Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi challenged the allies' no-fly zone for the first time today, sending up a warplane over the city of Misrata where it was quickly shot down by French fighter jets, a senior French military official said.

The plane launched by Gadhafi was a "galeb," a single-engine military aircraft.

The coalition has had total control of the skies the last few days. Africa Command's Gen. Carter F. Ham said on Monday that no Libyan planes had flown since the start of the operations on Saturday. The Tomahawk missile strikes have effectively degraded Libyan air defenses to the point that the coalition has not even recorded any radar activity coming from Libya.

I'm switching tactics today. No more of those cumbersome massed offensives, meaning columns four or five thousand words long that take weeks to research. From now on I'm going to blog every day. Scout's honor. (I was one too--well, a Cub Scout, got as far as Webelos. The rule was, if you went further than that you were a fag.)

...

So for the next three months I'll post a short blog every day. Including Sunday, just to flick a Sicilian thumb at my mother's side of the family, who think it's wrong to do much except mope and stare through the lace curtains at people who aren't moping hard enough and feel a little better thinking about how they'll be surprised once they're  roasting in eternal napalm.

...

And speaking of desert war--another classic segue, huh?--you're probably wondering why I've been ducking the war in Libya. It's true, I've dodged combat there better than Cheney dodged the Cong. Which is weird, even for me, because jeez, it's Libya, how hard can it be? Well, that's been the problem: how do you make odds on Libya vs. Libya? If it was Libya vs any other country on earth--seriously, any other country on earth, even one of those little islands that exist to keep Tony Montana's money from being overtaxed by those damn bureaucrats--I'd bet on the other guys. Libya vs. Cayman Islands: Go Gators! The Tax Crocs by three touchdowns! Billionaires' commandeered yachts screeching onto the beaches of Tripoli with hardened Russian bodyguards storming ashore at $100 per billable corpse!

Saying that Qadafi "buckled" just now is like saying that a sixty-year-old prostitute just lost her virginity. Qadafi's done more buckles than the Bangladeshi sweatshops that make my XL belts. Qadafi has specialized in giving in to any pressure for more than 30 years -- then taking revenge, backstabbing-style.

...

Qadafi's such a wimp that he didn't just "buckle" to the US and Britain way back in the 80s, but he even "buckled" to Chad, the lowliest, most messed-up country in the world. What the hell does Libya have to do with Chad, you're wondering? Well, it was like the only date Qadafi could get to the prom -- the only country even more messed-up than Libya. Qadafi started out looking east, to Egypt and Israel. He tried to unite Libya with Egypt in one big happy Israel-fighting family. The Egyptians had a good line about that merger: "It is an excellent plan. Libya has the money and we have the brains." Libya had the money because it's got oil. That's the only reason Qadafi can afford to run around embracing causes and printing his book.

...

You get the picture? This is a man who has no guts and no shame. Getting him to "buckle" is nothing new, and nothing to brag about. You want to do something impressive? Get Kim Jong-Il  to sing "Give Peace A Chance." Yeah -- big televised duet with Yoko. That's when I'll be impressed.

Though approval of the current actions against Libya is lower than that for other U.S. military efforts, the level of disapproval is lower than Gallup measured for the Haiti and Kosovo/Balkan situations, and similar to that for Grenada.

The air strikes, as of this writing, seems to have stopped the regime's artillery and rocket attacks.  Think it is likely some have been destroyed and the remaining have stopped to prevent themselves from being destroyed.  

Sporadic reports (source: satellite phone calls?) from people inside the city are saying fighting has dwindled to skirmishing, mainly regime snipers shooting at anyone on the streets.  The snipers are, apparently, being cleared-out, a long, slow, and dangerous process.

After two weeks, the situation in the city is grim.  The electric power to the central district has been cut off.  Some of the outlying areas have electricity; it is unclear if they are getting a constant or interrupted supply.

The water supply is reported to have been "cut off" for at least the last week.  There must be some kind of water supply within the city; how much and how it is being distributed is an open question.

Medical situation is critical; the doctors have run out of anesthetics and other supplies.  

The food situation is grim mostly, it seems, from regime snipers interdicting street movement.  

Tactically, Misurata is very important.  The regime has shown no ability to regain control of a city by military assault; Zawiya eventually fell because the resistance fighters ran out of military supplies.  The resistance has shown no ability to take defended cities either.  Thus the importance of Misurata.  If the city can hold, it offers the Transitional National Government a base of operations and a logistic support center in western Libya.  

Somehow the TNG needs to open a supply path to the city.  A job easier to state than to do.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

1:52pm The US Naval Institute has released (t)his handy map showing the location and nationality of the international forces brought to bear against Gaddafi:

Command of military operations in Libya will be transferred from the US to NATO within a day or two, Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey's foreign minister, has announced.

Turkey had helped to implement a naval blockade of Libya, but had earlier expressed concern about the alliance taking over operational command of the UN-backed no-fly zone from the US.

Speaking to journalists on Thursday, Davutoglu said: "Compromise has been reached in principle in a very short time. "The operation will be handed over to NATO completely."

4:57pm

Detained government soldiers and suspected mercenaries are kept in a former military prison near Benghazi, now taken over by rebels. Some of the men admit to serving with Gaddafi's forces, but say they had no other choice, but to fire at rebels and civilians during battles for cities in the east of the country:

Abul Majid Mohammed, who served in the Al Fadila Battalion of the army, told Reuters news agency:

If anybody refused to open fire they would kill them, or burn them alive and on our eyes they killed soldiers who refused to fight.

