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 journalists cannot leave the hotel 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.
