Global Research correspondent Mahdi Nazemroaya, who is stationed in a central Tripoli hotel with the international press, says the journalists are being targeted by the rebels and the NATO forces that support them. While he is speaking to RT, shooting can be heard. “They are specifically targeting the areas where international journalists are, to sow panic here,” he argued. “NATO has done all the heavy work. This is a NATO war. They heavily bombed cities west of [Tripoli], they’ve bombed all night, without even 10 seconds of stopping. They have bombed this entire city and NATO landed the insurgents on the coast of Tripoli.”

But the city’s defenders are not pessimistic, continues Nazemroaya.

“The situation has gone tenser,” said Nazemroaya. “More members of the hotel staff have returned with guns. Obviously they have been fighting. These are volunteers, not soldiers. They returned with a picture which is not a picture of loss and they are confident.”