Nearly 12 hours of allied air strikes have broken the Libyan regime's five-day bloody assault on the key rebel-held town of Misrata. Residents said the aerial bombardment destroyed tanks and artillery and sent many of Muammar Gaddafi's forces fleeing from Misrata, ending a siege and attack by the regime that cost nearly 100 lives from random shelling, snipers and bitter street fighting.

Mohammed Ali, an IT engineer at Misrata's main hospital, said that waves of air strikes began shortly after midnight on Wednesday. "They bombed a lot of sites of the Gaddafi army. There is a former hospital where his tanks were based. All the tanks and the hospital were destroyed. A column of tanks was destroyed on the edge of the city," he said. "After that there was no shelling. We are very relieved. We are very grateful. We want to thank the world. The Gaddafi forces are scattered around. All that is left is the snipers and our fighters can take care of them."

Ali said people in Misrata wanted the coalition to keep up the air strikes until all Gaddafi's forces were driven away from the town to ensure that those who were able to escape with armoured vehicles and guns did not return.

A doctor in the town, who did not want to be named, said snipers were continuing to sow fear by targeting not only rebels but civilians. "The sniper problem is a big one. A lot of people are still afraid to leave their homes," he said.

The apparent breaking of the siege will be a blow to the Libyan ruler's attempts to reassert control over the entire west of the country.

(Reuters) - Members of Muammar Gaddafi's entourage are putting out feelers to seek a ceasefire or safe passage from Libya, according to U.S. and European officials and a businessman close to the Libyan leadership.

Messages seeking some kind of peaceful end to U.N.-backed military action or a safe exit for members of Gaddafi's entourage have been sent via intermediaries in Austria, Britain and France, said Roger Tamraz, a Middle Eastern businessman with long experience conducting deals with the Libyan regime.

Tamraz said Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, Muammar's eldest son, and Abdullah Senoussi, the Libyan leader's brother-in-law, were the most prominent Gaddafi entourage members involved in seeking ways to end the fighting.

A U.S. national security official, who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information, said that U.S. government agencies were aware that Saif al-Islam and Senoussi had been involved in making peace overtures.

The U.S. official, and a European government official who is also following Libyan events closely, said that U.S. and European governments were treating the purported outreach with caution, but not dismissing it out of hand.

Saif must be longing for his days at the LSE.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

6:29am

Libyan regime officials took journalists on a trip yesterday to the town of Bani Walid, around 150km southeast of Tripoli, to demonstrate support for Gaddafi in the area, according to the AP. The Warfalla tribe, Libya's largest, is strong in Bani Walid.

Some residents told reporters they had recently received weapons from the regime, which has also distributed money to the Warfalla, according to western intelligence sources, the AP said.  

8:23am

Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught reports from Tripoli on the Gaddafi regimes confusing account of civilian casualties. While it appears that coalition air strikes have led to casualties, it's so far been impossible to know whether the dead are soldiers or civilians.

9:40am

The United Arab Emirates seems to have embraced a role in the no-fly zone. We mentioned earlier that it would be sending 12 warplanes (six F-16s and six Mirages); now the state news agency WAM is quoting Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan giving confirmation that they will participate in patrols to enforce the no-fly zone, though as "an extension" of the UAE's "humanitarian operations."

Just a couple days ago, the UAE's former air force chief said his country wouldn't deploy forces to Libya because it was displeased over the US and European interpretation of protests in Bahrain.

French author Bernard-Henri Levy was present at the creation of President Nicolas Sarkozy's decision to intervene in the Libyan civil war.

With Foreign Minister Alain Juppe in Brussels, Levy, 62, attended Sarkozy's March 10 meeting at the Elysee Palace with leaders of the Libyan opposition. Having arranged the encounter, Levy urged Sarkozy to become the first to recognize them as the government of Libya -- which he did.

It was Levy who confirmed a Le Monde report that day that Sarkozy was pushing for air strikes against Muammar Qaddafi. Juppe's meeting in Brussels with his European Union counterparts failed to yield consensus on recognizing the Benghazi-based opposition and on military attacks. The United Nations voted a week later to authorize a no-fly zone.

"It's too serious an issue to have someone like Bernard- Henri Levy tell France what to do in Libya," said Stephane Rozes, who founded the Paris-based Cap Institute, a political- advisory firm. "His public posture is not good for France or its diplomacy."

Tarhouni has a doctorate in economics and finance from Michigan State University and teaches at the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington, Seattle.

"He understands the Western mentality," she said.

Tarhouni has been a member of the Libyan opposition for 40 years while living in the United States.

The rebels of eastern Libya have found much to condemn about the police state tactics of Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi: deep paranoia, mass detentions, secret prisons and tightly scripted media tours.

But some of those same tactics appear to be creeping into the efforts of the opposition here as it seeks to stamp out lingering loyalty to Kadafi. Rebel forces are detaining anyone suspected of serving or assisting the Kadafi regime, locking them up in the same prisons once used to detain and torture Kadafi's opponents.

For a month, gangs of young gunmen have roamed the city, rousting Libyan blacks and immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa from their homes and holding them for interrogation as suspected mercenaries or government spies.

(ditto h/t to Angry Arab)

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

10:30pm

Libyan rebels enter Gaddafi-held city of Ajdabiya from the east.

8:00pm

Gaddafi promotes all members of his armed forces reports Libyan state TV

File it under all children being above average...

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

Rumours have been circulating online and in mainstream media for about two weeks that Khamis Al Gaddafi, son of Muammar Gaddafi, has been killed. Tonight, the rumours are making the rounds again, with a new twist. They say the 27-year-old militia leader, who runs a brigade which carries his name, was killed during an air raid on Bab Al Aziziya Compound, where the Gaddafis reside in Tripoli. Unconfirmed reports add that his brother Muattasim was killed by Gaddafi for `refusing to follow' orders.

