Libya live blog - August 24-31

Wednesday 31 August 2011

14:52 China is sending a vice-minister to "observe" a Paris conference on the future of Libya, whose rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) Beijing has not officially recognised. Around 60 nations – including Malta - are expected to be represented at tomorrow’s ‘Friends of Libya’ conference, to be co-chaired by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have all said they will attend.

13:50 Drones supplied to Misurata rebels through Malta

13:32 Egyptian boat heading for Malta forced into Misurata, mistaken for Gaddafi getaway

10:08 The Wall Street Journal takes the first look since the fall of the regime inside Col. Gaddafi's security headquarters – and brings back the pictures.

08:53 The BBC reports how Libya's interim leadership has rejected the idea of deploying any kind of international military force, the UN envoy to the country has said.

The chairman of the National Transitional Council (NTC) said the country did not need outside help to maintain security.

In the meantime, Associated Press is reporting that remnant pro-Gaddafi forces have rejected the rebel’s ultimatum for surrender.

"No dignified honourable nation would accept an ultimatum from armed gangs," he said in a telephone call to the AP on Monday night.

Mr Ibrahim reiterated Col Gaddafi's offer to send his son Saadi to negotiate with rebels and form a transitional government, the agency said.

Tuesday 30 August 2011

18:56 Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was last seen heading south of Tripoli after holding meetings in the capital on Friday, the bodyguard of one of his sons tells Sky News.

18:51 CNN reports that the badly burned former nanny of two of Moammar Gadhafi's grandchildren is receiving medical treatment Tuesday in the burn unit of a Tripoli hospital.

Footage of the nanny spread online like wildfire as the recounted her tale of inhumane torture at the hands of her erstwhile employers.

Shwygar Mullah says the wife of Gadhafi's son Hannibal poured boiling water on her for failing to keep a child quiet.

She is being treated for an infection with antibiotics. Her burns are dressed, the CNN reports.

18:40 An estimated 50,000 people have been killed since the beginning of Libya's six-month-long uprising, a military commander with the country's interim ruling council was reported as saying by Reuters.

"About 50,000 people were killed since the start of the uprising," Colonel Hisham Buhagiar, commander of the anti-Gaddafi troops who advanced out of the Western Mountains and took Tripoli a week ago.

"In Misrata and Zlitan between 15,000 and 17,000 were killed and Jebel Nafusa (the Western Mountains) took a lot of casualties. We liberated about 28,000 prisoners. We presume that all those missiong are dead," he is reported as saying.

17:33 After Algeria said it had given refuge to members of Muammar Gaddafi’s family, Giles Elgood at Reuters looks at how the dictator’s children “closed ranks” around him – via Muck Rack.

17:23 Algerian newspaper El-Watan reports that the Algerian government has moved to partially close Algeria's south-eastern border with Libya after members of Gaddafi's family fled across it on Saturday.

The daily cites unidentified diplomatic officials on Tuesday saying security forces have already been deployed to shut the border, which will occur hours before the rebel’s invasion of Sirte.

14:07 Reuters is reporting that the head of Libya's National Transitional Council has given Sirte and other areas still loyal to Muammar Gaddafi until Saturday to surrender or face a military assault.

13:43 AFP reports that Gaddafi's daughter Aisha, who fled to Algeria with other family members, has given birth to a baby girl, Algerian authorities have announced.

"Aisha gave birth very early this morning. She had a little girl. Mother and daughter are doing fine," said a government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity on Tuesday.

10:30 Libyan rebels are almost certain that Muammar Gaddafi's son Khamis –along with his intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi - were killed during fighting with their units, Reuters reports.

"We have almost certain information that Khamis Gaddafi and Abdullah al-Senussi were killed on Saturday by a unit of the national liberation army during clashes in Tarhouna (90 km southeast of Tripoli)," spokesman Ahmed Bani was reported as saying by Al Arabiya television.

"Khamis Gaddafi was buried in Bani Walid," Bani said.

