Libya Live Blog - April 1

Libya Live Blog - April 1

• Timestamp: 

  12:03am

  Another day ends, and while there were no major shifts of territory between pro- and anti-government forces, it appears a new front has opened up on the political side of things, with the opposition making a ceasefire offer even as Moussa Koussa, Gaddafi's former foreign minister, remains locked in secretive talks with government officials in London.

  Continue following our coverage at our April 2 liveblog, here. 

• Timestamp: 

  0:00pm

  The full quote from Musa Ibrahim, the government spokesman, when rejecting the opposition's conditions for a ceasefire:

  The rebels never offered any peace.....we are the ones who offered peace weeks ago, and we said we are going to talk, and let's sit down and everything. The rebels are not offering peace. If you are making impossible demands, it's a trick, it's a trick. So, okay, I could come to the rebels and say: 'rebels, I offer you peace, get out of Benghazi on a ship, this is my condition.' You can't do that. These are our cities, these are the cities of the Libyan government. You hate this government? You can hate it. Many people hate their governments. That's not the question. If you want peace, you keep things as they are, you sit down and you negotiate. But to make impossible demands is a trick. So what they are doing is not a genuine wish for peace." 

• Timestamp: 

  11:37pm

  US-based rights watchdog Human Rights Watch says that the use of landmines by the Libyan government has been "confirmed".

  According to the group, troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi have used both antipersonnel and antivehicle mines during the current conflict with the opposition. 

  Pictures have been taken of mines laid by pro-Gaddafi forces (about two dozen antivehicle and three dozen antipersonnel mines) on the outskirts of Ajdabiya.

  HRW's release is available here.

   

• Timestamp: 

  11:32pm

  Franco Frattini, the Italian foreign minister, says his country has not ruled out the possibility of arming the Libyan opposition, but that to do so would be an "extreme measure".

  Frattini said it would be a decision taken if it became "the only possible option to protect civilians".

• Timestamp: 

  11:27pm

  Libyan television reports that coalition forces hit civilian and military areas in the towns of Khoms and Arrujban on Friday.

  Khoms is about 100km east of Tripoli, and Arrujban is about 190km southwest of the capital.

• Timestamp: 

  10:24pm

  The Associated Press reports that the US will "soon" stop firing Tomahawk cruise missiles, in addition to pulling attack aircraft out of operations, in the Mediterranean theatre.

• Timestamp: 

  10:19pm

  Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann, a Nicaraguan diplomat whose name had been discussed as a possibly Libyan government envoy to the United Nations,  will now be representing his own country as a deputy ambassador, the UN says.

• Timestamp: 

  10:08pm

  On Al Jazeera right now: David Frost interviews Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO's secretary-general. Watch live here.

• Timestamp: 

  9:56pm

  Musa Ibrahim, the government's spokesman, on rejecting the ceasefire conditions set by the opposition:

  They are asking us to withdraw from our own cities. .... If this is not mad then I don't know what this is. We will not leave our cities."

• Timestamp: 

  9:43pm

  The Libyan government has rejected the opposition's conditions for a ceasefire, saying that government troops will not be leaving Libyan cities, Reuters reports.

• Timestamp: 

  9:41pm

  Musa Ibrahim, the government spokesman in question, says "some mad and criminal prime ministers and presidents of Europe are leading a crusade against an Arab Muslim nation". 

  When using the term "crime against humanity", he was referring to the coalition airstrike on a pro-Gaddafi vehicle which resulted in the deaths of at least six civilians in a village near Ajdabiya.

  "You cannot get more civilian that this [village]," he said.

• Timestamp: 

  9:40pm

  Reuters reports that a Libyan government spokesman has termed airstrikes against pro-Gaddafi forces a "crime against humanity".

• Timestamp: 

  9:33pm

  Amnesty International is currently looking into the case of a Syrian journalist who has lived and worked in Libya for many years. This journalist appears to have been subjected to an enforced disappearance, and then appeared on Libyan state television, being questioned aggresively by a presenter regarding her integrity and her allegiances.

  The video has been published by Amnesty International here.

• Timestamp: 

  9:14pm

  Ibrahim Dabbashi, the former Libyan deputy ambassador to the UN who stepped down to join the opposition, has told Al Jazeera that he has "credible information that many people are willing to defect".