Al Arabiya (Ar) confirms news of Khamis' death, quoting unnamed sources while the Libyan denies it.

The west Libyan port, the North African country's third biggest city, has experienced some of the heaviest fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi since the uprising began.

....

"It is still difficult to get out of Misrata. The snipers are still hiding in buildings on Tripoli Street," Sami said. "It is the main thoroughfare that takes you to the city centre." "We don't know how many of them remain. The rebels have so far killed 30 of them."

Rebels say they have regained control of the port from government forces who seized it on Wednesday. The port is the city's lifeline for food and medical supplies, international officials say. Brooks said ICRC supplies were being shipped to the port.

The ICRC has asked the Libyan government for direct access to those suffering from the war so that it can provide them with aid. "This is being refused despite repeated efforts and dialogue with Tripoli," Brooks said.

Mustafa Gheriani, a rebel spokesman in Benghazi, said the Misrata port area was recaptured by the rebels but blockaded by Gaddafi naval forces on Thursday. He believed the naval forces had now pulled back and the rebels were trying to organise aid shipments by sea.

Rebel forces massing for an attack on the strategically important town of Ajdabiyah fired steady bursts of artillery at army positions after Gaddafi's forces refused a ceasefire offer.

Opposition forces on the road to Ajdabiyah seemed more organised than in recent days, when their disarray stirred doubts about their ability to challenge Gaddafi. They had set up road blocks at regular intervals and Reuters counted at least four truck-based rocket launchers -- heavier weaponry than had been seen earlier this week.

Winning back Ajdabiyah would be the biggest victory for the eastern rebels since their initial push westwards went into reverse two weeks ago and the better equipped Gaddafi forces drove them back towards the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. It would also suggest that allied airstrikes are could be capable of helping rebel fighters topple Gaddafi.

Recently there have been numerous assassination attempts on leading rebels in their eastern stronghold of Benghazi.

Libyans fighting to depose Muammar Gaddafi say he is using hitmen - an invisible force - to carry out targeted killings.

Some documents have been found, detailing those set to be killed. And many more so-called 'Gadaffi lists' are thought to exist.

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) -- A distraught Libyan woman stormed into a Tripoli hotel Saturday to tell foreign reporters that government troops raped her, setting off a brawl when hotel staff and government minders tried to detained her.

Iman al-Obeidi was tackled by waitresses and government minders as she sat telling her story to journalists after she rushed into the restaurant at the Rixos hotel where a number of foreign journalists were eating breakfast.

She claimed loudly that troops had detained her a checkpoint, tied her up, abused her, then led her away to be gang raped.

Her story could not be independently verified, but the dramatic scene provided a rare firsthand glimpse of the brutal crackdown on public dissent by Moammar Gadhafi's regime as the Libyan leader fights a rebellion against his rule that began last month.

Agreement is close on a transfer of power from Yemen's veteran President, Ali Abdullah Saleh, a government minister says.

After six weeks of protests, Mr Saleh has said he is willing to step down this year.

But the demonstrators want him to go immediately.

This is the first time the government has confirmed that President Saleh is negotiating the terms of his departure, observers say.

They add that amid the growing pressure, many see the statement by Foreign Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi - a close ally of the president - as a clear sign that Mr Saleh's resignation is now a matter of time.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

 

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

;-)

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

Has the regime's military collapsed in central Libya?

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

Was in Ajdabiya all day today went from the Eastern to Western checkpoint...alhamdulillah, today was big, lets hope its what we think

Spoke to ppl in Ajdabiya...after planes bombed Gaddafi troops @ Eastern chkpnt, the shabaab were able to advance onto Gaddafi troops from inside the city, from the direction of the sea and from main road into chkpnt.

I arrive in Ajdbiya early this morning, walked into former media building being used by #Gaddafi as a weapons depot. In "weapons depot", found no light weaponry, all big caliber ammunition.

If Ajdbyiya was the forward logistic point for regime forces they may not be able to form a blocking force until they go back to Sirt.  

Also it establishes a supply point for the opposition further up the coast road.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

22:49 Reuters French warplanes destroyed five Libyan military planes and two helicopters at Misrata air base on Saturday, a French armed forces spokesman

23:44 CONFIRMED from Tripoli We received confirmation from Tripoli that the fuel situation is now at the edge of breaking point. Queues for petrol/gas have reached record lengths and fuel is being rationed severely. The same issue is present with cooking gas (sold in refillable canisters). It is expected that the city will run out of both within the next 2 days

22:43 CONFIRMED From Misratah Gaddafi's tanks and artillery which is stationed in Timeenah area have been bombed by coalition fighter jets. These same forces had bombed and shelled the area of Timeenah and Qasr Ahmed earlier in the day

19:09 AFP A revolutionary fighter tells AFP: "We are in the centre of Brega... Gaddafi's forces are on the retreat and should now be at Al-Bisher (30km) west of Brega."

The new leader of Libya's opposition military spent the past two decades in suburban Virginia but felt compelled -- even in his late-60s -- to return to the battlefield in his homeland, according to people who know him.

Khalifa Hifter was once a top military officer for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, but after a disastrous military adventure in Chad in the late 1980s, Hifter switched to the anti-Gadhafi opposition. In the early 1990s, he moved to suburban Virginia, where he established a life but maintained ties to anti-Gadhafi groups.

Late last week, Hifter was appointed to lead the rebel army, which has been in chaos for weeks. He is the third such leader in less than a month, and rebels interviewed in Libya openly voiced distrust for the most recent leader, Abdel Fatah Younes, who had been at Gadhafi's side until just a month ago.

