meantime, new developments in libya. the fighting now reportedly crossing albeit briefly into the nation of tunisia. you remember them. the original revelatiolutiorevo. as a result, a power vacuum next to libya. forces said to be driven out by the military. libyan rebels clashing over a border crossing and those rebels now said to have the upper hand there. we begin our coverage with richard engel who is in libya at this hour in benghazi. before we get to the issues at the tunisian border, richard, can you tell us more about what s going on in syria and whether there s any sense of just how far the syrian government is willing to go at the way of slaughtering its own people to deal with this?
reporter: it s become very clear that this is a full-scale military crackdown in syria and the syrian government decided it will not accept any demonstrations. today was supposed to be a day of rage and after friday prayers, demonstrators left the mosque and syrian security forces fired on them. most of the people who were killed and according to human rights groups, there are anywhere from a dozen to 42 people killed today, were syrians, demonstrators, trying to enter the city of dara in southern syria has been surrounded by security services for several days and as the people tried to break the kcordn around the city they were shot. and then in libya there s the neighboring tunisia and so many of us in america learning the middle eastern geography on a country by country basis and
directly unless, well, like anything else it s two steps behind events in the countries and this administration is now four steps behind what the events are in syria. i want to add the libya-tunisia issue to this conversation. as we look, reva, as the spector of everything as it s developing, what is the end game? in other words, it is clear that the arab spring if you want to call it that is unrelenting at this juncture. it s clear that military force will be used to the extent up to and including murder of people in your own country. and that does not appear to be slowing down. in fact, it appears to be accelerating. right. and i think that s why you can see the sort of contradiction between the libya situation and the syrian situation where, the united states and its applies intervened in libya in the name of a humanitarian crisis.
pursuit, they might not have realized they had crossed into tunisia. once they got inside and we re talking about just over a dozen libyan armored trucks, pickup trucks, the libyan army and national guard mobilized, drove them out and sent them back in to libya. and fighting as you mentioned is still ongoing between the rebels and gadhafi s forces for control of part of the libyan-tunisian border. understood. listen, thank you as always for your reporting. richard engel in benghazi. joining us is reva and typically advising governments, corporations, institutional investors and the former u.s. ambassador to morocco and expert in the middle east, mark ginsburg. nice to have you both back. i d like to begin with syria, reva. describe to us the strategic
installations, as well as communications. so it may be an indication here, if in fact it proves to be true, that gadhafi s moving some of his military hardware into oil installations, perhaps an in effort to protect them. live from tripoli. we know the international criminal court is building a case against gadhafi. by not only gadhafi himself but his loyalists. the prosecutor assigned tells reuters there s proof the regime began a bloody crackdown after watching the demonstrations in neighboring tunisia, egypt. tonight, the images that could some day be used as evidence. i want to tell you up front they re disturbing. they were found in a burnt-out police building in the town of zawa. you see another man here. these are not appropriate for children if they re watching. provided to us by the new york times.