Report: military aircraft are firing at protestors in Libya

Reuters, on the violent crackdown against anti-government demonstrators in Libya: "Military aircraft fired live ammunition at crowds of anti-government protesters in Tripoli, Al Jazeera television said on Monday." UPDATE: Two air force pilots have apparently defected to Malta, rather than follow orders to fire on civilians.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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Anonymous

Several sources state that Apache helicopters are firing on Libyan protesters. But I can’t find any official reference to Libya ever having bought them from the US. The Apache has quite a distinct look, so I doubt that the Hind gunships that Libya uses were mistaken for them.
millrick

“Planes of the Libyan Air Force reportedly opening fire on protesters in central Tripoli. No way to confirm this currently – but we are getting many reports of chaos on the streets of the capital.”

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/02/17/live-blog-libya
- millrick
  
  It seems that some Libyan pilots have defected to Malta rather than attack their fellow citizens
  
  “The defected pilots reportedly tell Maltese officials they were based in Tripoli and ordered to attack protesters on the ground in Benghazi. After seeing their fellow pilots begin the airstrikes, they diverted course toward Malta. If substantiated, this would appear to confirm the use of airstrikes against civilian protesters in cities around the country.”
  
  http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/02/17/live-blog-libya
Anonymous

There are also reports of the Navy hitting a part of Tripoli. WTF is going on? When you bomb your own capital shouldn’t that be a huge indication that you’ve lost all control?
bobthecitizen

This is eerily reminiscent of the “loyalty oaths” our soldiers have been presented with a few years back stating they were required to fire on “political agitators” and “forcibly disarm” US citizens if ordered to do so. Record numbers of our soldiers refused to sign.

If we flooded our streets and demanded the patriot act be repealed, what would our government do.
- mdh
  
  do you have a citation for that?