Moammar Qaddafi's regime has lost vast swathes of Libya's east to insurrectionists, it became clear Feb. 23. Opponents of Qaddafi appear firmly in control of Libya's coastal east, from the Egyptian border through to the cities of Tobruk and Benghazi, with government soldiers switching sides to join the uprising. Fighting has been reported near the capital, Tripoli.

The Libyan UN Mission—breaking with the regime of Moammar Qaddafi—requested an emergency meeting of the Security Council about the situation in Libya Feb. 21, urging the world body to install a no-fly zone over the country to prevent the regime from using warplanes and helicopters to bomb its own population. Deputy Permanent Representative Ibrahim Dabbashi said Libyans had to be protected from "genocide." After meeting once the following day, the Council took no action but said it would meet again soon. (Afrol News, Radio Australia, Feb. 22)

Thousands of protesters filled Tahrir Square in the center of the northern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniyah on Feb. 22, in an ongoing campaign against the two entrenched political parties that have divided power in the Kurdish autonomous region (KDP and PUK). Three young protesters have been killed and more than 100 wounded in Sulaimaniyah since the campaign began last week. Demonstrators carried banners reading, "Don't Forget Hosni Mubarak," referring to the Egyptian president who was overthrown after massive protests on Cairo's Tahrir Square. In a bid to prevent further violence, several demonstrators wore white shirts inscribed with the words, "Wall of Peace," and stood between the bulk of the protesters and security forces.

Protesters, apparently joined by members of the security forces, seized control over several eastern Libyan cities and towns Feb. 21, including Benghazi, al-Bayda and Durna. The cities were the scene of fierce fighting over the weekend, with protesters forming militias, evidently with the aid of defecting members of the security forces. The regime is reportedly resorting to "mercenaries" from African countries to beat back the militias. Fighting has now spread to the capital, Tripoli, where helicopters and warplanes are reportedly firing from the air on protesters. State TV headquarters, the Interior Ministry building and the offices of the "People's Committees" that are the pillar of the regime were torched by the Tripoli protesters. The whereabouts of strongman Moammar Qaddafi are not known.

From MichaelMoore.com, Feb. 20:

'We Stand With You as You Stood With Us':
Statement to Workers of Wisconsin by Kamal Abbas of Egypt's Centre for Trade Unions and Workers Services

About Kamal Abbas and the Centre for Trade Unions and Workers Services:
Kamal Abbas is General Coordinator of the CTUWS, an umbrella advocacy organization for independent unions in Egypt. The CTUWS, which was awarded the 1999 French Republic's Human Rights Prize, suffered repeated harassment and attack by the Mubarak regime, and played a leading role in its overthrow. Abbas, who witnessed friends killed by the regime during the 1989 Helwan steel strike and was himself arrested and threatened numerous times, has received extensive international recognition for his union and civil society leadership.

Workers at the Suez Canal went on strike Feb. 19, part of a spreading wave of labor unrest that kept most of Egypt's economy shut down this week. About 1,500 workers in the Suez Canal Authority demonstrated in three cities along the canal, joining tens of thousands of other public-sector workers in a strike to demand higher wages. The stoppages continued despite public warnings from Egypt's new military rulers urging the strikers to return to work "at this delicate time."

Libyan security forces fired on a funeral procession through the city of Benghazi on Feb. 20, as residents buried dozens of dead from a crackdown the day before. Witnesses described "massacres" in Benghazi and other eastern cities, with government troops and "African mercenaries" that have been called in "shooting without discrimination" into the crowds. The uprising, now in its fifth day, is still concentrated in the east of the country, but is spreading west, with protests reported in Misrata—just 200 kilometers from Tripoli, the capital. A tally by Human Rights Watch puts the number of dead in the uprising at 173, but independent sources in Libya gave figures as high as 500. (The Guardian, NYT, Middle East Online, Feb. 20)

A US military tribunal on Feb. 18 sentenced Sudanese Guantánamo Bay detainee Noor Uthman Mohammed to 14 years in prison following a plea agreement in which he admitted to helping al-Qaeda and providing material support to terrorism. Mohammed admitted earlier this week to meetings with al-Qaeda and acting as a weapons instructor and manager at the Khaden military camp in Afghanistan, where hijackers and other members of al-Qaeda trained prior to the 9-11 attacks. Mohammed was charged in May 2008 and has been detained at Guantánamo since his capture in Pakistan in 2002. As part of his plea agreement, Mohammed promised to cooperate with US investigators in ongoing investigations. If he does so, he will likely be released in advance of the 14 years to which he was sentenced.