The Rixos hotel housed top government officials, foreign journalists and state television facilities but is still in control of forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi. The Rixos hotel housed top government officials, foreign journalists and state television facilities but is still in control of forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi.
Tripoli's Hotel Rixos was a safer reporting base than the front lines but no longer, writes Jeremy Peters.
WITH a 1600-square-metre spa, helicopter service upon request and a self-described ''culture of service perfection'', the Rixos is Tripoli's premier hotel. The reporters called it the ''Hotel California'' - a place where you could check out any time you liked, but never without a government minder or spies watching your every movement.
At the weekend, the 120-room, $500-a-night oasis in the centre of the Libyan capital became a prison for the journalists working from there. Armed government forces have refused to let journalists leave. And even if they wanted to, a raging gun battle outside would most likely prevent them from getting very far.
As a result, journalists from CNN, Reuters, the BBC and other international news organisations were holed up inside with no electricity or air conditioning, forced to stand clear of windows because of stray bullets.
''It's just become so dangerous being here,'' said CNN's Matthew Chance, the cable channel's senior international correspondent, who was still able to broadcast an occasional update and provided regular commentary via Twitter.

''We're talking about heavy explosions, artillery shells, rocket-propelled grenades,'' he said.
The reporters had already met to consider their escape options, according to Matthew Price, a BBC correspondent. ''No route to the port, no boats there to take us out anyway,'' he wrote on the BBC's website. ''We dined in flak jackets - helmets by our side.''
Over the course of the six-month conflict, the Rixos has become a hub for Libyan government officials and scores of foreign journalists, who have stayed there with the blessing of the Gaddafi regime.
The government required journalists with credentials and visas to stay at the hotel.
The other option for foreign journalists covering the conflict was to trail rebel forces as they fought their way through Libya. This was seen as less safe but also less restrictive. Those journalists are now reporting from the streets of Tripoli.
Whenever government minders wanted to assemble the journalists for a news conference or an outing on a tour bus, a two-tone chime - the bing-bong, journalists called it - would ring on loudspeakers in the rooms, followed by an announcement asking them to come to the marble-clad lobby.
But the atmosphere at the hotel began to change as government officials became more jumpy from the air strikes. By mid-June, the atmosphere was much nastier, as minders berated journalists and accused them of spying for NATO.
The Washington Post pulled its correspondent, Ernesto Londono, from the hotel in July over security concerns.
Shortly before rebel forces swept into Tripoli and took control, the regime's chief spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, insisted in a press briefing the city would withstand any rebel assault.
By Sunday night, many officials had fled, leaving a few armed men to stop foreign journalists going anywhere.
Price wrote in an online entry: ''Gaddafi men are outside with guns, waiting. We still can't leave.''
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