LIVE: Libyan Unrest: Revolutionaries massed for new push on Ajdabiyah
All updates are in Libyan local time (GMT +2).
6:47:pm: 
A doctor in the besieged Libyan city of Misrata has told the BBC: “The Gaddafi troops are trying to enter the city from the west side of Misrata through an area called Zrieg, which is about 15km from the city centre.”
A doctor in the besieged Libyan city of Misrata has told the BBC: “The Gaddafi troops are trying to enter the city from the west side of Misrata through an area called Zrieg, which is about 15km from the city centre.”6:42pm:
Qatar flies first sortie over Libya after joining international forces
Qatar flies first sortie over Libya after joining international forces6:37pm:
The rebel-controlled radio in Al-Bayda, eastern Libya, has been speaking to a regular guest, Colonel Ahmad, who assures listeners that the liberation of Ajdabiya is “imminent”
The rebel-controlled radio in Al-Bayda, eastern Libya, has been speaking to a regular guest, Colonel Ahmad, who assures listeners that the liberation of Ajdabiya is “imminent”6:08pm:
Residents have told Al Jazeera that Gaddafi troops are patrolling Ajdabiya at night in unmarked cars searching for opposition fighters.
Residents have told Al Jazeera that Gaddafi troops are patrolling Ajdabiya at night in unmarked cars searching for opposition fighters.5:30pm:
From Nato spokeswoman Oana Lungescu: “Under Operation United Protector, Nato ships, submarines and jets are cutting the flow of arms and mercenaries to Gaddafi’s forces. At the same time Nato is actively considering whether to take on a broader role under the UN Security Council resolution. Without prejudging the deliberations, we would expect a decision to take over all operations in the next few days.”
From Nato spokeswoman Oana Lungescu: “Under Operation United Protector, Nato ships, submarines and jets are cutting the flow of arms and mercenaries to Gaddafi’s forces. At the same time Nato is actively considering whether to take on a broader role under the UN Security Council resolution. Without prejudging the deliberations, we would expect a decision to take over all operations in the next few days.”5:10pm:
Government forces have kidnapped and beaten up residents of Az Zawiyah since recapturing the city near the capital Tripoli two weeks ago, a rebel spokesman said.
Government forces have kidnapped and beaten up residents of Az Zawiyah since recapturing the city near the capital Tripoli two weeks ago, a rebel spokesman said.4:32pm: Libya: Rebels on the approach to Ajdabiya say there are air strikes against Gaddafi’s forces. “I am waiting for the jets to finish bombing before goingin,” Reuters quotes rebel fighter Ahmed al-Misrati as saying.
4:30pm: US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses implementing UN Security Council Resolutions on Libya. Read more here.4:20pm: On the diplomatic front, some not very diplomatic sounding comments from Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. According to the Turkish agency Anatolia, he has said that France will be sidelined on Libya once Nato takes control of the operation, and this will be “positive”.
4:15pm: Two explosions are heard near the eastern Libyan town of Ajdabiya, where a huge plume of smoke is seen rising, AFP reports.
Revolutionary fighters on the outskirts of Ajdabiya move towards the frontline
Revolutionaries on the outskirts of the town, walk to the front as shelling continues
4:01pm: Libyan rebels massed for a new push on Ajdabiyah on Friday and exchanged artillery fire with Muammar Gaddafi’s forces holding the strategic eastern town.
3:50pm: Iman Bughaigis, a spokeswoman for the transitional national council says that opposition forces are “doing their best”
3:38pm: The allies have fired 16 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Gaddafi forces in the past 24 hours, a US military spokeswoman says, reports Reuters.
3:18pm: Reuters: Libyan rebels massed for a new push on Ajdabiyah on Friday and exchanged artillery fire with Muammar Gaddafi’s forces holding the strategic eastern town.
3:13pm: Reuters: British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Friday the people of Libya must determine the future of the North African country for themselves.
2:40pm: AFP news agency has just news-flashed a line about Nicolas Sarkozy saying that Paris and London are preparing some unspecified political initiative on the situation
2:35pm: AFP news agency has just news-flashed a line about Nicolas Sarkozy saying that Paris and London are preparing some unspecified political initiative on the situation. Sarkozy says Paris and London have been working on a “political and diplomatic solution” to the Libyan crisis, at the two-day EU summit in Brussels.2:14pm:Simon Brooks, head of Red Cross operations in eastern Libya, says the organisation is “deeply concerned” about the reports of fighting coming from the city. Direct access to those in need of aid has been refused, he tells Reuters, “despite repeated efforts and dialogue with Tripoli”.
