Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Getting Close to Qaddafi

1930 GMT: Libyan State TV is reporting coalition airstrikes on Tripoli.

1920 GMT: Army Officers: Al Jazeera English offers a list of recent resignations and defections by Yemeni officials to the opposition, including six military commanders, dozens of officers, 17 Ambassadors, the entire staff of the Yemeni Embassy in the US except the Ambassador, three MPs, and the leader of Yemen's most powerful tribe.

1910 GMT: President Obama, on a visit to Chile, has spoken to reporters about Chile. He reiterated that "it is U.S. policy" that Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi "has to go" and the international community "can't stand by with empty words" in the face of an imminent humanitarian catastrophe.

At the same time, Obama anticipated that the US would step back from leading the Libyan military mission when Libya's air defences were disabled: "We anticipate this transition to take place in a matter of days, not weeks."

1903 GMT: A witness tells Reuters of an explosion in Tripoli and the firing of anti-aircraft rounds.

1830 GMT: The UAE has announced that its role in the coalition effort over Libya will be strictly confined to delivery of humanitarian assistance.

1825 GMT: Jon Lee Anderson of The New Yorker reports from the road to Ajdabiya, as the opposition retakes territory in the wake of coalition airstrikes:

In front of another tank, a man fiddled with a camera and asked me to take his picture with his elderly father, who seemed overcome with emotion, and suddenly lifted both hands in a “V for victory” sign. Men wandered up to me to ask my nationality: “French, American?” and shaking my hand happily, shyly, expressing their gratitude to the West and their outrage at Qaddafi, and their humiliation, too. “Qaddafi, you know, he’s not normal,” Libyans often say in an ashamed way, as if trying to fathom the man who has dominated their lives for more than forty years and who is now sending bombs and planes and tanks against them. “What does he think, that we will somehow forgive him and agree to live with him again, after this?”

1820 GMT: AFP reports from opposition sources that 40 civilians in opposition-held Misurata, Libya's third-largest city, have been killed and 300 wounded today.

1815 GMT: The US Embassy in Sanaa has urged Americans in Yemen to stay indoors due to the instability in the country.

1800 GMT: Many thanks to James Miller for handling the LiveBlog this afternoon.

Reports have been coming in of a battle for opposition-held Zintan in the far northwest of Libya. It was reported this afternoon that the residents, given a two-hour deadline by regime forces to surrender or face execution, chose to fight.

The attack on Zintan was reportedly from the south, with regime troops coming from Sabha, including the elite Faris Brigade.

1655 GMT: Shifting Alliances. The Libyan no-fly zone is certainly very complicated. The Arab League has announced that it is supporting military strikes as part of the no-fly zone, despite earlier comments by some members to the contrary.

NATO had announced earlier today that it is willing to support the international coalition to maintain the no-fly zone. However, Turkey has blocked this move. 

Meanwhile, Russia's Prime Minister Vladamir Putin had condemned the air strikes in Libya as a "medieval call to crusade," but his comments were condemned by President Dmitry Medvedev.

We'll have to unravel all of that as time goes on.

1637 GMT: A veteran Libyan soldier has told the BBC that Saadi Gaddafi, one of Muammar Gaddafi's sons, gave soldiers the order to fire into crowds of protesters in Benghazi. 

"I heard Saadi say with my own ears, I swear to God," said the soldier.

"He didn't give the order to shoot that day. He said to give them one more day and then if nothing changes the next day, fire on them.

"When he went into the management office and came out, we gathered around him, the officers gathered as well. We created a circle around him, with him in the middle."

After the instructions were given, there was cheering, said the soldier, who had 18 years' service in the army and identified himself to a team from the BBC TV Panorama programme.

"I'm not saying the whole army did that, only the ones surrounding him. Most of them belonged to the Gaddafi family and their supporters."

1626 GMT: The Pentagon is reporting that they have fired 12 more cruise missiles at air defense and command & control locations in Libya, according to the AP.

1607 GMT: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is not sending warplanes to assist with a no-fly zone in Libya, but will supply humanitarian assistance. 

1557 GMT: The BBC is reporting that Libya's rebel National Council will not negotiate peace with Qaddafi. According to Reuters:

"We are in a war of attrition this dictator has forced upon us," Abed al-Hafeez Ghoga told a news conference in Benghazi. "Because of this we refuse to negotiate with him. We will see the end of him rather than negotiate. He is wanted internationally as a war criminal. He will be judged for his genocidal actions."

