military site contaning what may b radioactive material has been found by rev forces near #Sabha

@Marguer_dMarguerite Dehler

.@feb17libya: military site contaning what may b radioactive material has been found by rev forces near #Sabha feb17.info/news/live-liby… #Libya

5:30pm: Commanders said all three main towns in the al-Jufra oasis had been captured.

5:00pm: Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi who control the city of Sirte have been executing residents suspected of sympathising with Libya’s new rulers, forces backing the country’s interim government and fleeing residents said.”The situation isn’t great,” said one resident who did not give his name as he left the city, where he said Gaddafi’s forces were moving “like gangs” through the streets. “There have been executions,” he said, naming two men who he said had been executed on Thursday. He also said he had witnessed executions in front of the house of a local family, whose name he gave as Safruny. An NTC commander on the outskirts of Sirte, separately showed Reuters a handwritten list of families whose members were said to have been executed in Sirte. The list, which he said he compiled with information from people inside the city, included the Safruny family.

4:45pm: A military site containing what appears to be radioactive material has been uncovered by revolutionary forces near the southern Libyan city of Sabha. The site, not far from Sabha in the Sahara desert, has two warehouses containing thousands of blue barrels marked with tape saying “radioactive,” and plastic bags of yellow powder sealed with the same tape.

4:30pm: Tunisian authorities have arrested Al Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, who served as Libyan prime minister until Muammar Gaddafi was deposed last month, an official in the Tunisian Interior Ministry told Reuters on Thursday.

“Al-Mahmoudi was arrested yesterday evening,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

12:15pm: The United States is preparing to reopen its embassy in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, while NATO says it is extending its operations in the country for another three months.

U.S. Ambassador Gene Cretz has returned to Tripoli where the U.S. plans to raise its flag over its mission on Thursday.

Cretz was based in Tripoli until December 2010. He left the country after WikiLeaks released his assessments of former leader Moammar Gadhafi’s personal life in which he described the former leader as “mercurial,” “notoriously erratic” and a “hypochondriac.”

12:01pm: @bencnn: Still some scattered clashes in Sabha today. Just heard big gunbattle behind main administration building of Sabha University.

11:50am: NATO said on Thursday it was confident it could conclude its mission in Libya well within a new 90-day operations period agreed this week.

“I am highly confident that we can complete this mission well within the limits as provided by NATO,” Lieutenant-General Charles Bouchard, the commander of NATO’s Libya operation, told a media briefing.

Bouchard said NATO’s mission would continue as long as a threat remained to civilians in the country. NATO states agreed on Wednesday to extend the alliance’s current mandate, which was due to expire on Sept. 27, by another 90 days. It was the second extension of the Libya mission, which NATO took full command of on March 31.

11:46am:The general commanding NATO’s mission in Libya says the Gadhafi regime continues to be a threat.Canadian Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard said Thursday in a conference call with reporters that forces loyal to Gadhafi “are still dangerous, orders continue to be given and violence against the population continues.” 

Bouchard said that the NATO mission “is not over by any means.” Moammar Gadhafi remains at large. His supporters remain well- armed and fighting is still raging on three fronts.

11:42am: Troops advancing on Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte from the east have put off any offensive for a week due to lack of ammunition, a brigade commander said.

“Fighting has been stopped for a week. We are facing a shrotage of ammunition,” Commander Mustafa bin Dardef of the Zintan Brigade, told AFP. His troops are deployed 25 km east of Sirte.

Bin Dardef said he was heading to Libya’s main eastern city of Benghazi with a group of his men to try to organise new supplies.

10:57am: @bencnn: Shops opening up again in Sabha. Fruit, meat, etc, More people in the street. Garbage being collected.

10:46am: China has won the support of the new Libyan government, state media reported on Thursday, which had been in doubt after Beijing’s frosty reaction to NATO-lead air strikes and attempts by Chinese firms to sell weapons to Muammar Gaddafi.

National Transitional Council chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil told Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting that Libya’s people appreciated China’s support, the official Xinhua news agency said.

“Jalil said the Libyan people respect the Chinese people and appreciate China’s support in the Security Council and its assistance,” Xinhua said in an English-language report.

9:19am: Austrian energy group OMV expects to see Libyan output at about 50 percent in the course of 2012, it told an investor presentation on Thursday.

“Our working assumption is very straightforward: it’s about 50 percent of pre-crisis level during the course of next year and that can come through a variety of profiles, of course,” exploration and production head Jaap Huijskes said.

Libya accounted for 10 percent of OMV output before the uprising to topple Muammar Gaddafi halted production.

OMV also said its main production assets in southwest Libya appear to be relatively undamaged but it will take time to get the logistics in place to have them running normally again.