6:53pmA Canadian military officer says NATO has begun to execute the no-fly zone operations over Libya and impose a naval arms embargo.

Lieutenant-General Charles Bouchard, the Canadian general in charge of NATO operations codenamed "Operation Unified Protector", said on Sunday:

    Along with its non-NATO partners, NATO will do everything it can to deny any use of air power and it will do so with care and precision to avoid harming the people of Libya.

    Our current mission is to close Libya's airspace to all flights except aid and humanitarian flights.

Bouchard has been appointed to run Libya operations based in Naples, Italy, enforcing a UN-mandated no-fly zone and arms embargo.

6:30pm A convoy of 20 military vehicles have reportedly left Gaddafi's stronghold of Sirte and were seen moving towards the Libyan capital, Tripoli. Dozens of cars crammed with families and belongings were seen along the coastal road heading towards the capital.

5:15pm Libyan rebels have said they plan to start exporting oil from fields in their territory "in less than a week", and said the Gulf nation of Qatar will market the crude.

A rebel representative, Ali Tarhoni, said he signed a contract with Qatar recently and the deal will ensure "access to liquidity in terms of foreign denominated currency".

   We are producing about 100,000 to 130,000 barrels a day, we can easily up that to about 300,000 a day.

    We contacted the oil company of Qatar and they agreed to take all the oil we export and market that oil for us. We have an escrow account ... and the money will be deposited in this account, and this way there is no middle man and we know where the money is going.

The is by actions TNC making the case that they are more reliable counter-parties than is the Gadaffi Regime while at the same time funding their government.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

A doctor at the hospital in Ras Lanuf, which handled most of the government soldiers wounded in the coalition air raids on Ajdabiya and the road from Benghazi, described the raids as causing hundreds of casualties, breaking morale and leaving many soldiers faking injuries to escape the assault. The doctor - who wished to be identified only by his first name, Abdullah - had responded to a call from Gaddafi's government for medical personnel to go to the front two weeks ago.

Today, he accidentally found himself on the rebel side of the line. "The first days, Gaddafi's forces had very high morale and they came in large numbers, thousands. There were the army soldiers and then the volunteers in the militia," he said. "They were fighting the rebels, no problem, and winning. But then came the bombing [by coalition air strikes]. The first day we had 56 seriously wounded. To the head, the brain, lost arms and legs. Soldiers with a lot of shrapnel in them. It was like that every day after."

Abdullah said all the wounded were fighters for Gaddafi, with about two-thirds injured in the bombing of Ajdabiya where there were days of fighting as government forces blocked the rebel advance. The doctor said he did not know how many soldiers were killed in the air strikes because the bodies were taken from the battlefield for burial. "The soldiers who came to the hospital told me there were 150 dead just on the first day of the bombing. After that, there were fewer because they hid," he said.

"It started to have a big effect on their morale. They said they could fight the rebels but not the planes. In recent days, many of the soldiers were trying to find excuses to leave the front. Ten to 20 a day came to the hospital pretending they were injured, asking for a medical certificate. They didn't have any physical injuries, but I gave it [a certificate] to them."

6:09am  Al Jazeera's Sue Turton reports that the opposition council now says that they are expecting that the "real fight" will occur in the Tripoli area, as opposed in Sirte, where stiffer resistance had been expected.

6:00am  Al Jazeera's Sue Turton in Benghazi reports that the opposition's National Council has claimed that Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte was taken at 11.30pm last night (local time) by opposition forces.

Shamsi Abdul Mullah, a spokesman for the council, said that the city was found to be "unarmed" and opposition fighters did not encounter much resistance.

A column of military vehicles was reportedly seen leaving Sirte, bound for Tripoli.

Gates tells NBC's "Meet the Press" that "we clearly have interests" in Libya, though he doesn't believe it's a vital American interest.

President Barack Obama, who's scheduled a speech Monday about Libya, used his weekend radio address to explain his decision to take military action against Moammar Gadhafi.

Obama said that when innocent people are being "brutalized" and when a leader such as Gadhafi threatens "a bloodbath that could destabilize an entire region" and when other countries are ready to help save lives, then it's in "our national interest to act."

A lot of readers had suggestions for the munition that popped it. The one I'm inclined to go with was by "helplesscase" who told me what I should've known already: the Rafale can carry the US-made, laser-guided GBU12, a classic tank killer. In fact, it can carry four at once.

This seems like the best guess about what killed that tank, because GBU12 is one of those HEAT munitions that sends a jet of superheated metal into the interior of the tank. When it zips through the armor and enters the crew compartment at about the temperature of the sun, it's as if all the tea ever made in England hits boiling at the same nanosecond, and the turret pops off. Can't be much fun for the crew. Casey Jones managed to get "scalded to death by the steam" in an old train. A tight NBC-sealed crew compartment has to be the world's fastest pressure cooker, make those microwaved toy poodle videos look like mercy killing.

I was going through eXiled archives and found another popped MBT picture, from Mark Ames's tour of Georgia after the South Ossetia War. Here's the link to Ames's story. You'll see the indoor turret halfway down:

This is the classic effect of a shaped charge turning the crew compartment into a white dwarf star for a few milliseconds: tank loses its head, weak point at turret ring rips out and it's time to play "Find the Giant Frying Pan with the 120mm Handle." This one flew halfway through a multi-story building, giving a cool abstract art effect although the Georgian landlord probably didn't see it that way. Or the Georgian tank crew.

