Dernawiya Hanan
A Libyan official said Seif al-Islam was likely in Ben Walid, and that Muatassim was most likely in Sirte. #Libya feb17.info/live-libya-unr…
9:15pm: For tens of thousands of people from Niger, the downfall of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi has been an economic catastrophe, plunging them suddenly from a world of good pay inLibya back into the precarious universe of their home country, one of the poorest and most dependent nations on earth.
9:05pm: An official of the new Libyan government said Colonel Qaddafi’s heir-apparent son, Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, was likely hiding in the loyalist desert enclave of Bani Walid, and that a second son, Muatassim el-Qaddafi, a militia commander and former national security adviser, was likely in Surt, the Qaddafi clan’s hometown on the Mediterranean coast.
9:00pm: Thousands of civilians are streaming out of Muammar Gaddafi’s besieged home town of Sirte, where a humanitarian disaster looms amid rising casualties and shrinking supplies of water, electricity and food, major aid agencies said on Wednesday.
8:55pm: Forces loyal to Libya’s interim government say they have captured the airport in Sirte, the birthplace of the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Fighters belonging to National Transitional Council said on Wednesday they were in control of the airport after intense fighting in the coastal city, one of the last of two bastions of support for the deposed Libyan leader.
6:00pm: Libya’s interim justice minister Mohammed al-Alagi said on Wednesday he was ready to work with Scottish authorities to probe the possible involvement of others in the Lockerbie bombing apart from the sole Libyan convicted for the attack. His remark at news conference reversed a position he took only on Monday, when he said that as far as Libya was concerned the case of the bombing of the U.S.-bound airliner over the Scottish village of Lockerbie with the loss of 270 lives was closed.4:00pm: Benghazi-based oil firm Agoco said it planned restarts at three more Libyan oilfields in east and west Libya by mid-October, boosting output to 350,000 barrels per day (bpd).
2:00pm:The AFP news agency reports that anti-Gaddafi fighters Wednesday appealed for help from NATO after being blasted by rockets fired by loyalist troops in Bani Walid, one of the ousted Libyan leader’s last bastions. Among 11 National Transitional Council fighters killed in the barrage was senior commander Daou al-Salhine al-Jadak, whose car was struck by a rocket as he headed towards the front late on Tuesday, NTC chief negotiator Abdullah Kenshil told AFP.12:00pm: Muammar Gaddafi is believed to be hiding near the western town of Ghadamis near the Algerian border under the protection of Touareg tribesmen, a senior Libyan military official said. “One tribe, the Touareg, is still supporting him and he is believed to be in the Ghadamis area in the south,” Hisham Buhagiar, a senior military official of the Libya’s new leadership, told Reuters by telephone late on Tuesday. Buhagiar, coordinator of the hunt for Gaddafi, said the ousted Libyan leader was believed to have been in the southern town of Samnu a week ago before moving to Ghadamis, which lies 550 km (345 miles) southwest of Tripoli.10:24am: More than 10 fighters of Libya’s new rulers were killed on Tuesday in fierce street fighting with forces of Muammar Gaddafi in his hometown of Sirte, a commander told AFP.“More than 10 of our fighters have been killed today in face-to-face fighting near Mahari hotel” in eastern Sirte, said the commander who asked not to be named as the information was sensitive. The fighters of the National Transitional Council (NTC), Libya’s new ruling body, had taken control of the hotel on Monday. The NTC fighters and Gaddafi’s diehards clashed “in street fights and shot at each other from close range with Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled-grenades” on Tuesday, the commander said. Read full story here.