If confirmed, the deaths would mark the highest-profile casualties on the Gaddafi side since the uprising began six months ago.

09:18 The International Business Times reports that rebel forces are claiming that Khamis, the despot's son who commanded the elite Khamis brigade, has been killed and buried near Tripoli.

Rebel forces are claiming to have shot Khamis Gadhafi dead in a car while he was travelling in a convoy near Zlitan, where the dreaded Khamis Brigade was headquartered.

According to a rebel military leader, Khamis was shot on Saturday by rebel troops in clashes that took place 80 kilometers southeast of Tripoli.

It's not the first time Gadhafi's youngest son has been reported killed, and the news of Khamis' death could not be independently verified.

Khamis had been trained in Russia and commanded Libya's 32nd Brigade, a unit of guards fiercely loyal to Gadhafi, and known for its human rights violations.

08:53 Physicians for Human Rights interviewed people in the embattled city of Misrata between 5 June and 12 June, just after Libyan rebel forces expelled Gaddafi loyalists.

Interviewing dozens of survivors of the two-month siege, the Boston-based PHR found widespread evidence of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including summary slayings, hostage-taking, rapes, beatings, and use of mosques, schools and marketplaces as weapons depots, Associated Press reports.

They reveal  accounts of how Libyan troops loyal to Gaddafi forced civilians to act as human shields, perching children on tanks to deter NATO attacks, the human rights investigators said.

It was part of a pattern of rapes, slayings, "disappearances" and other war crimes that they said they found.

Last night, the wife and three children of the Libyan leader-in-hiding Gaddafi crossed the border into Algeria at 07:45 GMT on Monday, Algerian officials confirmed, and were welcomed “on humanitarian grounds.”

Monday 29 August 2011

19:30 An official says Col Gaddafi's wife and three of his children are in Algeria, AFP reports.

18:01 Al Jazeera reveals a leaked document apparently detailing United Nations preparations for its role in post-Gaddafi Libya detailing plans for the world body to deploy military observers and police officers to the North African country.

It also calls for the deployment of 200 unarmed military observers and 190 UN police officers to serve as trainers.

But it says such a deployment would only be implemented if it was requested by Libyan authorities and authorised by the UN Security Council.

In the meantime, Sirte is reportedly coming under heavy pressure from NATO forces as bombing runs and other sorties pound what is rumoured to be Gaddafi’s hiding place in preparation for the impending rebel advance.

However, reports on the casualties, targets, or what damage is being wrought by the UN-sanctioned forces, are scant.

17:21 While tens of thousands of jubilant Libyans cheered the rebels on their march to the capital have stolen the media limelight, Reuters reports that among others in the city anger simmers over the rebels' successful revolt against Gaddafi's 42-year-rule.

17:10 The European Commission establishes humanitarian presence in Tripoli and boosts funding for emergency operations in Libya's capital 

17:08 CNN is reporting that rebel fighters gave loyalists in Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte a deadline to disarm or face "liberation" by the end of the day, Ahmed Bani, a National Transitional Council military spokesman.

They have been ordered to disarm and allow rebel forces to enter and take the city.

Thousands of rebels have been gathering since Sunday on the outskirts of the fallen dictator's birthplace of Sirte.

The ultimatum follows days of fighting and reports of negotiations between rebels and loyalists to surrender the city, east of Tripoli.

16:28 AFP reports that France reopened its embassy in the Libyan capital Tripoliafter it had been closed for the last six months.

"Our embassy in Tripoli has reopened today," foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said in a press briefing.

Al Jazeera also reported however that “the Ambassador will move from Benghazi once the Chief of NTC Mustafa Jalil does.”

16:03 Dutch model Talitha van Zon, a friend of Mutassim Gaddafi, arrives in Malta after she was evacuated from Tripoli on Friday. In an interview with The Telegraph, the model recounts how she jumped out of a hotel balcony, “fearful that a group of rebels were about to burn her alive”.