Libya's been like this "war" scene in the Looney Toons classic "Rabbit of Seville": Elmer comes after Bugs with an ax. Bugs grabs a bigger ax; Elmer comes back with a revolver, and so on until Elmer shows up with a huge cannon that looks like a Parrot gun. You think Bugs is going to find an even bigger cannon, Big Bertha or something-but he pulls the ultimate tactical surprise by popping up with a box of candy and a big diamond ring. Elmer's so touched he just goes all starry-eyed and next thing you know, he's in a wedding dress--a really horrible sight-and Bugs is ready to con him again.

That's pretty much how it's gone in Libya. Protesters show up with AKs and RPGs, Qaddafi responds with tanks and his pitiful imitation of an air force. NATO squelches that with real air power, and now it's time for the box of candy. Which arrived today in the form of another "Green March for Peace" by Libya's largest tribe, the Warfalla. ("Warfalla"? Somebody always stealing my tag.) The Warfalla have been paid big to put on a show for the news crews, marching to Benghazi for "peace," in the sense of "Qaddafi stays in power and takes his revenge quietly and peacefully in soundproofed cellars."

Benghazi is the heart of the revolt, and there's a tribal angle to that too: Benghazi is where the Zuwayya, the tribe of the King who was deposed by Qaddafi, hang out. So there's a whole tribal dimension to the Libya mess nobody really wants to deal with. Might start people thinking there's no good guy here, which there isn't. That's no good for journalists; they got to have a good guy, and they'll make one up if they can't find one. (Never a shortage of bad guys, you'll notice. Finding bad guys is like sending those Amazing Race people on a challenge to find asphalt--not that much of a challenge.)

Walking through the corridors of the El-Mgareaf hospital, Dr Suleiman Refadi went from sadness, to boiling fury, to unhindered joy in the space of just half an hour.

The general surgeon had stayed holed up in the hospital in east Ajdabiya for the six days Gaddafi's forces spent in his city after retaking control last week. He and a number of his staff risked being shot by snipers in the city or being arrested and taken away like so many others during this time.

Three of his doctors had disappeared on their way to pick up injured civilians just two streets away from the hospital. Only their shot up ambulance was found.

The surgeon told me about the women he had treated who said they had been raped by government soldiers. One woman was snatched from outside her home as she called for her child to come indoors. Another was inside her own house near the west gate to the city when soldiers broke in and raped her.

Meanwhile, the Al Jazeera blog has a very disturbing video up, showing dead children killed by some blast, but it is unclear whether NATO or Gaddafi forces are blamed.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

As a Sunday Times leader made clear on March 20, sometimes you just have to draw a line:

`[T]here can be no accommodation with a man like Gadaffi or any of his family who aspire to succeed him.' (Leading article, `Allies need a rapid victory to outwit Gadaffi,' Sunday Times, March 20, 2011)

Seven years earlier, Alan Massie wrote in the same newspaper:

`The sight of Tony Blair shaking hands with Colonel Gadaffi last week will have disgusted many... One may sympathise with these sentiments but, pushing emotion aside, Blair has shown courage. It would be lovely if international politics could be conducted so you were always dealing with decent people. It might be nice if governments were able consistently to pursue the "ethical foreign policy" of which Robin Cook used to speak so enthusiastically but the world isn't like that.' (Massie, `Keeping Gadaffi close is the safest option,' Sunday Times, March 28, 2004)

Sometimes, then, there can be accommodation with a man like Gaddafi. It was important not to overstate the extent of his crimes:

`Of course, Libya remains essentially a dictatorship, even if not as repellent a one as that of Saddam's.'

And democracy was far more likely to take root in the Middle East `in an atmosphere of friendship than of hostility'. Thus Blair was `bringing Libya into the fold of the community of nations'.

Like a skilled conjuror, the media slips effortlessly, and without explanation, between the obvious need for `positive engagement' and the obvious need to `confront tyranny'.

There are also new limitations with regard to the nature of the mission. Four F-18s are authorized to enforce the no-fly zone as set out in paragraphs 6 and 7 of Resolution 1973, but not "to adopt all necessary measures to protect civilians and areas populated by civilians under threat in Libya," as paragraph 4 of the same resolution states. France has used this clause to destroy tanks that were attacking Benghazi, a move that the Spanish members of the mission, though equipped and trained for it, will not be allowed to make.

There is one last limitation to the Spanish mission. Without anyone asking it to, the government has decided to put a one-month limit on Spain's contribution of four F-18 fighter jets and a B-707 refueling aircraft. It has also set a three-month limit on the participation of its frigate Méndez Núñez, the submarine Tramontana and the maritime patrol aircraft CN-235 in the naval blockade that NATO decided to launch yesterday morning. These deadlines can be extended, and will require the government to seek new authorization from Congress - this time before the Defense Committee, not in a plenary session - but in circumstances that could be far more difficult than those existing today.

Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero did not offer any explanations for this time limit. He simply said that it was "an initial period" and that, if the situation requires it, the government will go back to Congress to request permission for an extension. "Action will have to be taken [in Libya] until there are guarantees that the population is protected," he stated.

Damascus, (SANA)-  President Bashar al-Assad on Monday received a phone call from the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz expressing the Saudi Arabia's  support to Syria in the face of conspiracy which targets its security and stability.

Nothing would help the international campaign against Colonel Gaddafi as much as the Egyptian military -- and therefore Egypt -- swinging in behind the UN-authorised effort. It would be one of the few things that would make the Libyan dictator worry and could push fence-sitting loyalists towards the rebel cause.

Materially, it could also be important; with the Libyan resistance reluctant to receive Nato help, Egypt could be very helpful as a conduit for weapons, intelligence and even on-the-ground military support. A post-combat mission would also be greatly aided by Egyptian involvement or leadership.

