Sunday, August 21, 2011

6:00pm - Opposition forces have taken Al-Mayah, a town 20miles from Tripoli, 27km bridge here too


Fatma ☾✰
Opposition forces have taken Al-Mayah, a town 20miles from Tripoli. via 
7 minutes ago via Tweet Button


LIVE Libyan Unrest: Opposition forces have taken Al-Mayah, a town 20miles from Tripoli.


5:40pm: Libyan freedom fighters advanced quickly eastwards towards Tripoli on Sunday, seizing weapons and tanks in the town of Gadayem after bloody clashes with retreating forces loyal to leader Moamer Gaddafi.
5:37pm: Libyan rebels seize large stores of weapons from military base near Tripoli
5:30pm: Libya coach Marco Paqueta said he was on the verge of quitting in the next few days as the continued participation of his side in the African Nations Cup qualifiers was in doubt. “It is increasingly difficult to give continuity to my work with the Libya team,” the 53-year-old Brazilian tweeted at the weekend (twitter.com/#!/Marcopaqueta). “I think this time next week we will have a conclusion.”
5:15pm: A Maltese ship heading for Tripoli to pick up refugees came under fire and could not dock in the port, Polish foreign ministry officials were quoted as saying on Sunday by Polish state news agency PAP. “The ship is waiting for a better moment to enter the port because during its first attempt it came under fire,” Paulina Kapuscinska, a spokeswoman from the ministry, told PAP.
3:50pm NATO says the situation in Libya is changing quickly and it’s becoming more difficult to identify and engage targets for airstrikes as the uprising against Moammar Gadhafi gains momentum. NATO spokesman Col. Roland Lavoie says he can’t confirm that because the situation on the ground had become so fluid in recent days that it’s difficult to track all developments. He says “there is no longer a traditional front line as we had in other phases of the conflict.”
3:20pm An operation dubbed Mermaid is underway in the capital with the goal of isolating the veteran leader and forcing his surrender or departure, a rebel spokesman told AFP. With rebels claiming to have seized three key towns and saying they are advancing on Tripoli from the west, the veteran leader urged supporters to “march by the millions” to liberate cities held by “traitors and rats.”
2:58pm In Tripoli on Sunday , the two sides appeared to be jockeying for control of rooftop terraces where they could place firing positions, possibly in preparation for a new burst of fighting after nightfall. A rebel activist in the city said pro-Gaddafi forces had put snipers on the rooftops of buildings around Bab al-Aziziyah, Gaddafi’s compound, and on the top of a nearby water tower.
2:37pm Libya soccer coach Marco Paqueta said he was on the verge of quitting in the next few days as the continued participation of his side in the African Nations Cup qualifiers was in doubt. ”It is increasingly difficult to give continuity to my work with the Libya team,” the 53-year-old Brazilian tweeted at the weekend. “I think this time next week we will have a conclusion.”
2:11pm Libyan rebels said they were less than 20 miles (30 kilometers) from Moammar Gadhafi’s main stronghold of Tripoli on Sunday, a day after opposition fighters launched their first attack on the capital itself. Fighters said a 600-strong rebel force that set out from Zawiya has reached the outskirts of the village of Jedaim and was coming under heavy fire from regime forces on the eastern side of the town. Murad Dabdoub, a fighter who returned to Zawiya from the front, told The Associated Press that Gadhafi’s forces were pounding rebel positions with rockets, mortars and anti-aircraft fire. The rebels’ arrival at Jedaim was also confirmed by Abdul-Bari Gilan, a doctor in Zawiya. He told the AP that he had treated a rebel who was wounded in the fighting at Jedaim.
2:03pm Rebels fighting for control of the Libyan capital Tripoli have killed 31 of Muammar Gaddafi’s forces and captured 42, Al Jazeera television said on Sunday, citing its correspondent. Explosions and gunfire rang out in Tripoli through Saturday night as opponents of Gaddafi launched an uprising and rebel forces edged
1:30pm: Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr is traveling with Libyan rebels to the west of Tripoli. She says that Libya’s opposition are in control of three Tripoli neighbourhoods: Fashloum, Zawiyat Dahmani, and Mansoura.
Mansoura is close to Bab Al Aziziya, the location of Muammar Gaddafi’s compound.
This is a live interview with Zeina from the frontline.
1:00pm: Opposition Fighters said a 600-strong rebel force that set out from Zawiya has reached the outskirts of the village of Jedaim and was coming under heavy fire from regime forces on the eastern side of the town. Murad Dabdoub, a fighter who returned to Zawiya from the front, told The Associated Press that Gadhafi’s forces were pounding rebel positions with rockets, mortars and anti-aircraft fire.
12:48pm: The Libyan consulate in the United Arab Emirates reopens today with a new, opposition-appointed ambassador Dr Aref Ali Nayed. The new Libyan ambassador to the UAE, says the reopened consulate is to become a focal point for the Libyan community after being avoided for decades by expatriates fearing trouble from government officials.
12:41pm:Tripoli based tweeter @2011feb17 tweets:Independence flags are everywhere in Zawyat Aldihmani. #feb17 #Libya #Tripoli
12:30pm: Guardian’s Luke Harding in AzZawiya talked to a Libyan-American who was working as a spotter for Nato strikes, who described the “very sophisticate co-ordination” now taking place. This outside help appears crucial to the rebel advance. Luke recounted asking another rebel why he believed his side would win, and getting the response–”I believe in God–and Nato.”
12:20pm: A small number of Britons who have remained in Libya’s capital, Tripoli, have decided to leave on a ship to Malta, the Foreign Office says.Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt told the BBC: “We are aware of foreign nationals being there, including some British nationals who are leaving this morning… They’re being protected through our arrangement with the Hungarian embassy.”
12:15pm:Sky News’ special correspondent Alex Crawford, who is in Jaddaim less than 20 miles (30 kilometres) from the capital., said the rebel force consisted of several dozen foot soldiers and an armed convoy have taken the town. She said they had encounted “very little resistance” as they passed into the next village of Mayah and advance towards Tripoli. “This is a march on the capital, they are heading for the presidential palace,” she said.
12:10pm: Opposition military spokesman Col Ahmed Bani confirmed that opposition forces had fallen back in the eastern oil port of Brega.”Yesterday, the industrial zone was under our complete control, but the truth is that today the situation has changed due to heavy artillery shelling,” Col Bani said on Saturday.”We withdrew to the eastern part of the industrial zone.”
11:50am:@matthewwprice tweets:It’s pretty clear there is a huge battle going on right now in a part of #Tripoli Fighting intense #Libya #Gadaffi
11:48am: British Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt said Sunday that the Libyan conflict was now at “an extraordinarily crucial point”, saying an uprising in Tripoli had “plainly started”.
“What is clear is that an uprising in Tripoli, which was always going to happen when people felt that there was an opportunity being produced by the efforts outside Tripolito make it safe to rise against the Qadhafi regime, that has plainly started”–Alistair Burt
10:59am: Rebels today have advanced from Zawiyah, the coastal city with a key oil reinfery, to al-Mayah, around 17 kilometers farther east down the road toward Tripoli. Advances look to be coming more quickly now that fighting has begun in Tripoli.
10:54am: Asmaa, an opposition activist in Tripoli, spoke with Al Jazeera this morning and describved rebel victories in the capital. She said many of Gaddafi’s forces had been injured
Posted by Robby Ball at 9:00 AM