2:10pm: Simon Brooks, head of Red Cross operations in eastern Libya, says the organisation is “deeply concerned” about the reports of fighting coming from the city. Direct access to those in need of aid has been refused, he tells Reuters, “despite repeated efforts and dialogue with Tripoli”.1:37: Mustafa said he was not a rebel but a freedom fighter. “We started our revolution as a peaceful revolution, but we had to carry weapons because of the fierce retaliation of Gaddafi against us. I am a computer engineer, a business man, a graduate from US, I have a company in Dubai,” he said. “I left everything for my people and the freedom of my people.”
1:35pm: “I am sure we will defeat him,” Mustafa told the BBC. “We just need some organisation – we are working on it: we are training our people, we are reorganising, we are liaising with the army. I think we will defeat him in the end, after 42 years it is about time.”
1:31pm: A rebel fighter in Ajdabiya told the BBC he believed they would win the fight against Gaddafi soon, and that he was grateful for the coalition air strikes as they enabled the rebels to protect their people. “They are air strikes for humanitarian reasons – Gaddafi’s brigades are killing people, torturing people,” he said.
Friday Prayer today in Benghazi
1:30pm:
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague says that “if the Gaddafi regime think the will of the international community is faltering they are in for quite a surprise”.
1:22pm:UK Foreign Secretary William Hague says there is no confirmed evidence of civilian casualities from coalition air strikes, reports Reuters. Mr Hague says that “if the Gaddafi regime think the will of the international community is faltering they are in for quite a surprise”.
1:18pm: UK Foreign Secretary William Hague tells the BBC control of the no-fly zone enforcement should pass to Nato within days. “Bear in mind we only passed the UN resolution a week ago and started military operations very urgently on Saturday in order to save Benghazi from what was about to happen to it. So we have then had to put some of the arrangements of the command of this in place over this week, but that is being put together perfectly well.”
1:13pm: During the Friday Prayer sermon in Benghazi, the Imam thanked Qatar, France, US, UK and the United Nations specifically for assisting them. He also thanked Russia and China for not standing in the way.
12:26pm: Uganda has announced it is following several other countries and freezing Libyan assets worth some $375m (£232m). The assets are mainly linked to the telecommunications, hotel, banking and oil sectors.12:20pm: Mohammed in Misrata told the BBC that while it was quiet in the city last night the situation there remains dire, with no electricity and a lack of doctors and medical supplies.”Misrata is besieged now for 35 days,” he said. “They don’t allow food to come in, they cut the water, they cut everything. And they are killing people every day by tanks and by snipers. So really, we don’t see the benefit of the Nato strikes.”
11:33am:The AFP news agency says members of the African Union have met in Addis Ababa for talks on Libya with delegates from Libya, the EU, the UN, the Arab League and the Islamic Conference.
11:20am:BBC defence and security correspondent Nick Childs says the RAF Tornado strike on military vehicles near Ajdabiya last night was part of a significant operation involving several fighter jets and repeated attacks. “There have been a number of British strikes but they have tended to be long-range against significant major targets. This is the first of this type in which the Tornadoes have gone after forces on the ground.”
11:10am: Uganda will freeze some $375 million in assets in the financial services, telecommunications, leisure and infrastructure sectors, according to the AFP news agency, citing local media. Libya owns majority stakes in Uganda Telecom, National Housing and Construction Corporation, and Lake Victoria Hotel.
11:06am:
The United Arab Emirates said last night it was sending six F-16 and six Mirage aircraft to join the coalition. Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan said the participation “will commence in the coming days”
8:23am: Al Jazeera’s Anita McNaught reports from Tripoli on the Gaddafi regimes confusing account of civilian casualties. While it appears that coalition air strikes have led to casualties, it’s so far been impossible to know whether the dead are soldiers or civilians.
7:36am: Former US fighter jet pilot Lt. Col. Jay Stout told Al Jazeera that the dual command that seems to exist within the international military campaign in Libya creates a greater risk of air-to-air collisions or, in the worst case, coalition aircraft accidentally firing on one another. If NATO is policing the no-fly zone while an unnamed coalition led by the US, UK and France can still hit ground targets, who’s in charge?
(March 24) – Libya’s neighbour Tunisia has frozen assets belonging to the family of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, a Tunisian government source said on Thursday. Read more.
Yesterday, March 24, Benghazi held a large rally to thank the coalition forces for protecting them from Gaddafi air strikes. If you missed it watch it here.