Unfortunately, after a few days in Cairo, I think it is more likely that Colonel Gaddafi will turn himself in than Field Marshal Tantawi, Egypt's de facto ruler, will send his army into neighbouring Libya. There are four main reasons why:

Efforts appear to be under way to offer Muammar Gaddafi a way of escape from Libya, with Italy saying it was trying to organise an African haven for him, and the US signalling it would not try to stop the dictator from fleeing.

The move came amid mounting diplomatic and military pressure on Gaddafi as Britain tries to assemble a global consensus demanding he surrender power while intensifying air strikes against his forces. An international conference in London - including the UN, Arab states, the African Union, and more than 40 foreign ministers - will focus on co-ordinating assistance in the face of a possible humanitarian disaster and building a unified international front in condemnation of the Gaddafi regime and in support of Nato-led military action in Libya.

On the eve of the conference, Italy offered to broker a ceasefire deal in Libya, involving asylum for Gaddafi in an African country. "Gaddafi must understand that it would be an act of courage to say: 'I understand that I have to go'," said the Italian foreign minister, Franco Frattini. "We hope that the African Union can find a valid proposal."

A senior American official signalled that a solution in which Gaddafi flees to a country beyond the reach of the international criminal court (ICC), which is investigating war crimes charges against him, would be acceptable to Washington, pointing out that Barack Obama had repeatedly called on Gaddafi to leave.

....

British officials said they would rather see Gaddafi face trial, but if his escape was the price of a peaceful settlement they would be able to live with that.

Iman al-Obeidi is being sued for defamation by 4 men under investigation for her alleged rape, Libyan government spokesman tells NBC

1:55pm

The Libyan opposition's Transitional National Council has released a two-page political platform, called "A Vision of a Democratic Libya."

Among other principles, the document calls for a national constitution that separates government into executive, legislative and judicial branches, a guarantee of the freedom of expression, and "a state that draws strength from our strong religious beliefs in peace, truth, justice and equality."

5:35pm

Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid reports from about 20km east of Ras Lanuf that pro-Gaddafi forces have begun shelling the city, forcing opposition fighters to retreat east once again.

 

Well, we had to evacuate Ras Lanuf about half an hour ago. We are about 20km away from there, that's because we starting hearing all of a sudden the 'crump' of explosions getting closer and closer, and again there was a wave of retreat. Hundreds of cars of the opposition fighters down this road, they've just gone by, probably you might see some more come by as we talk.  

"So certainly what we can say at this stage is that Bin Jawad is not any more in the hands of the rebels, actually the Gaddafi forces now are managing to pound Ras Lanuf and are getting closer and closer to them, pushing the opposition fighters eastwards more and more. I think this is an exact repeat of what happened about three weeks ago."

2:59am Nancy Soderberg, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, says the United States may consider providing "defensive weapons" to anti-Gaddafi fighters in Libya - but doing so "quietly".

She tells Al Jazeera that officials will always seek to further their strategic interests, but that the US did not create the armed rebel groups, and doesn't entirely know who they are.

The US and Britain have raised the prospect of arming Libya's rebels if air strikes fail to force Muammar Gaddafi from power. At the end of a conference on Libya in London, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said for the first time that she believed arming rebel groups was legal under UN security council resolution 1973, passed two weeks ago, which also provided the legal justification for air strikes. The British foreign secretary, William Hague, agreed that the resolution made it legal "to give people aid in order to defend themselves in particular circumstances".

But Clinton admitted the Americans "do not know as much as we would like to" about the interim national council (INC). In Washington, Admiral James Stavridis, Nato's supreme allied commander in Europe, told the Senate that intelligence analysis had revealed "flickers" of al-Qaida or Hezbollah presence inside the movement, and argued it required further study.

....

The west's main Arab ally, Qatar, also said providing weapons to Gaddafi's opponents should be considered if air strikes failed to dislodge him. The Gulf state's prime minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jaber al-Thani, said the effect of air strikes would have to be evaluated in a few days, but added: "We cannot let the people suffer for too long."

Or we could be clever and "allow" the Qataris to provide the arms, and perhaps a few artillery officers.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

Libya Live Blog - March 30 | Al Jazeera Blogs

• Timestamp:  3:35pm

  Al Jazeera has learnt from sources on the ground that Gaddafi troops are on their way to Brega. Reuters is reporting that pro-Gaddafi forces are pressing further east with an artillery offensive against rebel fighters.

(Benghazi) - Muammar Gaddafi's forces have laid both antipersonnel and antivehicle mines during the current conflict with armed opposition groups, Human Rights Watch confirmed today.

"Libya should immediately stop using antipersonnel mines, which most of the world banned years ago," said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch. "Gaddafi's forces should ensure that mines of every type that already have been laid are cleared as soon as possible to avoid civilian casualties."

4:43am

Former Nicaraguan foreign minister Miguel D'Escoto will be the new official representative of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi to the United Nations, Nicaragua's first lady - former Sandanista revolutionary and wife of Daniel Ortega - Rosario Murillo has told the AFP news agency.

1:15am

More from Anita in Tripoli:

When we arrived a month ago, what was obvious was that it was a city that was not functioning properly any more. It was empty, it was shut up. And that is because it was a city run on foreign labour. And a huge amount of that skilled foreign labour had left by the time we got here - and that's been exacerbated since.

It's just not possible to keep everything running without that foreign labour they had. So we're seeing big queues at petrol stations, those are getting more tense with every passing day ... and supplies are running out. We're seeing bread queues because bakers have left the country; fish isn't available as it used to be as the fishermen aren't fishing any more.

All these sorts of things are closing in on Libyans here. No-one's starving, but life hasn't been 'normal' for more than a month here.