Watch: Talitha van Zon arrives in Malta:

15:27 The New York Times photographer Tyler Hicks found a series of family photos inside Gaddafi’s compound in Tripoli.

A photo of Gaddafi, found by a New York Times photographer, at his compound

15:18 Key figures from the Libyan NTC asked NATO  to keep up pressure on elements of Muammar Gaddafi's regime and to protect those struggling to restore electricity and water to the battle-scarred capital of Tripoli.

National Transitional Council head Mustafa Abdul-Jalil told senior NATO envoys meeting in the Gulf Arab nation of Qatar that Gaddafi, who has been in hiding since rebels captured Tripoli a week ago, can still cause trouble.

"Gaddafi is still capable is doing something awful in the last moments.''

He has also been reported as saying that had it not been for NATO assistance and sorties, the revolution would have been "one huge massacre."

Earlier, British Defense Minister Liam Fox was reported as saying by Al Jazeera that NATO airstrikes will continue until the threat to civilians is over. 

"As soon as they [civilians] are no longer threatened by remnants of the Gaddafi regime the NATO mission will be over," Fox said. "The easiest way for it to end is for Gaddafi's men to lay down arms. The regime needs to recognise that they need to work with the NTC." 

12:33 50,000 people are thought to be unaccounted for and there is evidence of hundreds having been massacred near prisons in Tripoli. Reportedly, the thousands are prisoners who were being held by the Gaddafi regime.

Graphic video showing burnt bodies found in Tripoli

11:10 Protests in Misrata as rebels are against the decision to appoint a former Gaddafi man as the head of security in Tripoli. Some 500 protesters took to the streets with placards reading: “Whoever helped kill Libyans will never lead us, even with one word.”

09:31Dan Rivers reports from Tripoli, where the fight for freedom now includes a fight for clean water. (see below)

9:15 Libyan fighters are advancing towards Muammar Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte, under fire from forces still loyal to the embattled Libyan leader-in-hiding.

The main military push right now is the push towards Sirte... Sirte is certainly the focus for now," Al Jazeera's reported on Sunday.

Sirte is considered the last remaining bastion of support for the man whose decades-long rule of Libya is effectively over, with the National Transitional Council (NTC) now widely recognised as the country's legitimate government.

But as fighters advanced west, pockets of dissent within the country are already forming, accusing the NTC of not being transparent enough in nominating members for a new administration.

Al Jazeera adds that the protesters insist that the old guard of the Gaddafi regime are far too prominent in the list of people issued so far, calling for new faces for a new Libya.

A lot of this is due to communications and the way the National Transitional Council has been concentrating so much on diplomacy and the economy, and maybe not looking inwards enough, Al Jazeera adds.

Sunday 28 August 2011

13:14 British Foreign Secretary William Hague speaks to the BBC on Gaddafi’s offer to discuss a transition of power as “a bit late now” with a smile and describes the offer as “a delusional statement.”

12:46 Reuters reports that Libya's rebel government will not negotiate with Muammar Gaddafi unless he surrenders, according to a top National Transitional Council official.

Rebel authorities did not know Gaddafi's whereabouts, the report added.

"No negotiation is taking place with Gaddafi," said Ali Tarhouni, the rebel official in charge of oil and financial matters. "If he wants to surrender, then we will negotiate and we will capture him." 

In the meantime, AFP has provided footage of celebrations by rebel forces in Tripoli as pro-Gaddafi forces have been pushed out to the fringe and the fight moves to Sirte - Gaddafi's home town and rumored hiding spot.

12:17 The Huffington Post reports that New York-based Human Rights Watch says evidence indicates that Libyan regime troops killed at least 17 detainees and arbitrarily executed dozens of civilians as rebels moved into Tripoli.

11:20 Associated Press is reporting that Moussa Ibrahim, Muammar Gaddafi's spokesman, called the news agency to say the toppled Libyan leader is ready to negotiate with the rebels to form a transitional government.

