FEBRUARY 20

• Dr. Ali Errishi, minister of immigration and expatriates, resigns and says that Gaddafi should step down.

• Major General Suleiman Mahmoud defects.

• Hussein Sadiq al Musrati, a “senior diplomat in China,” steps down in an on-air interview with Al Jazeera and “call[s] on all diplomatic staff to resign.”

• Unidentified members of an army unit known as the “Thunderbolt squad” defect and say they have engaged in combat with Gaddafi’s elite guards.

FEBRUARY 21

• Justice Minister Mustafa Mohamed Abud Al Jalil resigns.

• Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Ibrahim O. Dabbashi leads twelve other members of Libya’s UN mission in New York in renouncing Gaddafi.

• Ambassador to India Ali al-Essawi resigns.

• Abdel Moneim al-Huny, permanent representative to the Arab League, resigns.

• Two fighter jet pilots, one later identified as Col. Ali Faraj Alrabti, fly across the border into Malta, apparently after having been ordered to fire on protesters.

• Libya’s ambassador to Belgium (name unclear) resigns on Al Jazeera.

• Saleh Ali Al Majbari and Jumaa Farris, counselors at the Libyan embassy in the United States, denounce Gaddafi and resign.

• In Boston, Ali Richi, minister for immigration, denies he has resigned yet, but calls for all Libyan ambassadors to continue their work independently of the regime.

• Unidentified members of the Libyan army are reported to be fighting forces loyal to Gaddafi.

• Central Bank Governor Farhat Bengdara flies to Turkey, where he later announces his defection.