SAS heroes launched a daring mission to rescue 150 workers stranded in Libya yesterday – amid fears Colonel Gaddafi may unleash his terrifying arsenal of chemical weapons on his own people.
As his unscrupulous thugs were even shooting at the injured in ambulances, two RAF C130 Hercules aircraft evacuated the Brits and foreign nationals from desert compounds.
Elite troops from the Special Boat Service – the Navy equivalent of the SAS – on the ground shielded the terrified ex-pats as they made their way to pre-arranged rendezvous points in the desert, south of Benghazi.
The two craft flew the workers out of the ravaged country – where bandits had laid siege to their remote bases.
Last night the relieved Brits – many of whom were almost out of food – were in the care of consular officials and the Red Cross. Diplomats were among 53 Brits on the last Government flight out of Tripoli as Britain shut down its embassy in the devastated city.
As up to 300 remaining Britons pray for rescue, terrified Tripoli residents told how the tyrant used rooftop snipers and militia men with anti-aircraft guns mounted on pick-up trucks to massacre hundreds of peaceful protesters.
They also told how regime loyalists have fired on paramedics and removed bodies from the city's hospitals after the dictator ordered a cover-up of the violence. Gruesome YouTube footage of gangs dragging the dead off the streets appeared to back up claims that Gaddafi is trying to hide the carnage from the outside world.
There were reports yesterday of dozens killed and injured when security forces opened fire on protesters 40 miles west of the capital, between the cities of Sabratha and Surman.
Libyan ministers who have deserted the dictator in recent days revealed that he has 14 tons of the lethal blister agent mustard gas stored in bunkers around the capital. Former Justice Minister Mustafa Abdel Galil said: "When he's really under pressure at the end he will do anything."
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There were signs the tyrant has made preparations to flee if he is defeated – after it emerged he secretly deposited £3billion of his personal fortune with investors in London last week. The estimated 300 Britons still in Libya – many of them oil workers stranded in isolated depots in the desert – started the risky journey to freedom in armed convoys yesterday.
British oil worker Jim Lockhart, 61, said he and his 50 colleagues felt like "a forgotten army".
Speaking from the Marsa-el-Brega oil terminal, Mr Lockhart, from Elton, Cheshire, said: "We have been stranded for 10 days and our food is running low. We are wondering why the British Government has not contacted us to give us reassurance."
Another stranded Briton Ian Kirkland, 59, told how he was warned he would be shot by Gaddafi's militia men if he tried to leave his compound. Robert Bradshaw, a father-of-three from Blackburn, was yesterday pinning his hopes on a rescue mission by his employer to get him out of an oilfield in Tibisti, 600 miles from Tripoli.
His desperately worried wife Marie explained: "He said Haliburton were going to fly a plane to the runway next to the oilfield to get them out."
Exhausted passengers yesterday told terrifying stories of the violence as they disembarked from HMS Cumberland after a gruelling 35-hour journey to safety in Malta.
A total of 168 passengers landed at Gatwick yesterday after a two-day journey across land, sea and air.
The last Government charter flight out of Tripoli was due at Gatwick last night while HMS Cumberland was returning to Benghazi on another rescue mission.
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