5:49pm

The first coalition air strike in two days against Gaddafi's forces was carried out near the eastern city of Ajdabiya, where rebels have sought shelter after being pushed back from the frontlines.

The AFP said huge plumes of smoke rose into the sky amid cries of jubilation among the rebels, who had called for air support earlier.

Justifying their lack of fight, the rebels pointed out they were poorly armed with vintage or looted weapons, some of which jammed or had no more ammunition. They called it  a fight of "the people" against an army.

A rebel fighter, Yunes Abdelghaim, 27, told AFP:

We want two things: that the planes drop bombs on Kadhafi's tanks and heavy artillery, and that they [the West] give us weapons so we can fight.

Now if I want to be cynical, what about listening to your commanders and use some tactics? Iraqis blew up US tanks with no stronger weapons.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

Is the intervention still covered by UN 1973?

No, this is now much more than the NFZ approved by the UN. Allied forces have bombarded not only antiaircraft positions but also tanks, artillery, etc. Americans are flying A-130s. Rebels have gained a powerful air force.

... We know this constellation from Afghanistan. At the beginning the US bombarded the Taliban (majority Pashtun) from the air while the Northern Alliance force (majority Tajik) advanced towards Kabul.

Is it important to abide to the resolution? Isn't it even more important that the West deposes a bad dictator?

Since the intervention forces expanded the resolution without authority the war is no longer legitimate, legally and morally. Which may not count much as long as the victory stories keep coming. ... As the Taliban left Kabul under US bombardment, George Bush cautioned the Northern Alliance not to take the city too fast. An agreement with the Pashtun was desired but the Northern Alliance didn't care. The NA's militia streamed into Kabul and assumed all important offices. Many Pashtuns were driven into opposition or to the Taliban.

What happens if Tripolis falls fast?

Without a functioning state, the first thing people will want is security. A functional police and army would be needed but where would they come from? Some outsider would have to help build those new forces. So the allies would have to decide whether to send instructors.

... In Afghanistan the war began with a few thousand soldiers, now there are 140,000. Big business for private contractors. Which would be fueled by oil revenue just as the mercenaries are paid by Gadaffi.

What do the US want?

Obama's speech didn't clarify things. Allied forces are bombarding Gadaffi's troops but they don't want to overthrow him. They want to protect the rebels from retribution but they don't want liberate them from Gadaffi, either. Rebels are supposed to do that on their own, but they can't without Western air power.

... The US is an enabler not the decisive force. Many Americans will not accept that. Is this war really in the national interest of the US?

What do the Europeans want?

Obama's modesty has one definite consequence: the Europeans have to take the lead. That's all right with Sarkozy who is looking for a success story. He said "Every ruler, especially every Arab ruler, has to understand that we will react the same every time."

Does that mean the Europeans will intervene in Saudi-Arabia, Syria, Yemen, Algeria? Everywhere where an autocratic regime is protested against? Is this new interventionism the default position of the EU? Probably not. But what is the position of the EU? What's the goal for Libya? It's certain despite the strong words by Sarkozy, that France alone doesn't have the military capabilities to enforce a peace in Libya.

1:11am

Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught tells us that Koussa was not alone, and that there are several senior Libyan government figures waiting to fly to European capitals.

She said they include the current head of intelligence, the oil mininster, the secretary of the general peoples' congress and a deputy foreign minister. She tells us:

It seems the government of Gaddafi is collapsing around him tonight, and they're running for the hills. 

But its all about Cololnel Gaddafi here. The people are loyal to him, not to his ministers, so how this will be taken by the Libyan people is another matter - that's if they know what's going on. Today, state TV said that Moussa Koussa was going on holiday. We'll see if they say the same for these others.

--NATO is aware of a report of civilian casualties in Tripoli. The top Vatican official in the Libyan capital, Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, told Catholic news agency Fides that at least 40 civilians died in Tripoli when a building collapsed. He also said air strikes had "indirectly" hit hospitals, including one in Mizda, 145km southwest of Tripoli. General Bouchard said NATO is investigating to determine whether its forces were involved.

Colonel Gaddafi's regime has sent one of its most trusted envoys to London for confidential talks with British officials, the Guardian can reveal. Mohammed Ismail, a senior aide to Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam, visited London in recent days, British government sources familiar with the meeting have confirmed. The contacts with Ismail are believed to have been one of a number between Libyan officials and the west in the last fortnight, amid signs that the regime may be looking for an exit strategy. Disclosure of Ismail's visit comes in the immediate aftermath of the defection to Britain of Moussa Koussa, Libya's foreign minister and the country's former external intelligence head, who has been Britain's main conduit to the Gaddafi regime since the early 1990s.

A team led by the British ambassador to Libya, Richard Northern, and MI6 officers, embarked on a lengthy debriefing of Koussa at a safe house after he flew into Farnborough airport on Wednesday night from Tunisia. Government sources said the questioning would take time because Koussa's state of mind was "delicate" after he left his family in Libya. The Foreign Office declined "to provide a running commentary" on contacts with Ismail or other regime officials. But news of the meeting comes amid mounting speculation that Gaddafi's sons, foremost among them Saif al-Islam, Saadi and Mutassim, are anxious to explore a way out of the crisis in Libya.

"There has been increasing evidence recently that the sons want a way out," said a western diplomatic source. Although he has little public profile in either Libya or internationally, Ismail is recognised by diplomats as being a key fixer and representative for Saif al-Islam. According to cables published by WikiLeaks, Ismail has represented the Libyan government in arms purchase negotiations and acted as an interlocutor on military and political issues.