1535 GMT: A few minutes ago, the defense minister made a short statement of support for Yemen's president:

The armed forces will stay faithful to the oath they gave before God, the nation and political leadership under the brother president Ali Abdullah Saleh..., [...] We will not allow under any circumstances an attempt at a coup against democracy and constitutional legitimacy, or violation of the security of the nation and citizens.

1518 GMT: Yemen's defense minister live, "We will not allow any kind of any attempt to overthrow [the government]"

We're waiting for a full transcript.

1516 GMT: Another video of protests in Daraa, Syria, on Sunday.

1511 GMT: Al Jazeera: French foreign minister has delcared that Yemeni President Ali Saleh's departure is imminent. The live video of the people celebrating in the streets is breathtaking.

The President and his closest advisors are meeting right now, and Yemen's defence minister is expected to make an update in a few moments.

1452 GMT: Al Jazeera is reporting that Hakim Al Masmari, editor in chief of the Yemen Post to Al Jazeera, has stated that he does not expect the regime to last another 24 hours.

At the same time, President Ali Abdullah Saleh has once again stated that he is not planning on leaving.

"We're still here... the great majority of the Yemeni people are with security, stability and constitutional law. [...] Those who are calling for chaos, violence, hate and sabotage are only a tiny minority."

With the recent addition of Yemen's ambassador to Egypt, here is the current list of Yemeni officials who have resigned or defected in response to the violent crackdown against protesters:

Army Officers:
Brigadier Ali Mohsen Saleh, head of the North Western Military Zone
Brigadier Hameed Al koshebi, head of brigade 310 in Omran area
Brigadier Mohammed Ali Mohsen, head of the Eastern Division
Brigadier Nasser Eljahori, head of brigade 121
General Ali Abdullaha Aliewa, adviser of the Yemeni supreme leader of the army
General Faisal Rajab, based in the southern province of Lahij
“Dozens of officers of various ranks” – AFP

Diplomats:
Abdel-Wahhab Tawaf, Ambassador to Syria
Mohammed Ali al-Ahwal, Ambassador to Saudi Arabia
Ambassador to Jordan
Ambassador to Lebanon
Ambassador to Kuwait
Ambassador to China
Ambassador to the UN

Local Officials :
Ahmed Qaatabi, Governor of Yemen's southern province of Aden
Himyar al-Ahmar, Deputy Speaker of Parliament
Mayor of Aden

3 MPs

Tribal Leaders:
Sheikh Sadeq bin Abdullah Bin Hussein Alahmer, the leader of Hashed tribes

1444 GMT: Libyan opposition National Council is claiming that rebels have recaptured the east gate of Ajdabiya. Al Jazeera is reporting that the road between  Ajdabiya and Benghazi is littered with burned-out vehicles, presumably the result of air strikes.

1315 GMT: Namik Tan, the Turkish ambassador to the United States, says that four New York Times journalists who have been held in Tripoli "are on their way to leave Libyan border and will be delivered to US officials".

The four, including reporters Anthony Shadid and Stephen Farrell, were seized last week by regime forces.

Fighting continues around the eastern city of Ajdabiya --- Rob Crilly, a correspondent for the Daily Telegraph reports an ambush by regime units that killed four opposition fighters.

1250 GMT: Back from a break to find that President Saleh has not yet stepped down in Yemen, despite mass resignations this morning amongst his military commanders and diplomats. Hameed al-Qusaibi, a Brigadier General who stepped down earlier today, has said:

I respect the president because he did a lot of good things for the country --- but he also brought a lot of problems. My role is to support the protesters and we should try to get the president to turn over his powers peacefully --- we do not want our country to turn into a second Libya.

There is a danger that it will turn violent because he has some support.

The leader of Yemen's most powerful tribe --- and the tribe of President Saleh --- Sadiq al-Ahmar has called for the President to step down: "I announce in the name of all the members of my tribe that I am joining the revolution....[The President should] exempt Yemen from the bloodshed and make a quiet exit."

Yemen's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Ali al-Ahwal, has quit and announced his support for the protest movement.

1040 GMT: Claimed footage of Qamishli in northeastern Syria last night:

1030 GMT: Brigadier Sadek Ali Sarhan of the Yemeni Air Force has announced he backs protesters.

Mohsin Rajeh Abolohum, the General Consul of the Yemen Embassy in Washington, is the latest diplomat to resign. Al Arabiya is reporting that the Yemeni Ambassador to Kuwait has quit.

Gregory Johnsen, whose analyses featured on EA have predicted the demise of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, writes, "Question in Yemen; how loyal, Republican Guards, Special Forces, NSB, Special Guard, and Central Security are to Salih's sons and nephews."

0945 GMT: An opposition spokesman says regime forces killed seven people in Misurata on Sunday.

0940 GMT: Iran has asked a Bahraini diplomat to leave the country, striking back at Bahrain's expulsion of the Iranian Charge d'Affaires from Manama.

0938 GMT: A third Yemeni Army Commander, General Hamir Al-ahmar, has declared his support of the protests against President Saleh.

Tanks are now deploying in the centre of Sanaa in Yemen.

0935 GMT: In a joint press conference pulling back Amr Moussa's criticism on Sunday of the coalition attacks, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon --- following comments by Moussa --- says he and the outgoing Secretary-General of the Arab League spoke of Libya and noted "the support of the Arab League figured prominently" in the UN resolution authorizing force.

Ban added, "Now it is important the international community speaks with one voice."

0930 GMT: Himyar al-Ahmar, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, has resigned in Yemen.

Yemen's Ambassador to Japan, Marwan Noman, has also quit, as has the Yemeni Ambassador to Syria, Abdel-Wahhab Tawaf.

0920 GMT: Chris McGreal of The Guardian reports from the current front line, 9 km (5.5 miles) outside Ajdabiya in east Libya. Opposition forces have gained 150km (93 miles) since Saturday morning. McGreal says Qaddafi's forces were driven all the way back to the edge of Ajdabiya, but are repelling any further advance by the rebels:

There definitely is continuing resistance. There have been a number of incoming tank rounds from Gaddafi's forces, which suggests that they've still got tanks, they may still have some rockets. But above us now we can hear planes, which we have to assume are coalition planes, and we have heard a number of very deep explosions in the past few minutes which suggests those are attacks by coalition forces, possibly on those same tanks which were shelling us just a few minutes earlier.

0900 GMT: Al Jazeera English's broadcast is focusing on developments in Yemen, with the head of Yemen's Northwestern Military Zone, General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, deploying forces to protect protesters in the capital Sanaa and declaring "peaceful support". The commander of the Army's Eastern Division has also reportedly defected to support protesters.

A former Foreign Ministry official suggests a military takeover and transitional Government, removing President Ali Abdullah Saleh, is imminent.

Saleh had tried to check the growing movement against him, both within the establishment and on the streets, by firing his Cabinet on Sunday. The move came 48 hours after security forces had killed 52 protesters in Sanaa.

0845 GMT: Claimed footage of a Sunday protest in Madaya, a holiday resort town in Syria, with people chanting, "We want to overthrow the regime!":

And footage of the march in Daraa in the south:

0830 GMT: A telling passage, from The New York Times, in the battle for public opinion over the coalition airstrikes on Libya:

[The Libyan regime] promised Sunday to bring foreign journalists to a funeral for civilians killed in the attacks. But the funeral turned out to be more of a pro-Qaddafi political rally, and the true number of dead remained a mystery.

On the way to the funeral a bus full of journalists was parked waiting for about 25 minutes near a waterfront cemetery, until the arrival of several truckloads of hundreds of Qaddafi supporters waving green flags and wearing green headscarves. Then, when journalists entered the cemetery amid gunfire in the air and pro-Qaddafi chants, they found three freshly covered graves and 24 empty cinderblock holes.

One of the recent burials was said to have died of causes unrelated to the attacks. Another was said to belong to a 3-month-old baby girl, Siham Atabeeb, who was said to have been killed when a bomb hit her home. But neither of her parents nor any siblings were there, and people who said they were more distant relatives told conflicting stories about whether her mother was also wounded and whether she had any siblings.

People around the other fresh grave also said they were relatives, but people gave conflicting descriptions of the deceased --- he was 25 or 29; he was killed in his home, driving by a military base, or walking in a neighborhood near the Qaddafi compound; he was a taxi driver, unemployed, or in some other profession.

0820 GMT: The New York Times offers detail on Sunday's events in Daraa in southern Syria:

[President Bashar Al-]Assad sent a delegation to offer condolences to the families of those killed in the clashes in Dara’a, including the deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, and Tamer al-Hajeh, the minister of local administration....