  We have credible information that many people are willing to defect.  But due to the tight security measures around Gaddafi they cannot. Because either there is tight security, or they have [concern about] their families… Everyone is trying to find a way out. I cannot say everyone - at least the intellectual high officials. I know four of them that are willing to get outside of the country to disconnect themselves from the regime, but it is very difficult."

  Regarding those who have recently defected:

  No, they cannot be part of the opposition, it is very important, very significant for other high officials near Gaddafi that they don’t have enough, it is time for them also to defect because they have no chance to win this battle, because the whole Libyan people is against them, the international community is now saying the regime has lost legitimacy and I think it is very significant event."

  On expectations of the international community and the UN:

  There is nothing more to be done by the Security Council, the only thing we want them to give is a broad interpretation of Resolution 1973 ... so if we stick to the arms embargo, that it is for all Libyans, this will in fact benefit the regime and he [Gaddafi] will be satisfied with that. Because he has enough arms maybe to fight for the next two years, while the opposition has no arms, no arms at all ... [But] there are some members (of the Security Council) that are resisting this idea."

   

• Timestamp: 

  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.

• Timestamp: 

  8:47pm

  Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid has been on the road with Libya's opposition today, and filed this report from the western gate of Ajdabiya, where opposition fighters have prevented journalists from venturing any further.

• Timestamp: 

  8:37pm

  Ibrahim Dabbashi, the former Libyan deputy ambassador to the UN who stepped down to join the opposition, has just been speaking with Al Jazeera.

  Certainly to defeat the Gaddafi forces there are many conditions but one of them is the well organised leadership of the forces of the opposition. Without good military commanders ... certainly there will be no success. But this is one of the first conditions.

  "Arming the opposition is very important and I think it is within the context of the [UN SC] resolution 1973 which indicates that all necessary measures should be taken to protect the civilians on the ground ... there is no alternative but to arm the opposition forces because, well, there should be also aerial attacks on the moving forces of Gaddafi that are aiming at citizens but I think there should be some forces on the ground to protect the civilians."

  Asked if arming the opposition would lead to an even more civil war-esque situation, Dabbashi said:

  In Libya it is completely different, there is a consensus among the Libyan people that they don't accept Gaddafi anymore, once he steps down I think all these arms will be gathered by the concerned security and we saw it now, in the eastern part of Libya, as soon as the Gaddafi forces withdrew from the eastern part, all those who had arms went to the army and gave in their arms."

  Dabbashi said the ceasefire is more for Gaddafi to observe, as the opposition was "only defending themselves".

• Timestamp: 

  8:19pm

  It appears that the Libyan opposition's National Council has decided to form a unified military body under the command of Abdel Fattah Yunis, the former interior minister who resigned to join the opposition.

• Timestamp: 

  8:05pm

  Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught in Tripoli reports that even though the opposition appears to have softened its stance in offering a ceasefire, there still appears to be an irreconcilable difference between the two sides: the future of Muammar Gaddafi. The opposition sees a future without him, and the government, simply put, does not.

  McNaught also reported that according to foreign ministry officials, Colonel Gaddafi is "not uninterested" in reconciliation, and was prepared to work on a "dual track".

• Timestamp: 

  7:40pm

  Some pictures taken today by Reuters photographers of the frontlines near Brega. 

  

  

  

  

   

• Timestamp: 

  7:32pm

  This image shows medical staff wheeling an opposition fighter who was injured with a shrapnel wound to his head into a hospital in Ajdabiya. He was injured in the fighting near Brega today. [Reuters]

  
  

• Timestamp: 

  7:16pm

  Catheron Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief, says (through a spokesman) that the bloc will launch a military operation with boots on the ground to support humanitarian assistance in Libya, but only if asked to do so by the UN. 

  According to an EU statement, the headquarters for EUFOR Libya would be in Rome, under Rear Admiral Claudio Gaudiosi of Italy.

  It would last four months at most, and cost $13.86 million.

   

• Timestamp: 

  7:12pm

  New Reuters footage shot in Ajdabiya shows images of a ghost town, with residents fleeing the city after the oil town of Ras Lanuf fell to pro-Gaddafi forces two days ago.

• Timestamp: 

  7:10pm

  AFP reports that the death toll from three days of fighting in Brega is 11, including 8 civilians.

• Timestamp: 

  6:43pm

  Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull filed this report from London on the ongoing debate regarding defections from the Libyan government.

• Timestamp: 

  6:37pm

  The Jamestown Foundation, a US-based think tank, says that Khalifa Hefta, a military commander with the opposition played a key role in the 1969 coup that initially brought Gaddafi to power. 

  Hefta broke with Gaddafi in 1987, however, according to the think tank, and he has lived in exile for the last 20 years and may be "the best liaison for the UNited States and allied NATO forces in dealing with Libya's unruly rebels".

• Timestamp: 

  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.

   

• Timestamp: 

  6:08pm

  And here's the latest report filed by Laurence Lee, our correspondent in Benghazi, wrapping up the day's events so far.

• Timestamp: 

  5:52pm

  Al Jazeera's Laurence Lee reports with the latest from Benghazi:

• Timestamp: 

  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. 

• Timestamp: 

  5:16pm

  Libyan opposition commanders in Ajdabiya are only allowing "experienced" fighters into the city, because the rest are "too much of a liability", reports Al Jazeera's Laurence Lee from Benghazi.

• Timestamp: 

  5:00pm

  The French tricolour has joined the pre-Gaddafi Libyan flag as a popular item being sold by street vendors in Benghazi. Flags are going for about five dinars (about $3), and French flags adorn many buildings and cars.

• Timestamp: 

  4:52pm

  The Associated Press reports that a US military plane has crashed, and the pilot has been injured, according to German police. It remains unclear what the circumstance around the crash are, and whether or not the plane was involved in operations in the Mediterranean theatre.

• Timestamp: 

  4:50pm

  Giovanni Martinelli, the Bishop of Tripoli, says that ordinary Libyans in the capital and other cities were finding day-to-day life increasingly difficult because of the conflict.

  They, Libyan people are sad at this moment, very, very sad. You can imagine. But you can say they are patient people, you can imagine..to get the gasoline, to stay three, four hours. To get the bread in the morning...how can people...they are not happy in this situation, they are not happy."

  Regarding Moussa Koussa, a man Martinelli has met, and his defection, the bishop said he the move may have been motivated by some "kind of misunderstanding" at his office, but that it was "a consequence of the person who is right".

• Timestamp: 

  4:38pm

  Reuters reports that sustained gunfire has been heard near Muammar Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli, but the report cannot be independently verified, and it remains unclear as to whether the shots were fired in defiance, celebration, or as part of a conflict.

  Citing a Libyan man who works abroad but remains in touch with his family in Tripoli every day, Reuters said that gunfire was also heard in the Tajoura neighbourhood.

   

   

• Timestamp: 

  4:30pm

  Al Jazeera's Laurence Lee in Benghazi reports:

  I don't think it's really the first time that they've said that they're open to negotiation. And clearly Gaddafi himself has already said that there have been two ceasefires, even though that turned out to be absolute lies. 

  "You have to remember that Mr Abdel Jalil was saying it in the presence of the United Nations special envoy to Libya, and the UN is calling repeatedly for a ceasefire, and so he had to acknowledge that to some degree. I think he was speaking partly to internal opinion in places like this, and the east of Libya, but he was also speaking to the international community, and I think the international community would agree entirely that if there is to be a ceasefire, it has to be accompanied as Jalil said by Gaddafi withdrawing his forces and ending the sieges, and the rocketing of towns like Misurata, which is under heavy attack again today.

  "But the other thing you have to remember that he said, was that if there is no ceasefire then the rebels will press on to try to liberate all the Western town. So he is trying to play both sides at once, and this sense of sort of bravado still maintains here, but all the same, behind the scenes, you do get the sense that they're getting a little worried ... about the protracted stalemate.

  "They've been in and around Brega and Ajdabiya now for days and days and days, neither side can push on, decisively. Here, there are worries that they might be running out of ammunition. And they are, I think, now trying to at least countenance the idea of different options. Because as time goes by, the military solution to this looks far less likely, and I think the political solution, if not inevitable, looks far more likely."

  Asked whether defections by pro-Gaddafi officials were an indication of the direction in which the crisis is going, he said:

  Part of the point is that clearly the outside world is it seems going cold on the idea of arming the rebels, there is too much disagreement in Western countries about whether practically or philisophically this is really a good idea. Here, at Friday prayers, every day, and every week now for the last few weeks, they've let off volleys ... of gunfire in celebration or defiance. Today, as of now, I've heard one bullet, fired off, and I think they're worried about what might happen if this does go on and they start to run out of ammunition. 

  "Equally, on the Gaddafi side of things ... you can see ... there's rumours about defections, and whether his sons want to get out, and whether Moussa Koussa, his foreign minister, is really in London to try to organise an exit strategy."

  Lee says that there is a process of internal renegotiation ongoing on both sides, as they prepare themselves for what it appears to be a negotiated political settlement.

• Timestamp: 

  4:11pm

  Reporting from the front lines has been difficult throughout this conflict, and today we're told that a Fox News crew attempted to gain access to Ajdabiya, but were turned away after getting about 200m inside the city's western gate by the opposition. Fighters say they are not prepared to let any journalists in at the present time.

• Timestamp: 

  4:06pm

  Al Jazeera's Laurence Lee in Benghazi reports that there is an unease in the opposition stronghold, with fighters concerned about what the outlook is for a solution in the current crisis, including a shortage of ammunition and supplies, as well as the prolonged nature of any possible stalemate.

• Timestamp: 

  4:00pm

  The families of those killed in the 1989 bombing of a French airliner demand that Moussa Koussa, Libya's foreign minister who has just defected, be questioned over the Libyan government's possible role in that attack.

  In a statement, the families of the victims say that while Koussa was previously questioned by a French judge, he may now have more to say. They also say he could help to locate Abdullah Senussi, Gaddafi's brother-in-law who was sentenced in absentia by a French court in 2009 for the bombing.

  The UTA DC-10 exploded over Niger in September 1989, killing all 170 people on board. The Libyan government has always denied any involvement in the attack, but in 2004 it agreed to pay $170 million in compensation to victims' families.

• Timestamp: 

  3:44pm

  In this phone call from Misurata, posted on the Voices of Feb 17 Audiboo page about 16 hours ago, a resident describes "two weeks of hell". He says the town has been under "relentless attack" from pro-Gaddafi forces, who are using tanks, heavy artillery and mortars to target neighbourhoods and the city's key port.

  He says that the pro-Gaddafi forces now occupy a "large part of the main street", and that the humanitarian sitution is "very dire".

• Timestamp: 

  3:40pm

  Ibrahim Sharki, the deputy director of the Brookings Doha centre, tells Al Jazeera that the opposition's call for a ceasefire is indicative of its concerns regarding "continuing at this level" in a military conflict.

  He says that while UN Security Council resolution 1973 is "broad" and "flexible" enough to allow one to "justify anything", the international community should focus less on the debate surrounding whether or not to arm the opposition, but should instead attempt to exert more pressure on the Gaddafi government and Gaddafi's own inner circle, forcing more defections. 

• Timestamp: 

  3:34pm

  Activists of the 'Young Guards', a Russian pro-government youth movement, have held protests against NATO airstrikes in Libya outside the US Embassy in Moscow, calling for Barack Obama, the US president, to return his Nobel peace prize [EPA].

  

• Timestamp: 

  3:20pm

  A brutal illustration of how the lack of training on the opposition fighters' side has a human cost. These men grieve for Ibrahim El Felah, an opposition fighter in Ajdabiya who accidently shot himself dead while at the front line. [Reuters]

  

• Timestamp: 

  2:25pm

  Rebel fighters throw a man from Chad into the back of a pick-up truck at a checkpoint, after he was captured in Ajdabiyah, in Libya. [Reuters]

  

• Timestamp: 

  2:19pm

  A Libyan opposition official says Qatar has agreed to a deal that will give the rebels money for weapons and other items in exchange for the oil they control.

  Ali Tarhouni, who handles finances for the opposition's National Transitional Council, said on Friday that Qatar has agreed to market oil currently in storage in parts of southeastern Libya controlled by rebels.

• Timestamp: 

  2:00pm

  Hundreds rallied in Dhaka after Friday noon prayers to protest against a range of issues including the involvement of Western forces in Libya.

  The demonstration was called by the Islamic Law Implementation Committee and covered a range of issues which the organisers oppose.

  A spokesman for the protesters, Zafarullah Khan, said:

  We Muslims from all over the world take a stand against America, Britain and India and wherever anything happens against Islam, any attack against Islam we will fight against that and will declare 'Jihad'.

