The Libyan government has kept foreign journalists reporting from Tripoli sequestered in the Rixos Hotel, allowing them out in the city only with a government minder. Today, the hotel is one of the limited number of spots in the city still in the hands of Qaddafi loyalists, who set up a checkpoint on the road leading to the hotel.
Al Jazeera reports that the j because it is surrounded by government forces who plan to use them as human shields to deter a rebel attack on the small stronghold.
The wives and children of Libyan government officials who had sought refuge in the hotel fled over the weekend. So did the government-provided translators that the journalists were using, according to a BBC reporter living in the hotel.