Controversial French intellectual celebrity Bernard-Henry Levy gets the credit for convincing President Nicholas Sarkozy to recognise the Libyan opposition in a new AFP article. Having traveled to Benghazi shortly after the uprising, Levy brought three members of the transition national council to Paris to meet with Sarkozy on March 10; after the meeting, Sarkozy made his announcement, which reportedly even caught Foreign Minister Alain Juppe off guard.
6:39am: Fox News reports that Libyan Foreign Minister Musa Kusa made his second call to Jeffrey Feltman, a high-ranking State Department diplomat, on Sunday. Fox attributes the story to “a senior State Department official intimately involved with the Libyan crisis.” The source did not share the contents of the call, but Feltman has personally thanked Kusa for his help during the evacuation of US citizens from Libya.
4:30am: AJ correspondent James Bays reports on the desperate conditions for people who have chosen to stay in Ajdabiya, a city which has been fought over for more than two weeks.
4:10am The Kremlin says Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has called Barack Obama to discuss the Libyan crisis. ”The Russian president especially noted the need to avoid casualties among the civilian population and the priority of achieving goals set by UN Security Council Resolution 1973,” the Kremlin said.
3:00am: China reaches out to Germany on Libya: Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi laid out China’s “principled stance” about the U.N.-authorized military campaign against the embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi during a telephone call on Thursday with the German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, said the Chinese Foreign Ministry website (www.mfa.gov.cn). Find out more here.
Westerwelle will visit China next week for talks that appear sure to cover the crisis in Libya. Although Beijing and Berlin have often traded barbs on human rights, trade and security, they have found some common ground in shared misgivings about the Western air campaign against Gaddafi.
2:40am: Libyan television footage shows a serious fire after allied air attacks on what the TV report said was a military base in the capital, Tripoli, badly damaging military vehicles. Wonder who actually caused this fire.
2:21am: Here’s a video recording of Secretary Clinton’s statements about the crisis in Libya earlier today:
Source: CNN
2:08am: EU Council President Herman von Rompuy after talks in Brussels: “From the beginning of the crisis, the European Union was at the forefront imposing tough sanctions. Today we decided that we are ready to adopt further sanctions, including measures to ensure that oil and gas revenues do not reach the Gaddafi regime. Member states will ask the United Nations to do the same.”
2:06am: Al Jazeera Anita McNaught, in Tripoli, says she has heard less military action in the city tonight than the previous five nights since the no-fly zone was imposed.
2:05am: Al Jazeera’s Anita McNaught, in Tripoli, says the lives of the Libyans are getting “harder by the day” as many petrol stations and shops are shut and many people stay at home because they fear airstrikes.
1:51am: EU Council President Herman von Rompuy after talks in Brussels: “From the beginning of the crisis, the European Union was at the forefront imposing tough sanctions. Today we decided that we are ready to adopt further sanctions, including measures to ensure that oil and gas revenues do not reach the Gaddafi regime. Member states will ask the United Nations to do the same.”
1:42AM: CNN’s Nic Robertson describes a media trip gone wrong in Tripoli, when they could not find a civilian house that the Libyan government claimed was bombed by Coalition forces:
1:48AM: French President Nicolas Sarkozy says international action in Libya must “remain eminently political”, whatever Nato’s role, AFP reports. Mr Sarkozy also claims that international action has saved “thousands and thousands” of lives.
1:39am French President Nicolas Sarkozy says international military action in Libya has prevented “thousands and thousands” of deaths over the past six days.
1:13am: Al Jazeera’s Anita McNaught, in Tripoli, says the lives of the Libyans are getting “harder by the day” as many petrol stations and shops are shut and many people stay at home because they fear airstrikes.
1:11am: NATO will not engage targets on the ground unless they’re attacked by targets on the ground.
Video: Mosque in Zintan Shelled
March 25, 2011
Footage shows a mosque severely damaged in the city of Zintan by Gaddafi forces
Footage shows a mosque severely damaged in the city of Zintan by Gaddafi forces
Video: Massive demonstrations in Benghazi
March 24, 2011
Massive demonstrations in Benghazi in support of the Coalition Airstrikes
Massive demonstrations in Benghazi in support of the Coalition Airstrikes
Colonel Ali Mabrouk Mohamed Trabelsi Executed – Translated
This video from March 8 shows the bodies of 4 soliders, including well-known Colonel Ali Mabrouk Trabelsi, who refused to kill their own people. We have the commentary now translated for you in English.
This video is graphic. Viewer discretion is advised.
