Libya escapees reach Tunisia, tell of violence, Posted by Meosha Eaton

* Accounts of fighting, abuse by security forces
* Tunisians, Egyptians seen targeted


By Michael Georgy

RAS JDIR, Tunisia, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Weighed down with suitcases, blankets and plastic bags, people fleeing turmoil in Libya crossed into Tunisia on Wednesday with tales of the violence they were leaving behind.

About 2,000 people had streamed over the Ras Jdir crossing point by midday, part of a wider exodus of tens of thousands of foreign nationals trying to escape the North African country whose leader Muammar Gaddafi is attempting to crush a revolt against his 41-year rule. "It's very bad. There is fighting between the police and army against civilians. The civilians have AK-47s. (The fighting) is mostly at night," an Algerian named Rashid told Reuters. Another who fled, Tunisian artist Hamdi Chalbi, said: "Militias tell people 'If you come out at night we will kill you.' People are scared."

Many people reached the border in cars and walked across, carrying their possessions. Medical tents and food stations awaited them on the Tunisian side, and police attempted to control the growing crowd.
A Tunisian named Nizar Youssef said Libyan police appeared to be targeting Egyptians and Tunisians for abuse: revolutions in both countries since the start of this year were seen as having inspired Libya's uprising.
"They held me for seven hours and beat me with cables," he said.

A Libyan man who crossed over said: "The west must bomb Gaddafi's oil and gas fields. If they don't, we (the Libyan people) will." Tunisia's national airline, Tunisair, has scheduled five flights to Libya on Wednesday to evacuate some 1,500 nationals. Other countries like Egypt, Turkey, the United States and Britain were also rushing to pull citizens out. Several evacuees arriving at Tunisia's capital by air on Tuesday told Reuters they had been beaten by police and denied food and water during a two-day wait at Tripoli airport.

Marwan Mohammed, a Tunisian at Ras Jdir, said it was dangerous to go outside in Libya's capital Tripoli because of armed gangs. "Pro-Gaddafi gunmen are roaming around threatening any people who gather in groups," he said. A Reuters reporter in Tripoli said that the streets were nearly deserted, with most businesses closed. Tunisia is also sending a ferry to Benghazi, the flashpoint of the Libyan uprising, to pick up some 1,400 Tunisians, though the timing has yet to be announced.

(Additional reporting by Tarek Amara; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

World govts send planes, ships for Libya evacuation, Posted by Meosha Eaton

* Evacuees describe scenes of panic
* Flights awaiting permission amid increasing chaos
* EU states evacuating 10,000 citizens
* Turkey launches biggest ever evacuation of its nationals
* For FACTBOX on evacuation, click on

(Adds IOM statement, Brazil, Croatia)

By Daren Butler

ISTANBUL, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Governments around the world scrambled on Wednesday to send planes and ships to evacuate their citizens from turmoil in Libya, whose leader Muammar Gaddafi has vowed to crush a revolt against his 41-year rule. Fears for the safety of foreigners were heightened after a Turkish worker was shot dead as he climbed a crane at a building site near the capital Tripoli, according to Turkish officials. Turkey, with 25,000 citizens in Libya, is mounting the biggest evacuation operation in its history, and 21 other governments have asked Ankara for help getting their nationals out, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference.

European Union states are evacuating some 10,000 EU citizens from Libya, a spokesman for the EU executive said during a European Commission news briefing. The U.S. State Department said a chartered ferry with room for about 600 passengers was due to leave Tripoli shortly for Malta. "We're asking all U.S. citizens to head out to the ferry pier," spokeswoman Megan Mattson told Reuters. Witnesses described scenes of chaos as foreigners tried to escape the violence. Italy said estimates that at 1,000 people had been killed in the uprising were credible.

"The time at the airport turned into a nightmare, fights began to break out. Everyone is frantic," said Adil Yasar, a Turk who arrived in Istanbul late on Tuesday, adding he and other evacuees had gone without food and water for two days.Some 3,000 Turks who found sanctuary in a soccer stadium in the eastern city of Benghazi, where the uprising began, set sail for home escorted by a Turkish navy frigate, while two French military planes brought 402 French nationals back to Paris.

"We are very happy it's over," one passenger told Reuters after arriving at Paris's Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport. "It was very sudden. Five days ago, we felt really secure. One would not have said that the situation was going to degenerate so quickly." Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has warned Gaddafi's government against taking "cruel steps" to crush the uprising, and called on all sides to ensure the security of foreigners.