"The message that was delivered to him is that Gaddafi has to go and that there will be accountability for crimes committed at the international criminal court," a Foreign Office spokesman told the Guardian , declining to elaborate on what else may have been discussed. Some aides working for Gaddafi's sons, however, have made it clear that it may be necessary to sideline their father and explore exit strategies to prevent the country descending into anarchy.

3:35am Henry Schuler, a former US diplomat to Libya, is wary of taking Moussa Koussa's flight to Britain at face value. He told Al Jazeera's Inside Story that officials should be cautious of treating his reports as entirely factual:

   We have to bear in mind that its rather unusual that Moussa Koussa was able to leave Libya without being detected. Especially since his name was conspicuously absent from the no travel and asset freeze sanctions - that should have been a warning to Gaddafi that something was afoot, that someone was trying to lure him away.

    I can't believe entirely that Gaddafi simply missed the chance to stop him from leaving. I'm not sure he's not out doing an errand for Gaddafi - as he did throughout the past decade.

    We're told he's going to talk about what conditions were like and they're hoping to get intelligence as to Gaddafi's state of mind - and if he provides disinformation in that respect, it will make it extremely difficult to make a reasonable assessment of how the regime is standing up.

    There's a great danger in psychological warfare, which the British are conducting in this case, of blowback - where the people who are waging a psychological battle begin to believe their own propaganda.

2:05am The US Federal Reserve lent a Libyan state-backed bank as much as US$26billion during the financial crisis, it has been revealed. The Arab Bank Corporation, which is today 59.3 percent owned by the Libyan government, borrowed in slices as big as $1.175billion from the US central bank.

Democrat-allied Senator Bernie Sanders said the Fed made "46 emergency, low-interest loans" to the bank, providing a total of $26 billion in credit, though not all at one time. He said:

   It is incomprehensible to me that while creditworthy small businesses in Vermont and throughout the country could not receive affordable loans, the Federal Reserve was providing tens of billions of dollars in credit to a bank that is substantially owned by the Central Bank of Libya.

The bank was not majority-owned by the Libyan government at the time of the loans, says the AFP news agency.

7:48am

In Bab al-Aziziya, dozens of Libyans that the government calls "voluntary human shields" mass each day, though their numbers have thinned out considerably since the allied airstrikes started.

Last night, they partied in the compound, waving flags and beating drums. Many in the crowd were from Tripoli's Bu Sleim district, a pro-Gaddafi stronghold whose support for the leader has helped keep protests from spreading in the capital.

6:43am

Eman Al Obeidi, the Libyan woman who burst into a Tripoli hotel claiming to have been raped by troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, is still missing.

Avaaz, the civil society organisation, has set up a petition demanding that Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan calls on Gaddafi to release Eman. They say that while Gaddafi will ignore most international outrage, he has listened to the Turkish government when they asked him to release foreign journalists.

Over a 189,000 people have already signed the petition.

An aide to Gaddafi's powerful son Saif al-Islam, the clues to his power are to be found in his office in Tripoli, a huge suite in a guarded compound. They are to be found too in what he has done: acting as an interlocutor for the regime on everything from blocked licences for arms sales and political contacts.

So the news that he has been in London in recent days for meetings with British officials is more than intriguing. Ismail is Saif's fixer - intelligent, discreet and powerful.

And increasingly, according to those familiar with how Saif and his brother Saadi are thinking, Gaddafi's sons have become aware that they have a problem that they need to find a way out of - despite Saif's bellicose language.

9:12pm

In this short audio message posted to the Voices of Feb 17 Audioboo page, a resident of Az Zintan says the western part of the city is being hit by Grad rockets fired by pro-Gaddafi forces. He says government troops have surrounded the town of Kikla (about 60km east of Zintan), and are also attack Aquila.

6:20pm

It appears that the opposition's commanders are taking firmer control at the front lines, screening fighters who are trying to join up with their forces based on their experience, and barring journalists from entering zones where they are concerned about giving away their positions.

5:35pm

Al Jazeera's Sue Turton reports from Ajdabiya that a number of civilians were killed in the village of Argkuk when a coalition airstrike hit a pro-Gaddafi vehicle which, being full of ammunition, exploded.

A commander at the front described the incident as a "mistake", while a doctor at Ajdabiya's Al Gharif hospital, where the wounded were taken, said that seven civilians had been killed in the explosion, and 25 others injured.

He said that the relatives of those hurt or killed were very clear that they were not blaming the NATO-led coalition for the deaths, taking the position that if the pro-Gaddafi vehicles had been allowed to escape, "thousands" could have died in Ajdabiya because of them.

NATO has told Al Jazeera that is unclear as to whether the ammunition-laden vehicle was destroyed by artillery, mortars, an airstrike or some other cause, and that while it had launched an inquiry into the incident, without ground forces to verify the on-the-ground evidence, it would be difficult to determine exactly what happened. 

Oh come on. You have the mission videos.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

NATO said on Saturday that it is investigating reports that a coalition warplane struck pro-democracy forces near the front line of the battle with fighters loyal to the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Burnt out husks of at least four vehicles, including an ambulance, were seen by the side of the road near the eastern entrance to the oil town on Saturday, the Reuters news agency reported. Men prayed at freshly dug graves nearby as they buried their colleagues.

"Some of Gaddafi's forces sneaked in among the rebels and fired anti-aircraft guns in the air," Mustafa Ali Omar, a pro-democracy fighter said. "After that the NATO forces came and bombed them."

The Libyan government, meanwhile, has produced a video said to show civilians, including women and children, in a Brega hospital. They are believed to have been wounded as they tried to escape the air strikes.

Doctors say more than 240 people have been killed in Misurata in the last month alone, as a counter-offensive by Gaddafi's troops raised the number of casualties.