LIVE Libyan Unrest: July 30, 2011

Posted on July 30, 2011 by S050

We are tracking the latest developments to keep you updated on the situation on the ground. There are interactive maps located in the Protest map page to keep up with the latest movements. Also check out the featured twitters on the sidebar. On the Go? Follow us on Twitter @Feb17Libya for the Live updates and discussion. All updates are in Libyan local time (GMT+2)

2:40pm: Germany’s government is considering lifting its freeze on Libyan assets and is discussing the issue with other nations, the Foreign Ministry said. The decision to lend 100 million euros ($144 million) to the NTC for civilian purposes is an effort to help while the assets remain frozen, a Foreign Ministry official in Berlin said today.

Germany, which has already officially recognized the NTC, is waiting for the United Nations Security Council to lift its asset freeze, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said. The loan to the rebels will be repaid from Libyan assets frozen in Germany, he said.

2:30pm: The US State Department Friday urged the Transitional National Council, to come together in the wake of the killing of one of the rebels’ top military commanders. “This underscores some of the challenges that the Transitional National Council faces,” State Department deputy spokes Mark Toner told reporters Friday.

2:20pm: The State Department’s deputy spokesman, Mark Toner, characterized the situation on the ground in the rebel-stronghold Benghazi the day after the death of Abdel Fattah Younes as both fluid and calm Friday. One day after the head of the TNC announced that the body’s top military commander, and that there were definitive answers.

“The details surrounding the killing of Transitional National Council’s Chief of Staff Younes, as well as two other officers, are still unclear. Our envoy in Benghazi and his team are talking to the Transitional National Council, trying to get a better picture of what exactly happened,” said Toner.

8:10pm: The U.N. committee monitoring sanctions against Libya will consider requests from Moammar Gadhafi’s government and the rebel government in Benghazi to unfreeze funds to pay for medicine and other urgent humanitarian needs for the Libyan people, the committee chairman said Friday.

2:00pm: NATO says it has bombed three Libyan satellite dishes in the capital, Tripoli, in an effort to prevent Moammar Gadhafi from using television to intimidate civilians. The alliance also said Saturday that NATO fighter aircraft conducted a precision airstrike that disabled the three ground-based satellite dishes.

An alliance spokesman, Colonel Roland Lavoie, said the strike was “necessary,” because he said Gadhafi used television broadcasts to “oppress and threaten” the Libyan people and incite attacks against them.

1:45pm: Video: Libyan rebel forces chief commander, Abdul Fatah Younis’ body was found on Thursday, dumped outside Benghazi, along with the bodies of two colonels who were his top aides, according to Ali Tarhouni, minister of the petrol and finance of the National Transitional Council.

1:30pm: Rebels have encircled Muammar Gaddafi’s last stronghold in Libya’s Western Mountain region and hope to seize it soon, a commander said on Saturday.

Rebel tanks fired at Tiji, where an estimated 500 government troops are stationed, and the blasts could be heard from the nearby town of Hawamid, which was captured on Thursday in a new offensive against the army.

“We have Tiji surrounded and we hope to take it by the end of the day,” rebel commander Nasir al Hamdi, a former colonel in Gaddafi’s police force, told Reuters as gunfire crackled in the distance and he surveyed a battleground scattered with tank shell casings and government anti-aircraft bullets.