Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Settling Into Conflict

2020 GMT: Abdel Fatah Younis, the head of the pro-democracy opposition's army, addressed a press conference in Benghazi. He said there are no divisions in the rebel army. He continued:

NATO has disappointed us. My staff have been in contact with the NATO envoys to direct them to targets that should protect civilians, but until now, NATO has not given us what we need...

Civilians are dying daily in Misurata because of lack of food or milk, even children are dying. Even by bombing. If NATo waits for another week, it will be a crime that NATO will have to carry. What is NATO doing? It is shelling some defined areas only.

2010 GMT: Two civilians were killed and six others were wounded when two roadside bombs exploded outside a shiite mosque in western Baghdad. 

2000 GMT: Video showing Libyan rebels modifying rockets/missile launchers in an unknown place. 

1955 GMT: Qaddafi forces have razed a mosque in Az Zawiyah that had been used by rebels as a base.

1950 GMT: The United Nations human rights office called on the Government of Yemen to immediately halt the use of force against people exercising their right to peaceful protest

1940 GMT: Maikel Nabil Sanad, a 25-year-old Egyptian, is accused of insulting the military, spreading false information, and disturbing public security. The charges are related to an article he published on his blog. He was arrested on March 28 and his trial is expected to start at a military court on Wednesday.

1930 GMT: Alleged Libyan rape victim, Eman al-Obeidi talked to CNN.

1920 GMT: Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor of the ICC, says he wants to question Moussa Koussa, the former Libyan foreign minister who has resigned and fled to London.

1910 GMT: Syrian activists called for a new wave of demonstrations on Tuesday to honour more than 80 people killed so far. ‘The Syrian Revolution 2011' Facebook page called for protests across the country for three days starting today, calling it ‘Martyrs Week'.

1900 GMT: Washington is urging for a negotiated transition in Yemen "as quickly as possible," Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said. 

1850 GMT: Video showing pro-Qaddafi vehicles hit by NATO jets.

1845 GMT: The head of Egypt's Illicit Gains Auhtority (IGA), Assem al-Gohary, has issued summonses for Gamal Mubarak, one of the two sons of former President Hosni Mubarak, and Zakareya Azmi, the former chief of presidential staff, to interrogate both men over corruption charges.

1840 GMT: Syrian TV says that two policemen were shot dead in Kufr Batneh, 15 minutes away from Douma where 8ppl killed friday during protests.

1830 GMT: NATO's briefing on Libya.

1820 GMT: Reuters says that the Algerian government is worried whether militant groups could acquire weapons circulating in Libya.

1815 GMT: Iraq's Deputy Environment Minister Kamal Hussein Latif said twenty-five percent of the world's unexploded land mines are buried in Iraq. "That has become a heavy legacy on the country that hobbles its economy and health," he said.

1810 GMT: Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, in an interview with the BBC, says that Moussa Koussa is "sick and old" and may make up "funny stories" about the Lockerbie bombing to tell authorities.

1745 GMT: The military action in Libya is costing the US Air Force $4 million a day and at $75 million so far, said USAF Secretary Michael Donley.

1715 GMT: Al Jazeera's Laurence Lee is reporting from Benghazi.

1700 GMT: Pictures taken near Brega, Libya.

1650 GMT: Hundreds of Libyans evacuated from Misurata by a Turkish hospital ship and arrived Turkish city of Cesme.

1645 GMT: A Turkish ship with Humanitarian aid was asked to leave Benghazi waters by Revolutionists. Is it because rebels are cross with Turkish PM's "insufficient" support against Qaddafi?

1640 GMT: The international Federation for Human Rights and its member organisation, Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies, condemn the repression of peaceful protests taking place in Syria and said that Syrian security forces have used live ammunition that killed 123 people so far.

1630 GMT: Bahrain government deported two Iraqi journalists working for the opposition's main newspaper, Al Wasat, accused of unethical coverage of the Shiite uprising against the Sunni rulers.

1615 GMT: International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo says that the court has evidence Qaddafi's government planned to put down protests by killing civilians before the uprising in Libya broke out.

1610 GMT: NATO called the deaths of civilians in an airstrike on Friday as an "unfortunate accident". According to the alliance, fighter jets defended themselves while rebels were firing on with their anti-aircraft gun in celebration at seeing NATO jets.

1600 GMT: It is confirmed that at least three people were killed and 15 others injured in Sanaa in clashes between tribesmen loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh and soldiers backing anti-government protestors.

1550 GMT: Famous actress Angelina Jolie was on the Tunisian-Libyan border, asking for humanitarian access in Libya.

1540 GMT: Pictures from Sanaa, Yemen, today.

1530 GMT: A tanker has docked at the eastern Libyan oil port of Tobruk to pick up the first oil cargo to leave Libya for 18 days.

1500 GMT: Video showing rebels consolidating their position in Ajdabiya.

1440 GMT: Chris Stevens, the US deputy ambassador to Libya, has arrived in Benghazi to hold talks with the opposition's national council there.

1420 GMT: European Commission spokesman for foreign affairs and security policy, Michael Mann, said: "The oil and gas embargo is specifically targeted against the Qadhafi regime. If revenues don't reach the Qadhafi regime, we have no issues with oil and gas commercial practices and they should be regulated according to normal trade practices."

1400 GMT: Denmark and Norway have expressed their support for an open-ended military campaign against Gaddafi. Norway, Denmark and Sweden are taking part in the international military campaign with their warplanes.

1340 GMT: Reuters reports a NATO official's statement that western air strikes have destroyed 30 percent of Qaddafi's military power.

However, despite this statistics, it is reported that rebels cannot hold Brega vis-a-vis Qaddafi's heavy weapons.

1330 GMT: The Time's Aryn Baker gives two significant points from Libya:

Libya's water-supply network, a multibillion-dollar project that pipes clean water from underground reserves in the south to some 4.5 million residents along the coast, is at risk. If an air strike hits one of the 3,000 manholes along the pipeline, says Abdul Majid Qa'oud, Agricultural Minister and chairman of the Great Manmade River People's Committee, the whole system will break down. "It will be a humanitarian disaster," he says.

At gas stations across the capital, lines stretch hundreds of cars long. Gasoline, which used to be cheaper than bottled water, is in increasingly short supply. Most of the oil fields and refineries are in the east. And many of the oil-tanker drivers, whose jobs are largely reserved for immigrant workers, have fled. 

1310 GMT: According to Al-Jazeera, Egyptian military council is forming a committee to investigate Mubarak's fortune.

1305 GMT: Gunmen have attacked a house south of Baghdad in an area and killed six people as they were sleeping in their home, Iraqi police said.

1300 GMT: Prosecutors in London said that Moussa Koussa will be quizzed over the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie in Scotland. 

1255 GMT: Will the unrest move to Turkey's southeastern parts? Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) is calling for sit-ins in major squares of cities. In response, PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the party of provoking tensions.

1240 GMT: Cairo wants a "new page" with Tehran. Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi said: "The Egyptian and Iranian people deserve relations which reflect their history and civilisation, provided they are based on mutual respect of state sovereignty and non-interference of any kind in internal affairs."

1230 GMT: Anti-Assad demonstrators said that the regime wants dialogue. "High-level security figures gave the green light for mediators to set dates for separate meetings with opposition figures inside the country," an opposition source told the German Press Agency DPA.

1215 GMT: An airstrike hit a convoy of Libyan military vehicles moving toward rebel lines outside the eastern oil port of Brega.

1200 GMT: Iranian FM Ali Akbar Salehi and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu had a telephone conversation regarding the latest regional developments, the critical situation in Bahrain in particular. They highlighted the importance of new reforms without any presence of foreign forces.

1130 GMT: Reuters news agency has reported that an oil tanker has arrived at the rebel-held east Libyan port of Marsa el Hariga.

1100 GMT: The International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo spoke to Reuters about Libya: "The political responsibilities are in the hands of the Security Council ... any political decision will be taken by the Security Council, not by me."

1030 GMT: Al Arabiya reports that violent clashes between Yemeni security forces and protesters in Taez, Yemen. Security forces are reportedly firing tear gas bombs. Meanwhile, two protestors were killed and ten were injured in Sanaa. 

Security forces and men in civilian clothes opened fire on protestors in Taez.

Yemen accepted an invitation by Gulf Arab states on Tuesday to talks on its political crisis.

1020 GMT: Egypt's ruling generals said that they would not allow extremist groups to take over the country and that they prefer to see a moderate religious ideology prevail in the mainly Muslim nation.

Sheikh Mohamed Hassan, a renowned Salafi preacher, said some leaders of Ansar al-Sunna, a Salafi organization, will run in Egypt's upcoming parliamentary elections. He added: "Islam shouldn't be feared; it is not only the religion of Prophet Mohamed, it was the belief of all preceding messengers. Islam should not be used as a tool for intimidation."

1010 GMT: Speaking to Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, Ukrainian nurse Oksana Balinskaya denied a rumour circulated in a WikiLeaks dispatch that Gaddafi had a “voluptuous blonde” nurse, Galyna Kolotnytska, as a mistress.

She added that Qaddafi was giving his staff Italian gold watches with a portrait of himself every year on the anniversary of his taking power. 

1000 GMT: A video showing an old man in Zawiya making jokes about Qaddafi and then taken by Qaddafi forces for revenge.

0930 GMT: Reuters says that Libyan rebels hope to begin their first independent oil shipment today.

0800 GMT: U.S. mission is ended in Libya. NATO takes over full control.

0730 GMT: Moussa Ibrahim, Libyan government spokesman, told reporters that Libya is seeking a solution only from within the country and others must respect its people's decision.

0700 GMT: After Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Abdelati Obeidi went to Greece on Sunday, questions are raised whether Qaddafi is looking for an exit option through negotiation. However, Libyan rebels say that they would not accept any solution if it leaves Qaddafi or his sons in power.

0330 GMT: A series of clashes throughout Libya on Monday, without any significant change in the situation....

Opposition forces, bolstered by new equipment from the coalition, continued to edge forward towards Brega in north-central Libya, reportedly getting as close as one kilometre from the oil port.

In Misurata, regime forces fired mortars, killing at least five people and wounding five others critically.

A regime attack was also repelled near Zintan, in the far northwest of the country, with six Qaddafi troops reportedly slain:

The political show of a US "pull-back" continued --- remember that President Obama said American forces, including jets, would only be involved for days --- with NATO establishing formal command and Britain stepping up its contribution, including the first announcement of direct support on the ground through communications equipment to the insurgents. In reality, the US is continuing to provide most of the forces: Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told Congress that, despite the declaration of pull-back, Washington is supplying AWACS air surveillance planes, electronic reconnaissance aircraft and aerial refueling tankers, with air force AC-130 gunships, A-10 Thunderbolts and Marine Corps AV-8B Harriers available.

On the diplomatic front, the US recognised the defection of Libya's former Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa by pulling him off its sanctions list.