Efforts to ascertain an accurate death toll for the violent crackdown against the Libyan uprising have so far been very difficult, in no small part because the city of Tripoli remains under the regime’s control, and in and around the city the crackdown is still going on.
The base figure, of course, is the “only 300” protesters massacred number provided by the Gadhafi regime a couple of days ago, but most experts agree the toll is well into the thousands, and reports on the ground in the liberated portions of the nation providing some clues.
One French doctor working on the ground in Benghazi has reported that 2,000 people were killed in that city alone. Surely Benghazi is the major site of violence in East Libya, but with estimates of another 1,000 dead in Tripoli and tolls in the dozens or scores slain in several other cities across the nation.
Some estimates have suggested the toll is around 10,000, and while that is impossible to confirm at this point it seems likely that the final toll will be closer to 10,000 than to the government’s “only 300” figure. Still, it appears that the regime has lost most of its ability to launch attacks in Benghazi and elsewhere, so the worst of the violence, minus the capital city of Tripoli, seems to be behind them.
Two points:
1. According to hospital doctors in Libya, the Qadhafi regime has used anti-aircraft ordinance against unarmed civilians.
2. Jason Ditz wrote: "but most experts agree the toll is"
Who are those experts? Are they experts on counting? I cringe when I read or hear the term "experts" as it's been rendered meaningless by the American media establishment. So much so, that — in my opinion — it amounts to newspeak.
It's time for all rgimes in the Arab world to move out of all Arabic countries and go hide under their protectors the US & European masters. 2011 is the year for all these dictator thugs, their families and their close friends to collapse under the masses. There are no wining without sacrificing some humans in the process.
"Thousands slain" in Libya – BUT – what of the tens of thousands killed by the US in its illegal invasion of Iraq? What of the million made homeless by that invasion? What of the million made to flee the country? What of the destruction of that country?
As Tacitus said some 2000 years ago: "they made a wasteland and called it peace".
You "heard"… wow, that's hard evidence there.
May we be spared from such careful thinkers such as yourself.