Talk of sniper in guard's death at Tripoli hotel
A guard outside Tripoli's Rixos Hotel - where members of foreign media are housed and watched over by government minders - was fatally shot, and rumors are swirling as to the assailant.
Loyalists of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi say the guard accidentally shot himself. But The New York Times reports at least two government workers have said he was shot by a rebel sniper.
The Times' David Kirkpatrick writes that the guard was assigned to protect a prominent state TV commentator, Yousef Shakeer, who had taken refuge at the hotel with his family because of death threats he received from the rebels.
Shakeer backed the government's claim that the guard assigned to protect him had accidentally shot himself.
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But the shooting comes amid growing reports of anti-Qaddafi activity in the nation's capital, which have been difficult for foreign press to verify, including accounts of Qaddafi forces killing three people who tried to protest in Tripoli.
A Qaddafi soldier told a reporter that a nighttime rebel guerrilla attack in the neighborhood of Souq al-Juma killed a fellow soldier and seriously wounded another.
Other accounts have been described - from rebel sympathizers and supporters of the Qaddafi regime - of clashes between rebels and security forces in Tripoli, ending in arrest or death.