(Washington Post) Leila Fadel and Sudarsan Raghavan - Moammar Gaddafi tightened his grip on Libya's capital, Tripoli, on Wednesday, flooding the streets with militiamen and loyalist troops, as rebels consolidated their control of key eastern cities and continued advancing west. It appeared that Libya's powerful tribes, long a beneficiary of Gaddafi's patronage, were turning against him. "We are seeing more and more tribal defections. A lot of police and military in Tobruk, Benghazi and other eastern cities defected because their tribal leaders had ordered them," said Ronald Bruce St. John, an expert on Libya. But so far, it appears that the major tribes in and around Tripoli continue to support Gaddafi.
2011-02-24 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive