35 foreign journalists held hostage

After being held hostage since the evening of 21 August in Tripoli’s Rixos Hotel, where they had previously been forced to stay by the Gaddafi government, 35 foreign journalists were finally able to leave at around 5 p.m. in vehicles provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross. During the rebel assault on the city, the journalists and a number of foreign diplomats had been prevented from leaving the hotel by the Gaddafi loyalists who were surrounding it. Holed up on the hotel’s first floor, they had hung sheets outside the windows with the words “Television, press, don’t shoot.”