@feb17libyaFeb17Libya
US Commander for Africa says: NATO mission in Libya could begin to wrap up as soon as next week.feb17.info/live-libya-unr… #Libya #Feb17
3:00pm: East of Sirte on Sunday, NTC fighters returning from the front said they had captured a neighbourhood in the southwest of the city which was home to many Gaddafi supporters. “Ninety-five percent of Buhadi is under our control,” fighter Drisi Mayar said. “This was a stronghold of Gaddafi. A lot of his relatives and clan members lived there. There was a small military base. We took control yesterday. We had small clashes but it is under our control.”
2:00pm: Moussa Ibrahim, the fugitive spokesman for Muammar Gaddafi, telephoned a Syria-based television channel on Saturday to deny reports that he himself had been captured this week.”This information is a lie and does not reflect reality because I was near the front of Sirte with 23 fighters,” Ibrahim told Arrai TV.
1:00pm: The top U.S. commander for Africa said Saturday that the military mission in Libya was largely complete and NATO’s involvement could begin to wrap up as soon as next week after allied leaders meet in Brussels.
12:00pm: A Turkish Airlines passenger plane landed in Tripoli Saturday noon, the first international commercial flight to arrive in the Libyan capital since the establishment of a no-fly zone in the war-torn country in March, a Libyan aviation official said. The flight from Istanbul, with 43 passengers on board, arrived at the Mitiga International Airport in eastern Tripoli, at about 11:50 local time (0950 GMT), he said.
10:55am: Tensions are rising in Tripoli as increasingly frustrated residents call on hundreds of armed Libyan fighters who stayed in the city after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi to leave.Fighters from across Libya flooded into the capital in late August to help overthrow Gaddafi’s 42-year regime and many have stayed put, provoking concern among many residents and raising fears over the capital’s future stability.
Militia fighters from cities such as Misrata and Zintan man checkpoints around the city, wander the streets with automatic rifles and speed through city roads in pick-up trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns.
Residents blame them for eruptions of automatic gunfire that still echo through the streets of Tripoli every night.
10:21am: Niger’s justice minister, who is also the government spokesman, said on Niger national television late on Saturday that Saadi could be questioned under an existing cooperation agreement between Tripoli and Niamey.“If it is to question Saadi, the National Transitional Council (NTC), which we have recognised, can freely come to Niger, under the existing accord,” said Marou Amadou.
“However, I reaffirm that at this stage…there is no possibility of extraditing Saadi, because ultimately what needs to be applied is international conventions,” he said.
Saadi’s exact whereabouts in Niamey have not been disclosed.
9:32am: People in the besieged Libyan city of Sirte are in desperate need of medical aid, the International Red Cross has warned.A team from the organisation has taken some supplies to the main hospital in the town, one of the last strongholds of Colonel Gaddafi’s supporters.
The transitional government’s forces have been launching assaults on the city for days.
9:15am: The ICRC delivered medical kits for treating up to 200 people wounded in the fighting to Sirte hospital, as well as fuel to run its generators, the organisation said.However, a team of four aid workers, who also had security clearance from pro-Gaddafi forces, were not able to go inside the hospital due to heavy gunfire, the spokesman said.
“They went to the hospital but were not able to see patients, they didn’t go into the wards,” Marcal Izard said.
