A sign of Muammar Gaddafi's eroding power

Dubai: The scene at the Green Square in Tripoli on Friday night demonstrated clearly the eroding power of Muammar Gaddafi.

The leader, who used to speak to hundreds of thousands of his supporters in the square for hours and hours gave less than 10 minutes speech for less than 40,000 people.

On the eastern side of the capital more than 20,000 people from the neighouring Tajura were forcing their ways into the capital to squeeze Gaddafi and his supporters in an even smaller area.

However, this does not mean Gaddafi has become toothless. The defiant 42-year leader of Libya is still capable of fighting back through his mercenary and cause fatalities in the ranks of the opposition, a fact the opposition said they were aware off and readied themselves to handle effectively. 7 protesters were killed and unidentified number of people injured.

"Defected units in the army have either stood firmly to protect revolutionists or handed over their arms to fight back attacks from Gaddafi security and mercenary units. The scenario was tested in Al Zawiyah on Thursday afternoon when a security unit sprayed protesters with live ammunition. 20 people were killed and about 90 were injured. The attack was repeated at night, but militiamen were confronted with strong defence and attackers were chased away," Adel Zantani told Gulf News.

Zantani said Gaddafi can not fight anymore because he lost his supporters in the country. "

The cities and town on 170-km coastline between the border point in Tunisia and Tripoli in the east have fallen in the hands of revolutioists. except for less than 10-km strech of coast.. On the east the man has lost everything.