Ibrahim called AP headquarters in New York late on Saturday, and told them he was calling from Tripoli, the Libyan capital, and that Gaddafi was still in Libya.

10:36 Rachel Shabi on Al Jazeera pens her thoughts on how, as rebels take Tripoli, foreign powers are eyeing the prize of Libya's high quality crude oil and how NATO nations set to reap spoils of Libya war.

10:31 the CNN reports how Libyan rebels have freed a vital road linking Tunisia and Tripoli. This means that rebel forces and the Transitory Council no longer need to rely on shipped aid and supplies through the port of Tripoli, which was hampered by unloaded delays due to non-existent port facilities.

09:14 Libyan leader-in-hiding Col Muammar Gaddafi is ready to begin talks to transfer power, according to his spokesman.

He told a news agency discussions would be led by Col Gaddafi's son, Saadi.

Rebel fighters who now control most of the country, including the capital Tripoli, believe Col Gaddafi is still in hiding in the area.

However many are dismissing the latest offer as just another sign of the delusional state of Col Gaddafi and his followers.

The Libyan opposition says supplies of fuel and water should begin arriving in Tripoli - amid fears that Tripoli's water supply may have been poisoned by Col Gaddafi's forces.

Meanwhile more evidence is emerging of mass killings in the country.

Saturday 27 August 2011

19:10 Sky news has broadcast a discovery of a mass killing graveyard were the bodies of up to 53 were reportedly massacred and burnt alive in warehouse.

Eyewitnesses who escaped the massacre said people were murdered by pro-Gaddafi forces on August 23 and 24.

Bodies of two soldiers were also reportedly glimpsed, with their hands tied behind their backs.

Locals believe they refused to fire on the people being held inside the warehouse, and were then murdered, Sky News reported.

Click here for footage of within the warehouse - WARNING - the footage is very graphic.

6:02 Rebel forces from Misrata are preparing to take part in attempts to take control of Beni Walid, a town 100 miles south-west of the coastal city and which is believed by many to be the bolthole for Gaddafi loyalists fleeing south.

Eearlier Libyan rebels reportedly took Bin Jawad, a town about 140 km from Sirte, Muammar Gaddafi's birthplace and a key stronghold.

Sam Kiley, Sky's Security Editor, reported from close to the town that the rebels have broken through much quicker than anticipated, after using rockets salvos to clear pro-Gaddafi forces out.

He added that there has been rebel intelligence that a defensive line had been prepared a few kilometres outside Bin Jawad. If so, those positions are likely to be the target of NATO airstrikes.

15:13 Living conditions in Tripoli are becoming increasingly desperate, with most of Libya's capital without water, electricity or proper sanitation.

Hospitals are running short of stocks, and food and fuel are difficult to come by, reporters say.

The National Transitional Council (NTC) said fuel to power electricity and water supplies will arrive on Sunday.

Spokesman Mahmoud Shammam said the council was doing its best to restore stability but to not expect "miracles".

"We're going to make this difficult period as short as we can," he told a news conference.

"Tripoli was under tight control of dictatorship for 42 years - we understand we lack a lot of institutions, so we're starting from almost zero point in this situation," he said.

13:16 More than 200 decomposing bodies have been found abandoned at a hospital in a district of the Libyan capital, Tripoli that has seen fierce fighting.

Corpses of men, women and children were found lying on beds and in the corridors of Abu Salim's hospital.

Doctors and nurses fled after clashes erupted nearby between rebel forces and those loyal to Col Muammar Gaddafi.

Some residents accused the regime of murdering those at the hospital, but it is not yet clear how exactly they died.

9:36 There is heavy fighting in Muammar Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte, where he is rumored to be hiding out.

Overnight, NATO forces already began bombing runs over bunkers and other targets in Sirte, as NATO and rebel forces coordinate to flush Gaddafi from his stronghold.

As the country starts regaining a measure of control and order, rebel organisations are calling for greater cooperation and support to shift Libya towards democracy.

UN chief Ban Ki-Moon has already called for greater order and cooperation among heads of states to ensure a smooth transition into democracy.

