Libya Special: National Transitional Council Struggles to Remain the "Good Guys" (Malone)

http://bit.ly/tC4bKtWith Muammar Qaddafi gone, the unifying focus for National Transitional Council fighters to do the near-impossible has been removed. In the face of massive obstacles, despite politics, infighting, and even the death of the commander of the NTC forces, Abdul Fatah Younis, the fighters did not let sectarian tensions distract them from their cause.

Now that Qaddafi is dead and the country is united under a single, transitional, national government, there are obvious problems in maintaining that unity and avoiding the sectarian strife.

Barry Malone, writing for Reuters, examines the problems facing the NTC as they attempt to "remain the good guys." But Malone is not all doom and gloom, predicting that in all probability, Libya will evolve into a scene of "peaceful politicking with some low-level skirmishes possible as Libya moves down a bumpy path of change"....

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Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: A Coalition Too Slow?

2025 GMT: Opposition forces say that there was fighting on three fronts in Misurata, Libya's third-largest city, with shelling by regime troops and at least one resident killed.

2020 GMT: Egypt's Health Ministry has raised the death toll in the uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak to more than 800, well over double the previous estimate of 384.

The ministry said another 6400 people had been injured.

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Libya, Yemen, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: No Cease-Fires

2200 GMT: We're going to take an overnight break. Coverage switches to our Live Feed from Al Jazeera English.

2145 GMT: Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi is now speaking by phone. He says that the coalition attack will launch a second Crusade, which will be countered by the Libyan people. He then asks Africans and South Americans to stand by the regime.

Gaddafi declares that the regime must now open the weapons depots and arm all Libyans. He then ends --- a very un-Qaddafi speech of less than three minutes.

2115 GMT: Activists claim that lawyer Ragia Omran was kidnapped today from a polling station in Egypt during the referendum on the Constiutional amendments.

2110 GMT: French broadcasters, refuting the claims of Libyan State TV (see 2050 GMT), reports that all French aircraft have returned safely from missions over Libya.

2105 GMT: Four Al Jazeera journalists have been detained in western Libya.

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Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Into the Abyss?

2255 GMT: We are going to take an overnight break and resume early Thursday morning. Coverage continues on the Live Feed from Al Jazeera English.

2210 GMT: Barack Obama has just made his statement on Libya, "We strongly condemn violence in Libya...express our condolences...bloodshed outrageous...violence must stop." He continued, "These are human rights. They are not negotiable. It's important for the international community to speak with one voice."

Obama did make an advance beyond Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's silence (see 2023 GMT) on action: he said he had asked his administration for a full range of options to respond to this crisis --- with allies or other institutions.

Those last words are importantly, as they indicate that the US President is wary of moving unilaterally.

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Libya Snap Analysis: Towards The Last Battle of Tripoli

 More than 12 hours after Muammar Qaddafi's 90-minute mix of threat, bluster, and poetry, spiced with a dash of the irrational, the situation in Libya is no closer to resolution.

Yet there is some clarity emerging from the incoherence. Qaddafi's message, like that of former Presidents Ben Ali (Tunisia) and Mubarak (Egypt) before him, was that he would die in the country which he had led for decades. Unlike those two, however, Qaddafi was pointing to a determination that he would do so bloodily, both for his demise and as many Libyans --- enemies, of course, twisted by foreign hands --- that he could take with him.

What was missed as Qaddafi confused and almost mesmerised with his appearance, however, was the emerging race to the end. Which happens first: the leader unleashing bloody wrath or a coup that ends Qaddafi's life as well as his 42-year rule? 

The defection of the Minister of Interior --- Qaddafi's companion in the 1969 Revolution and close friend --- brought this into focus. Major General Abdul Fattah Younis al Obeidi resigned all his posts and urged all armed forces to join the people of the "February 17 Revolution". 

That is a resignation beyond that of the Libyan ministers and diplomats who have already fled Qaddafi's camp. Monday's aerial strikes, which were initially thought to be aimed at decimating protesters, were primarily carried out upon Libya's own military facilities. Although the situation is still not Air Force v. Army --- without some ground forces, Qaddafi could not remain --- this is a tightening military circle.

The Battle of Tripoli is taking shape. Qaddafi said, just before this uprising, that he did not want to be the victim of the Internet and Kleenex. Whether or not there is hidden wisdom in his statement, he is wrong.

It is the guns of his former allies that he should be fearing.