ALEXANDRIA: Employees of Libya's consulate in the Egyptian city of Alexandria lowered the national flag on Tuesday and joined hundreds of protesters nearby who were calling for a revolt against Libya's leader. Many in the crowd responded to the removal of the plain green flag, designed by Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, with chants of "God is great" and "down with Qaddafi." Dozens of consulate employees joined in the chants, some of them in tears, witnesses said. On Monday, tens of Egyptians and Libyans joined a protest in front of the Libyan embassy in Zamalek, Cairo demanding the overthrow of Qaddafi. Showing solidarity with ongoing protests in Libya, protesters chanted anti-Qaddafi and Arab solidarity slogans and held pictures of Qaddafi labeling him a "murderer” and "cold blooded terrorist." "My family's house in Benghazi lies beside a brigade and they have been hearing the sounds of bombs and anti-aircraft artillery and say that people are dying everyday," Karim Thary Al-Din, a Libyan protester, said. "I am very happy with the protest today because it is my first time to see this kind of Arab solidarity," he added. Thary Al-Din, who works at an advertising agency, said that he is hopeful Qaddafi will leave after major tribes joined the protests. Protesters demanded that Libyan ambassador Ali Maria resign. "We want to stress the concept of pan-Arabism and that what happens is the same in all Arab countries and that we stand against what is happening there," Ahmed Al-Kordy, an Egyptian protester, said. "The revolution has moved beyond borders already and we are completing our Egyptian revolution by supporting theirs," he added. Deadly clashes between protesters in Libya and security forces and African Mercenaries left an estimate of more than 300 dead and hundreds injured. "What is happening in Libya now was expected due to the accumulation of the oppression during the past 42 years that witnessed Qaddafi's violence, largely hidden due to the media blackout," Naguib Aly, a Libyan protesters, said. "This was a revolution from the inside and the people of Libya will end it," he added. Similar protests were organized in front of the Bahrain and Algeria embassies.