"VERY FRIGHTENING"
Nationals of Lebanon, Syria and Germany, as well as Turkey, have joined thousands of Tunisians leaving Libya by its western land border, the International Organisation for Migration said. The IOM is trying to find new evacuation routes from Libya, which has an estimated 1.5 million foreign nationals, including people working there and those passing through. Libya borders Tunisia and Egypt, both of which have ousted long-time rulers in the past few weeks. Britain said on Tuesday it planned to send a charter plane to Libya to bring out Britons and was dispatching a Royal Navy frigate to waters off Libya in case it was needed.

Germany urged all its citizens to leave the country, and Chancellor Angela Merkel described as 'very frightening' Gaddafi's words that he was ready to die 'a martyr'. With eastern regions breaking free of Gaddafi's rule and deadly unrest hitting the capital Tripoli, Greece, Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, Japan, Russia and Saudi Arabia also sent or were planning to send planes for their nationals. Turkish construction company TAV was trying to arrange the evacuation of its 3,000 Thai and Vietnamese employees.

A Dutch military plane evacuated 82 people from Libya late on Tuesday, repatriating 32 Dutch citizens and 50 people from other countries, including Belgium, Britain and the United States, the Dutch Foreign Affairs Ministry said on Wednesday. Brazil was sending a ship to pick up 180 workers and their families and take them to Malta, its foreign ministry said. A Ukrainian Il-76 military cargo plane was on its way to Tripoli to pick up 170 Ukrainians, including doctors, pilots and engineers who are working on contracts there.
Greek passenger ships headed to Libya to collect Europeans and 15,000 Chinese and bring them back via the island of Crete.

Croatia has evacuated 145 of its citizens and was trying to bring out another 140 Croat workers, its foreign minister said. Amid increasing chaos, and resignations by top Libyan officials protesting against Gaddafi's crackdown, some flights had difficulty getting clearance to land or depart. A Bosnian and Serbian planes were awaiting permission from authorities in Tripoli to bring their citizens home, officials of both countries said.

Egypt's powerful military

February 11, 2011 11:59:04 AM

EGYPT-PROTESTS/MILITARY (FACTBOX)

 Reuters World Service

Feb 11 (Reuters) - Egypt's powerful army, trying to defuse a popular uprising, promised on Friday to guarantee that President Hosni Mubarak's reforms would be carried out, but many angry protesters said this failed to meet their key demand that he resign immediately.

The tumult over Mubarak's refusal to resign has tested the loyalties of the armed forces, which may have to choose whether to protect their supreme commander or drop him.

Mubarak's ruling apparatus has relied on the military since he came to power in 1981. All four Egyptian presidents since the 1950's have come from the military, now led by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi.

Here are some details of Egypt's military which totals around 468,500 active personnel, plus a reserve of 479,000:


* ARMY:
Numbers: 280,000 - 340,000 including conscripts.
Main Battle Tanks - 3,723, including 973 A1M1 Abrams tanks.
Reconnaissance vehicles - 410.
Armoured Infantry Fighting vehicles - 610.
Armoured personnel carriers - 4,160.
Artillery pieces 4,480 (including 492 self-propelled, 962 towed).
Mortars - 2,528.
Air Defence surface-to-air missiles - at least 2,100.
Tactical surface-to-surface missiles - over 42.

* NAVY:
Numbers: 18,500 including conscripts.
Submarines - 4 tactical patrol submarines.
Surface combatants - 10
Patrol and coastal combatants - 41


* AIR FORCE:
Numbers: 30,000 including 10,000 conscripts.
Combat capable aircraft - 461. 165 fighter aircraft -- 26 F-16A, 12 F16-B, 74 MiG-21F and 53 Mirage D/E.
Helicopters - 4 Commando electronic Intelligence
125 Electronic Attack helicopters

* OTHER FORCES:
-- There are also 150,000 Air Defence Command troops and 397,000 paramilitaries comprising Central Security Forces, National Guard and Border Guard forces.

SOME HISTORY:

-- The performance of the army during the October 1973 War helped restore the military's prestige after its defeat in the Six-Day war against Israel in 1967 and justified President Anwar Sadat's emphasis on professionalism and avoidance of civilian politics.

-- The armed forces have played a role in maintaining domestic stability previously, but only under the most compelling circumstances. These included the violent 1977 food riots and an uprising of conscripts of the Central Security Forces in Cairo and other cities in 1986.

-- The professionalism of the armed forces during these emergencies reinforced the public view that the army was the ultimate safeguard against militant Islamists or others who might threaten civil authority.

Sources: Reuters/IISS Military Balance 2010.

(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit;