Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: A New Phase of Conflict

2110 GMT: An update from Misurata, 210 km (130 miles) east of Tripoli....

Opposition fighters say they have repelled regime forces on the southern and western sides of the city, with a battle --- but "not a heavy one" --- continuing on the eastern side.

Libyan state television has appealed to the people of Misurata to support regime troops: "The armed forces are from you and for you. Avoid strife....This is a call for stability and security for everybody. Do not listen to provocation and avoid discord."

2000 GMT: Reuters summarises fierce fighting in Ajdabiya in east Libya, with "weary" government soldiers saying that they were meeting "renewed resistance" from the opposition.

"The fighting is fierce. His supply lines are stretched so he can't push on from Ajdabiya. We've got some surprises in store. We're going to fight on and we're going to win," said Mustafa Gheiriani, an opposition spokesman in Benghazi.

Reinforcements from Benghazi are said to be heading to Ajdabiya.

Witnesses describe a violent regime crackdown around the city.

1740 GMT: Al Arabiya reports that the opposition have destroyed 16 regime tanks and captured 25 fighters in battles outside Misurata, 210 km (130 miles) east of Tripoli.

The International Red Cross is reportedly pulling out of opposition-held Benghazi, a sign that fighting in the city may occur soon.

1730 GMT:The Guardian's Ghaith Abdul-Ahad has been freed, but four New York Times journalists are missing.

The journalists are Anthony Shadid, the Beirut bureau chief and twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for foreign reporting; Stephen Farrell, a reporter and videographer who was kidnapped by the Taliban in 2009 and rescued by British commandos; and two photographers, Tyler Hicks and Lynsey Addario, who have worked extensively in the Middle East and Africa.

The four were last reported to be in the port of Ajdabiya in east Libya; heavy fighting has been taking place near the city. They were last in contact on Tuesday afternoon.

1720 GMT: Latest from Libya....

An opposition commander has spoken about the fighting in the east: "There's heavy fighting around Ajdabiya, they're carrying out a scorched earth policy ... There's heavy, sustained tank shelling and earlier there were air strikes, but now the revolutionaries managed to take seven tanks from those dogs and, God willing, we will succeed."

Jamal Mansur, the opposition commander in Ajdabiya, said his forces had won back control of the road north to Benghazi, and they still held the route east to Tobruk and the Egyptian border.

In the far west, Libyan soldiers near the Tunisian border have reportedly fired heavy weapons as the opposition tried to flee by boat with their families.

The United Nations Security Council is now engaged in paragraph-by-paragraph deliberations of a draft resolution, including the endorsement of a no-fly zone, on Libya.

Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught reports that the regime forces "have been leafletting the city of Benghazi with flyers suggesting that the rebels cease the fight and they join the 'great government cause'. People in Benghazi and the areas around it have received SMS messages to their mobile phones --- and there's been no SMS messaging on mobile phones apart from that ---- from the government suggesting it's time to give up the fight."

1500 GMT: A list of 36 people arrested today in a protest in Damascus, quickly broken up by security forces, has been posted.

1445 GMT: Claimed footage and picture of clashes in Hodaidah in Yemen today --- witnesses claim one dead and at least 100 injured:

1150 GMT: The Bahrain military has announced a ban on rallies or public gatherings until further notice. Parts of the capital Manama are under a 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew.

1030 GMT: Reuters says Syrian security forces have "dispersed" a peaceful 150-person demonstration outside the Ministry of Interior in Damascus. One protester has been wounded and five arrested.

1020 GMT: Al Wasat says four members of the Shura Council, the upper house of Bahrain's National Assembly, have resigned in protest over the security crackdown.

Youth activist Saeed Ahmed has been arrested.

A spokesman for the Bahraini Army has said on state-run Bahrain TV that people should not gather outside "for their own safety".

0950 GMT: The British Embassy in Bahrain is closed until further notice.

0905 GMT: Residents say regime forces are attacking opposition-held Misurata, 210 km (130 miles) east of Tripoli, from three sides using tanks and artillery. Electricity and water have been cut off.

There are also reports of further regime assaults on Ajdabiya in the east.

0900 GMT: A reminder of the demonstrations in Syria yesterday, the largest since the wave of protest began in the Arab world in mid-December:

0845 GMT: The opposition party Al Wafaq is claiming that five people have been killed in Bahrain this morning.

0815 GMT: A doctor inside Sulaimaniyah Medical Centre in Bahrain: "We are trapped. We are asking for the security forces to stay outside the hospital."

A doctor at Budaiya health center, outside Manama, says that "streams of casualties" are arriving, all in private cars, because the capital's hospitals are blocked by security forces. The doctor says that one person has already died at the hospital, which is "only capable of minor surgery".

0745 GMT: Catching up with Libya....

Amidst the uncertainty of military reports about the regime's advance on opposition positions in the east, Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi appeared in Tripoli last night to denounce the opposition "rats" and claim that Western nations "want Libyan oil".

Declaring that the regime would respond to any no-fly zone declared by foreign powers, he singled out France as he addressed supporters at his Bab al-Azizia fortified compound, "Strike Libya? We'll be the one who strikes you! We struck you in Algeria, in Vietnam. You want to strike us? Come and give it a try."

Meanwhile, those foreign powers issued rhetoric but did not agree on further action at a meeting of the G8 powers in Paris. Debate continued over a draft resolution, introduced by Britain and Lebanon, at the United Nations Security Council on a no-fly zone.

"Some members have questions and they need clarifications before a decision is made," Li Baodong, China's ambassador, told reporters.

0740 GMT: Al Wasat reports "more heavy clashes" in Sitra in Bahrain this morning, after yesterday's violence that killed at least two people and injured dozens.

0720 GMT: The regime's Bahrain News Agency is repeatedly denied the claim that Apache helicopters were involved in this morning's clear-out of the Pearl Roundabout: "No helicopter was used in the security operation The only helicopter was for aerial filming."

0715 GMT: AFP reports that all schools, universities, and the stock market in #Bahrain are closed until further notice.

0710 GMT: Reuters is reporting, from a "health official", that two Bahraini police were killed today when they were "knocked down by protesters driving in cars at high speeds".

0625 GMT: The independent Bahraini newspaper Al-Wasat is reporting the deaths of two protesters,  Jaffar Abdali, 41, from Karana village,  Abdullah Hasan, 23, from Hamad Town.

0615 GMT: A bit surreal --- the regime's Bahrain News Agency follows a Twitter message, "Rioters withdrew from GCC roundabout without any clashes with policemen", with this update, "Start the countdown of His Majety [sic] King Hamad's horse racing."

0600 GMT: Eyewitnesses tell Al Jazeera English that security forces are not allowed medical personnel to reach and treat injured. One witness sends the message, "SMC [Sulaimaniyah Medical Center] taken over. No one allowed in or out. Ambulance crews surrounded."

0525 GMT: We begin Wednesday in Bahrain, where violence and bloodshed is a new phase. Less than 48 hours after foreign troops --- notably from Saudi Arabia, but also the UAE --- entered the country, clashes have killed at least one Saudi, one Bahraini, and injured more than 200 people. 

A large wave of security forces has quickly swept demonstrators out of Pearl Roundabout, the centre of the challenge to the Bahraini regime that began on 14 February. To the sound of explosions from gas canisters that were set alight, the protesters dispersed as their tents burned. Apache helicopters flew overhead, and five or six armoured personnel carriers, topped with machine guns are now moving out of the Roundabout, to patrol the area.