“This is one of the soldiers from Gaddafi’s mercenary brigades, who were executed before the battle because of their refusal to fight the revolutionaries. We have 4 bodies, all tied up and shot in the head, some of them from behind. And according to the information given to us by prisoners, they were shot for refusing to fight the revolutionaries in the western mountains. They were killed at the same time. We have 4 bodies, we wanted to film all of them, but we didn’t have time to film all of them. But we have now in the hospital in Zintan, in these freezers, 4 of them all of them with their hands tied up, and all of them shot in the head region, from the side and from behind. These are some of them. They are soldiers and I suspect that some of them are officers. They don’t have their rank on their uniforms, but most soldiers in the Libyan army don’t wear insignia. May God give help and victory to the February Revolution. May God have mercy on them, whether or not they committed any offenses against us, they are our fellow Libyans, and they were executed by this fascist regime, and may God accept them into his mercy for refusing to fight, and that is the simplest form of struggle against oppression. And we point out to those who are still fighting with us against this regime, that this is martyrdom. Even those who simply refuse to kill their fellow citizens, are martyrs. We belong to God and to him we will return. Peace be with you.”
Infant in hospital injured by indiscriminate firing by Gaddafi forces. (EXTREMELY Disturbing & Graphic)
Background described by phone to @feb17voices by a Misurata doctor on March 24. Video from March 23, 2011. The infant is from a family residing close to Gaddafi forces’ current location in Misurata. Gaddafi forces, responding to pressure from opposition youth, opened fire indiscriminately on surrounding homes. Infant’s injuries stem from shrapnel. We are completely at a loss for words for the horrifying acts that have been committed against the most helpless young babies and children.
Warning: This is extremely disturbing and graphic. Viewer discretion is advised.
Expert Military Opinion of Recent Videos
An expert on weaponry and the military, “Dubb,” offered his analysis on three recent videos.
Khamis Brigade solider training:
“Although the beating of new soldiers is common in many countries, including Russia (Where Khamis Al Qadhafi trained), forcing them to eat and kiss raw dog is unheard of. No country that values the lives of its troops would subject them to this kind of treatment. “
Gaddafi violent city bombing on the population of Libya
“These are BM-21 Grad Multiple Launch Artillery vehicles firing Grad rockets. The Grad rocket is an unguided munition ( freefall, unguided is the word used) and has been around since the early 1960s. It’s not possible for me to tell what type of Grad rocket is being used, they make high explosive (anti tank) and fragmentation (anti personnel) varieties, but either is intended for heavy use on the battlefield. The Libyan Army does not possess any guided weapons (except anti tank missiles) of any kind, so, if you see any type of artillery in action, it’s safe to say they’re blasting away with unguided ammo.”
Shelling of civilians in Misratah
“It is definitely artillery fire, fired from a howitzer. If I had to guess, I would say it is 122 millimeter fire from a D-30 Howitzer. Pretty disgusting thing to be using on a group of civilians standing around.”
Please note this is simply an opinion of a correspondent.
Video: Aftermath after Attacks in Zintan
March 23, 2011: This video was taken in Zintan and surveys the damage to homes and remains of the remains of missiles.
Translation:
In the middle of house.. the first bullets (attack) was in the middle of houses.. in the middle of civilians.. these boys live in this area. Look at this .. just leave it in it’s place the people who know weapons will know what type it is. I don’t know what it is. This is the missile. Look here *points at hole* one of the missiles coming from the south east, coming to houses. This was a safe area full of simple people.. they are being attacked in their homes. The house is about 10 meters away from houses. Do not move it leave it this is history. All these are coming from the south-east there is area which has storages for ammunition. They were aiming for the mosque. This is one of the sheep hit by the missiles and this is its blood. One of the victims look it is dead. This is another one in the middle of the house. Look these are houses not even 4 meters away. Look this is broken window broke just from the noise. This is all just as a result of the noise missiles made. These are just houses just look. Simple people, they have no relation to war or anything. Look this is where it hit if this hit a person they would be done. They are aiming at houses, people, mosques, even the grass that is on the ground. Here look another shell inside a mosque. This is zentan… another window broke as a result of the noise. This was safe location, look at this nice spring we never seen one like it but he destroyed the land and plants. But there is a god greater than him.. all these locations have been targeted.. just look at this spring and blossoming plants. God gives and blesses us but this tyrant (gaddafi) burns and destroys but god is greater and stronger than him. May god take vengeance on him, his children and all his followers. The hope of this pure population, this peaceful population, they don’t want destruction in their land.. just look at this peaceful land and these simple people in front of the mosque.
