion in the south and a Shiite uprising in the north.

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Karam reported from Cairo.

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