Friday 26 August 2011

16:43  Trending on Muck Rack:

Nato air strikes have been targeting Muammar Gaddafi’s home town of Sirte.
 
There’s a dramatic Twitter stream this morning by Alex Thomson of Channel 4 from the hospital in the Abu Salim area of Tripoli. He tweets that it is “some of the worst things I ever saw - untransmittable horror.”

The BBC’s Nick Sutton links to an Audioboo of  a “powerful interview” with an investigator from Human Rights Watch “as she uncovers evidence of suspected executions in Tripoli.”


12:28 Gaddafi’s adopted daughter reappears as The Irish Times reveals documents found at the Gaddafi compound.

Muammar Gaddafi had claimed that Hana Muammar Gaddafi had died in 1986, following the US bombing over his compound in Tripoli. But documents discovered by the paper show how Hana grew up to study medicine and took English classes at the British Council in Tripoli.

 chairman, Mustafa Abdul Jalil tells a Rome news conference that the rebel administration had moved its headquarters from Benghazi to Tripoli on Wednesday.

This seemingly contradicts earlier statements by officials that the move would be delayed.

13:43 Speculation into who will be Libya’s next leader begins, with frontrunner being the NTC's chairman, Mustafa Abdul Jalil.

13:20 BBC News’ Paul Wood, near Sirte, reports that the rebels on the way to Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte are deadlocked in their fight with regime loyalists.

Commanders believe they are facing 1,500 to 2,000 troops just up the road.

13:05 The four Italian journalists kidnapped yesterday morning have been freed, Italy’s foreign ministry said.

12:23 Libyan rebel forces are pushing east towards Col Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte, having taken most of Tripoli.

They have been exchanging heavy rocket fire with about 1,000 Gaddafi loyalists on the road to the city, and are bringing up reinforcements.

They are coming up against Gaddafi forces which are still firmly in control of the eastern city, as well as Sabha in the desert to the south.

12:11 When we were friends: a collection of quotable quotes from Maltese politicians from the days Gaddafi was a friend of Malta to the day we broke ranks with the dictator.

11:25 MIRIAM DALLI speaks to one of the Libyan nationals in Malta who hoisted the Revolutionary flag on the embassy in Balzan. 

Jamal Algazali

09:18 Libyan business interests are already galvanising into action following the apparent overthrow of the dictator – even if he hasn’t been found yet.

Bloomberg is reporting how Eni SpA, Italy’s biggest oil company, is lobbying rebel leaders to hold its position as Libya’s top energy producer after the end of Muammar Qaddafi’s 42-year regime.

Also, attempts by the United States to get approval for the release of USD 1.5 billion in Libyan assets have ground to a halt due to opposition from South Africa.

08:25 Four Italian journalists kidnapped yesterday have made contact with Italy’s consul in Benghazi. They are being held by Gaddafi loyalists.

Wednesday 24 August 2011

17:44 All foreign journalists have left the Rixos hotel in Tripoli after being prevented from leaving it for days by armed men loyal to Muammar Qaddafi, Reuters journalists who had been staying in the hotel said on Wednesday.

17:18 Top trending on MUCK RACK -

After another day of dramatic events – and some outstanding news coverage of them – in the capital Tripoli, concern grows for the 35 or so international journalists in the Rixos Hotel, amid violent clashes outside.

The BBC’s Stuart Hughes and Reuters’ Anthony De Rosa have been publishing pictures of the reporters, who are being held in the building by pro-Gaddafi forces. The images are collected in Aine Kerr’s Storyful account here.


There’s some raw video from the AP here, and Adam Clark Estes at the Atlantic Wire looks at some possible reasons behind the “desperate” situation.
 
Professsor Juan Cole at the University of Michigan blogs on Twitter’s reach in Libya and concludes that “Chanting in the streets, passing slogans and demands from balcony to balcony and neighborhood to neighborhood, was the real social media.”

