Reuters has more on the air strikes Gaddafi's forces have launched on Ras Lanuf: reporting that one blast hit a car carrying a family and "may have killed one or more of them".
Several witnesses said one man, possibly the father or grandfather, had died. Others said two children were badly wounded and one of those said two children died. It was not immediately possible to confirm any of the deaths."The inside of the car and parts of the outside are splattered with blood, and children's shoes are scattered inside," said Reuters correspondent Mohammed Abbas, who saw the wrecked white Toyota pick-up. "All the windows are blown out." He saw shrapnel and said the side of the car was holed.Another air strike, one of a series on the town on Monday, hit again shortly after the family car was struck. It sent a plume of smoke into the air and rebel fighters fired at a warplane overhead shouting: "Allahu Akbar"
Here's Douglas Alexander's line to William Hague in the Commons just now, courtesy of Andrew Sparrow:
The British public are entitled to wonder whether, if some new neighbours moved into the foreign secretary's street, he would introduce himself by ringing the doorbell, or instead choose to climb over the fence in the middle of the night.
The Foreign Office has now published the full text of Hague's statement to the House.
(Sorry for lack of posts, we've had a fire drill).
Douglas Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary, has just been speaking. He asks Hague to confirm that the revolutionary council HQ is just two miles away from where HMS Cumberland was docked in port.
Andrew reports that "he then asks Hague if he would introduce himself to new neighbours by knocking on the door - or by climbing into their garden in the middle of the night" – to chuckles on the opposition benches.
"It was a lethal line," Andrew says, "made all the more effective by Alexander's deadpan delivery".
Hague has finished speaking. Andrew says his statement was quite lengthy, but "he was padding it out with plenty of general comments about what is happening in the region". Hague covered the MI6/SAS mission in just five sentences, Andrew says – and he's managed to get down the foreign secretary's full quote:
Last week I authorised the dispatch of a small diplomatic team to Eastern Libya in uncertain circumstances which we judged required their protection to build on these initial contacts [with the Libyan opposition] and to assess the scope for closer diplomatic dialogue. I pay tribute to that team. They were withdrawn yesterday after a serious misunderstanding about their role leading to temporary detention. This situation was resolved and they were able to meet [an opposition leader]. However it was clearly better for this team to be withdrawn.
More from Andrew:
Hague says Andrew Mitchell, the international development secretary, has visited the region to find out about the humanitarian crisis on Libya's border.[He] says 180 Britons are still in Libya. Some of them, such as journalists, have said they intend to stay.The international criminal court is investigating alleged crimes in Libya, he says.EU sanctions against Libya came into full force last Thursday. That was the quickest ever imposition of EU sanctions.
My colleague Andrew Sparrow is in Westminster and reporting live on Hague's speech:
Hague says he authorised the dispatch of a "small diplomatic team" to Libya in circumstances that meant they needed armed protection. They were withdrawn after a misunderstanding about their intentions, he says.
Hague is speaking. He says the Gaddafi regime is launching military counterattacks against opposition forces, with clashes in the centre and east of Libya.
There are reports of helicopter gunships being used against opposition forces, and unconfirmed reports of a helicopter and aircraft being shot down over Ras Lanuf, he adds.
William Hague, the foreign secretary, is expected to speak about the failed SAS mission to Libya at 3.30pm. Hague has come under pressure today after it emerged he had personally approved the operation. On the politics live blog, my colleague Andrew Sparrowprovides the context to the statement Hague will read in the House of Commons:
He's going to have to explain why he sent an MI6/SAS mission into Libya by helicopter at night to get in touch with the rebels when it appears he could have just called them up to arrange an appointment.
The Guardian's Chris McGreal is in Benghazi, where he saysthere is "mystification" from anti-Gaddafi forces over Britain's botched SAS mission to Libya.
Chris has been speaking to the provisional transitional National Council of Libya – the anti-Gaddafi forces council – about the mission and about the council's demands.
"There's general mystification," Chris says. "The first thing is that they suggest that the British forces and diplomats just didn't seem to know who they were looking for. They didn't seem to know who was in charge in Benghazi, and they portray them as really searching out anyone they could find to talk to.
"This left the members of the [National Council of Libya] who were told about these British officials arriving mystified as to what their intent was and at least according to the ones I've spoken to no formal offers or approaches were made ... this seem to have frustrated the new Libyan leadership, not least because it was done in what they describe as an indefensible way – an illegal way."