Even as a group of prominent Dara’a citizens sat down for talks with Mr. Assad’s delegation, there was pandemonium in the streets. As the protests grew heated, the police sprayed tear gas, further angering the protesters, who began tearing down a poster of Mr. Assad in the main square of Dara’a. The police then opened fire into the crowd, witnesses said.

0810 GMT: Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid Al-Khalifa responds to the questions of Toula Vlahou, a reporter with American CBS News, on why she and her crew were fired on by security forces: "Wait for the police report." He tells another reporter, "We are not waging war. We are restoring law and order."

Asked about the security forces' takeover of the Salmaniyah Medical Center, with reports of the beating of medical staff and the blockade of the hospital, Al-Khalifa responded, "I am just hearing it from you."

0800 GMT: In Bahrain, Waad (the National Democratic Action Society) has condemned the "fabrication of charges" against its detained Secretary-General, Ibrahim Sharif.

Bahraini authorities have announced that Sharif, who was seized last Wednesday in a round-up of opposition activists, was demanding the downfall of the regime, had intelligence contacts with foreign countries, and was inciting incidents that killed citizens.

Waad responded that Sharif was exercising "his role as a political leader" and demanded his immediate release.

0650 GMT: Al Jazeera English's report on celebrations in Benghazi over foreign intervention against regime troops:

0645 GMT: A US official has told NBC News that the attack on Muammar Qaddafi's compound (see 0510 GMT) was carried out by British forces. The spin from London is that British ships fired missiles on Sunday night, but Tornado jets returned to base without dropping bombs because "civilians were in the area" of the target.

0640 GMT: Audio from a US EC-130J Hercules plane, warning a Libyan vessel not to leave port or it may be destroyed:

0550 GMT: An important note this weekend on the gathering protest in Daraa in southern Syria --- the arrest of 15 children, who had written slogans on walls inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, helped spark the discontent. The regime has now promised to release them.

0545 GMT: Speaking of Bahrain, the State news agency is carrying the claim of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa that that a foreign plot has been foiled. Thanking troops from other Gulf states for their intervention, the King said, ""An external plot has been fomented for 20 to 30 years until the ground was ripe for subversive designs ... I here announce the failure of the fomented plot."

0540 GMT: As the Bahraini regime, with the assistance of forces from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, clamps down on protest, media are focusing on the military's takeover of the country's largest hospital, the Salmaniyah Medical Center.

Latest stories, based on contact with doctors and a human rights group, claim that security forces have removed between 20 to 80 wounded protesters.

Most of the patients said to have been removed were injured on Wednesday when military and police swept away the protest camp at Pearl Roundabout, the symbolic centre of the uprising that began on 14 February.

0530 GMT: We're also keeping eyes open for any reliable information that comes out of Syria. A fifth protester was killed on Sunday in Daraa, the southern town that has hosted three days of demonstrations against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Thousands of people defied security forces yesterday, as tear gas --- and reportedly live fire --- was used in an attempt to break up the gathering.

The funeral of the latest victim today will probably be another occasion of protest and clashes. Unconfirmed reports on Sunday claimed the demonstrators had set fire to the Daraa courthouse and other buildings.

0510 GMT: The second night of coalition airstrikes on the Libyan regime took the assault close to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, destroying a three-story building within his compound Bab al-Azizia in a southern suburb of Tripoli.

The coalition claimed the building was a military command centre, but the attack --- reminiscent of the US assault on Qaddafi in 1986 --- had a clear psychological goal. Not only was it meant to rattle the Libyan leader, it was further encouragement for the Libyan people to see the regime as vulnerable.

The strike on Bab al-Azizia was part of a wave of explosions in and near Tripoli around 9 p.m. local time (1900 GMT). It was further evidence that the coalition has already moved past enforcement of a no-fly zone to protect the opposition in the areas it holds in eastern Libya and is trying to "box in " Qaddafi and --- probably --- encourage the Libyan people to rise up in a final insurrection against the man who has held power for 42 years.

Libyan officials took journalists to Bab al-Azizia to see the "barbaric bombing". They said no one had died in the attack, but State TV showed pictures of what it says are thousands of people gathering in Tripoli for funerals of people killed in earlier air raids. The government says 64 civilians have been slain so far.