Gadhafi next? Protest wave spreads to Libya

February 17, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

McClatchy Newspapers

CAIRO

The anti-government protest wave unleashed in Tunisia and Egypt swept into Libya, where demonstrators battled security forces in a rare public outpouring of anger at longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, according to news reports and Internet posts and videos Wednesday.

The tumult in Bengazi, Libya’s second largest city, came as anti-government protests grew in the Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain and in Yemen, where one person was killed in a clash with police in the port of Aden.

There was no sign that the turmoil inspired by the uprisings against Mubarak and former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was abating in a region ruled for decades by despots and monarchs, many of them supported by the U.S. and other Western powers.

The Obama administration, caught unawares by the breadth and speed of the turbulence, reaffirmed a policy shift in sympathy with the mostly youthful protesters who have used Facebook, Twitter and other social media to organize the largely leaderless protests.

The U.S. “supports democratic change,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said at a State Department meeting with civil society activists from across the globe. “It is in line with our values and our interests. We support citizens working to make their governments more open, transparent, and accountable. We uphold the universal rights of every person to live freely, to have your voice heard and your vote count.”