Foreign reporters held captive at Tripoli hotel

TRIPOLI, Libya - Most of Tripoli may be in the hands of Libya's rebels, but forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi still control parts of the capital, including the neighborhood surrounding the Rixos Hotel, where several foreign journalists were being held captive at gunpoint.

The hotel is located next to Abu Salim where the heaviest fighting was raging on Wednesday.

When an AP reporter entered the hotel and asked if he could take out several journalists, the guard, carrying a Kalashnikov, said they were not allowed to leave.

When a group of four other journalists, including New York Times reporter David Kirkpatrick, pulled up to the front gate in a car displaying a rebel flag, they were ordered out of the car at gunpoint.

The driver was placed on the floor of the parking lot by one guard while the others were menaced at gunpoint and later taken inside the hotel. Only two armed guards were in evidence.

According to BBC reporter Matthew Price, a cameraman trying to leave the hotel was prevented from doing so by a Qaddafi guard pointing an AK-47 at him.

A steady barrage of automatic weapons fire and heavy weapons could be heard in the surrounding area where Qaddafi loyalists are still fighting, including in a large wooded park behind the hotel.

The journalists trapped in the Rixos appeared to be in good health but said that after four days of fighting in the area, nerves were stretched thin.