Libyan forces attack a BBC team. Capturing, detaining and beating the journalists
Libyan forces captured, detained and brutally beat a BBC news team while they were trying to reach the western city of Zawiya, the BBC states. The three-member team say Libya's army and secret police beat them with fists, knees and rifles and then performed mock executions. "We were lined up against the wall. I was the last in line - facing the wall," Chris Cobb-Smith told the BBC. "I looked and I saw a plain-clothes guy with a small sub-machine gun. He put it to everyone's neck. I saw him and he screamed at me. Then he walked up to me, put the gun to my neck and pulled the trigger twice. The bullets whisked past my ear. The soldiers just laughed." The news team said they witnessed other detainees who were hooded, handcuffed and often screaming in agony. The team, which was detained Monday and then held for 21 hours, has since flown out of the country. The attack on the journalists, which included being held in a cage while others were beaten around them, represents the most serious case yet involving the targeting of international media, the Guardian reports.
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