Jets took off from the Ronneby base on Sweden’s southern coast headed for Libya
All updates are in Libyan local time (GMT +2)
1:32pm: Check out the fresh story on the front page of Al Jazeera English website with the latest from Libya: ‘Libyan rebels killed in NATO air strike’
12:54pm: Three Swedish fighter jets headed to Sardinia en route to taking part in NATO operations against the regime of Gaddafi, a military spokesman said.The three JAS Gripen warplanes, of a total nine aircraft pledged by Sweden, took off from the Ronneby base on Sweden’s southern coast, army spokesman Rickard Wissman told AFP.Another five Gripens and a C-130 Hercules usable for mid-air refueling were to leave early Sunday, he said. The deployment, decided Tuesday by the Swedish government, won parliamentary approval on Friday.
9:58am: Al Jazeera’s correspondent reports that 13 Libyan rebels were killed and seven others were injured when NATO aircraft bombed four cars of rebels west of the city of Ajdabiya. The Libyan government says the air strikes killed six people and wounded 12 others.9:30am: Al Jazeera’s Laurence Lee, reporting from Benghazi, says his team was told that Gaddafi’s forces have stopped using tanks, because they can be easily spotted by NATO airplanes.“Instead they are using pick-up trucks with mortars on the back which look a lot more like the rebel forces. Both sides now are basically mired in this stretch about 200km wide on the southeast tip of the Gulf of Sirt and that situation – it seems increasingly – can’t change [...] So they have – despite all the bluster and the bravado – to find some sort of accommodation [...] Something’s got to give.”
8:34am: The German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle says the situation in Libya demands a political resolution, the Associated Press news agency reports.7:10am: The nations staging air strikes on Gaddafi’s forces will be heading into a diplomatic minefield if they arm the rebels as well, experts and envoys at the UN told AFP news agency.With international law specialists warning that any supplies would breach the UN Security Council arms embargo that the United States, Britain and France all voted for, diplomats say a council showdown would certainly follow if evidence emerges of deliveries.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and British prime minister David Cameron have both said they believe UN resolutions on Libya allow arming the rebels.
“Many countries would certainly strongly oppose any attempt to interpret the current resolutions as permitting arms supplies,” one senior diplomat on 15-nation council responded, speaking on condition of anonymity.
6:38am: The Gaddafi regime has initiated a concerted effort to open lines of communication with western governments in an attempt to bring the conflict to an end, the Guardian writes: Gaddafi regime starts talks with the west to end conflict. Read more here.4:35am: After anti-Gaddafi fighters lose ground in a week of fierce fighting, the Benghazi-based National Council offers a ceasefire deal – swiftly rejected by government officials.The offer came as UN envoy Abdelilah al-Katib visited both Gaddafi loyalists in Tripoli and opposition officials in Benghazi.
Al Jazeera’s James Bays reports from Benghazi on the latest efforts to exploit apparent divisions within Gaddafi’s inner circle.
3:19am: A spokesman for the anti-Gaddafi fighters in Misurata told AFP that 28 people had died in the city in the past three days of fighting. He denounced the “disproportionate use of force”, saying:“The criminal’s [Gaddafi's] forces fired at the city with all kinds of shells, rockets and bombs. Today they tried to reach the port, destroying everything on their path.”
The Libyan foreign ministry said Monday that an anti-rebel offensive in Misrata had been stopped after security was restored.
3:15am: Fighting in north Libya continues through the night, with reports of explosions in Homs and ongoing shelling in Misurata.A resident of Homs, 120km east of Tripoli, told the AFP news agency he heard explosions coming from a local naval base, which had earier been targeted by NATO forces.
Libyan State TV, however, reported the air strikes had hit residential neighbourhoods, saying:
“Military and civilian areas in the Al Khums [Homs] and Al Rojban regions were targeted in raids by the Western assailants, crusaders and colonialists.”
2:40am: International news media were yesterday taken by Libyan government officials on a tour of areas reportedly shelled in NATO air strikes. An unidentified doctor told journalists in Sabha:“Many, many houses are around the hospital. I thought maybe it hit hospital. It was near the hospital. The fire was looking like a nuclear bomb.”
Libyan government spokesperson Mussa Ibrahim said were 13 people were killed and 185 wounded in the attack.
1:40am: More on the Nicaraguan – Libyan diplomatic twists. First it was announced that Miguel D’Escoto, a former Nicaraguan foreign minister, would be the Gaddafi administration’s new representative to the UN – after beteran Libyan diplomat Ali Treki was reportedly denied a visa.Then US officials poured cold water on the idea, saying D’Escoto, a 78-year-old former Catholic priest and ex-Sandinista revolutionary, was only in the United States on a tourist visa – which didn’t allow him to work, let alone work as a national envoy to the United Nations.
Now president Daniel Ortega has appointed D’Escoto as Nicaragua’s deputy UN ambassador, which could pave the way for D’Escoto to legitimately speak at the international body, potentially using his position to speak up for Gaddafi’s regime.
UN officials have said they have yet to recieve official communication from Tripoli naming Libya’s new representative.
12:40am: The west Libya city of Misurata continues to be under heavy bombardment, residents tell Reuters. Gaddafi loyalists have attacked shops and homes in the city centre, as the rebels’ hold on the city begins to weaken. A a rebel spokesman called Sami told the news agency:“They used tanks, rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds and other projectiles to hit the city today. It was a random and very intense bombardment. We no longer recognise the place. The destruction cannot be described. The pro-Gaddafi soldiers who made it inside the city through Tripoli Street are pillaging the place, the shops, even homes, and destroying everything in the process. They are targeting everyone, including civilians’ homes. I don’t know what to say, may Allah help us.”
12:30am: Italy has not ruled our arming the anti-Gaddafifighters in Libya. But the country is exercising “caution at the moment”. Foreign minister Franco Frattini said:
“Italy believes this is an extreme measure that should be discussed again when it becomes the only possible option to protect civilians.”
12:25am: Civilian and military areas in Khoms and Arrujban have today been hit by air strikes – “by the bombardment of the colonial and crusader aggressors” – on Friday, Libyan state TV has quoted a military official as saying. Khoms is about about 100 km east of Tripoli, while Arrujban lies is about 190 km southwest of the capital.