15:33 JAMES DEBONO explores historical parallels between Libya and other countries which either prospered or drifted into chaos after changing regime.

14:35 Catherine Ashton: 80 percent of Tripoli controlled by rebels (Al Arabiya).

14:24 Video of when Misrata freedom fighters too over Bab Al Aziziya compound in Tripoli

14:17 Eni SpA, Italy's biggest oil company, is lobbying rebel leaders to hold its position as Libya's top energy producer after the end of Col. Gaddafi's 42-year regime. (Bloomberg)

14:16 Malta Employers Association demands urgent MCESD meeting to discuss situation in Libya

14:11 CNN senior international correspondent Matthew Chance, who is trapped along with about 40 other journalists at the Rixos hotel in Tripoli, urged other journalists in the city not to come to the hotel for fear they, too, would not be allowed to leave by forces still loyal to Col. Gaddafi.

14:05 Several rockets landed near Tripoli International Airport.

14:03 Four rebel fighters were found bound and executed near a hospital  northeast of Tripoli airport, said Mukhtar Al-Akhbar, a rebel commander.

14:02 New York and New Jersey politicians are demanding that any new government in Tripoli extradite to the United States Abdel Basset Al-Meghrahi, a Libyan official convicted in Britain for the December 1988 bombing of a U.S.-bound airliner.

14:00 A research centre near Tripoli stocks uranium and other material that could be used to make a nuclear "dirty bomb" and Libya's rebels will need to secure it, a former senior U.N. inspector said (Reuters)

13:57 The EU's foreign policy chief Baroness Ashton has said the EU was preparing to unfreeze Libyan assets once the United Nations had given its approval. She is to travel to New York on Friday to discuss releasing funds to Libya's transitional administration to ensure public sector workers are paid and the country's shops have sufficient supplies.

13:31 A French diplomatic source says France and its partners are working on a new UN resolution on Libya to unlock sanctions and unfreeze assets.

13:28 British Foreign Secretary William Hague has said Col. Gaddafi's regime "has clearly lost control of most of the Libyan capital". He said the situation in Libya would "remain difficult for some time".

13:14: Col. Gaddafi has broadcast an audio message on Syrian TV and said that he made an incognito walkabout around Tripoli, and nobody recognised him.

13:10: Libya’s Transitional Council interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril is expected to fly to Rome tomorrow for talks with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (ANSA)

13:05 The National Security Council on Libya hopes more supplies will make it into hospitals in Tripoli today. Ministers, defence staff and intelligence chiefs have met in London to discuss the future of the country, Sky News reported.

12:50 Libya's rebel National Transitional Council is seeking US$2.5 billion in international aid by the end of the month to help the North African state recover from the six-month civil war, the NTC's prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, said

12:47China urged a "stable transition of power" in Libya and said that it is in contact with the rebel National Transitional Council, the clearest sign that Beijing has effectively shifted recognition to forces poised to defeat Muammar Gaddafi

12:31A Libyan rebel government would honour all the oil contracts granted during the Gaddafi era, including those of Chinese companies, Ahmed Jehani, a senior rebel representative for reconstruction told Reuters in an interview

12:14 The sound of heavy gunfire could be heard coming from the area around the Rixos hotel in Libya's capital, said a Reuters reporter, who was near the hotel.

11:21 Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has called on Col. Gaddafi and Libya's rebels to stop fighting and sit for talks, saying the embattled leader still had some power and military might. (Reuters)

10:50 Libya's assets in foreign currencies have reached around US$168 billion  and the country could return to oil production in the next 3 to 6 months, Libya's former central bank governor said in an interview with Al-Arabiya television. (Reuters)

10:00 Libya’s Transitional Council interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril will meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris on later today to discuss prospects for a political transition in a post-Muammar Gaddafi era. (Al Arabiya)

09:20 Malta played a crucial role in the planning and logistical strategy that allowed Libyan freedom fighters to launch their assault on the capital, Tripoli. (MaltaToday)