• Timestamp: 

  1:52pm

  A man called Sami from Misurata tells Reuters by telephone:

  We no longer recognise the place. The destruction cannot be described. The pro-Gaddafi soldiers who made it inside the city through Tripoli Street are pillaging the place, the shops, even homes, and destroying everything in the process.

  They are targeting everyone, including civilians' homes. I don't know what to say, may Allah help us.

• Timestamp: 

  1:44pm

  BBC television quoted a Libyan doctor as saying that a Western coalition air strike had killed seven civilians, mostly children, and wounded another 25 people near the oil town of Brega on Wednesday.

  The doctor told the BBC he had been called to a village 15km from Brega after the strike hit a military convoy driven by supporters of Gaddafi.

  A trailer containing ammunition exploded between two homes, killing girls and young men aged between 12 and 20, the BBC said on Friday. The report has not been confirmed.

• Timestamp: 

  1:37pm

  Rebel spokesman tells Reuters that pro-Gaddafi forces are attacking the city of Misurata with tanks, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

• Timestamp: 

  1:02pm

  Mustafa Abdel Jalil also called for the removal of "mercenary" troops from the streets under any ceasefire. 

  Abdel Jalil said rebels would need weapons if Gaddafi's forces did not stop attacking civilians, repeating calls for assistance to battle better-equipped forces of the Libyan leader. He also said rebels would not back down from their main demand that Gaddafi and his family leave Libya.

• Timestamp: 

  12:56pm

  "Our main condition for ceasefire is that the Gaddafi forces have to leave the inside of the cities and leave the embargo imposed on them. At that moment the world will see that the Libyan people aspire for freedom," Mustafa Abdul Jalil, the head of Libyan National Transitional Council, said at the press conference in Benghazi.

• Timestamp: 

  12:52pm

  A rebel fighter smiles as he waits for his convoy to move out after refuelling at a staging post on the western outskirts of Ajdabiyah [Reuters].

  

• Timestamp: 

  12:48pm

  Abdelilah al-Khatib, the UN special envoy to Libya, speaking live from Benghazi where he met with the the head of Libyan National Transitional Council, said:

  Our main goal is to achieve a last ceasefire that will hold.

• Timestamp: 

  12:39pm

  Mustafa Abdul Jalil, the head of Libyan National Transitional Council, speaks live on Al Jazeera from Benghazi:

  We don’t object to ceasefire under the conditions that Libyans in the Western cities are given full freedom to express their opinion.

• Timestamp: 

  12:20pm

  The rebel movement is discussing plans with "friends" to exempt oil exports from sanctions imposed on North African state, a senior rebel financial official said on Friday.

  Much of Libyan oil production comes from fields in the east, an area controlled by the rebels, but shipments have halted and output from the fields has dwindled due to limited storage and refining capacity.

  Asked about the oil situation in east Libya, Ali Tarhouni, the rebel official in charge of economic, financial and oil matters, replied:

  It goes a lot better, better than I hoped. We are meeting our basic needs. What we want is an exemption from the sanctions. This is our main problem. It is very hard for us, it is an obstacle.

• Timestamp: 

  12:11pm

  A former Libyan foreign minister who Gaddafi had appointed as his UN ambassador, Ali Abdussalm Treki, has refused to take up any official position and condemned the "spilling of blood".

  Treki made the remarks in a statement sent to Reuters on March 31, 2011 by his nephew, Soufian Treki, a Libyan diplomat at the Arab League in Cairo.

  

  UN General Assembly President Ali Abdussalam Treki of Libya in this file photo from Reuters.

• Timestamp: 

  12:00pm

  Heavy machinegun and automatic gunfire rang out in the centre of Tripoli before dawn, Reuters witnesses said.

  It was not immediately clear what triggered the shooting. The gunfire lasted about 20 minutes and stopped before dawn. Cars were heard speeding along central Tripoli streets.

• Timestamp: 

  11:49am

  Swedish lawmakers have approved a plan to send up to eight fighter jets and one transport plane to join the NATO-led air operations over Libya.

  The center-right government's proposal passed in a 240-18 vote in the 349-seat Parliament. Five lawmakers abstained and the rest were absent.

  The Swedish JAS 39 Gripen fighter jets can't be used to bomb Gaddafi's ground forces, but will be able to return fire if they are attacked. The Swedish Air Force says the first planes will depart this weekend and will be ready to help enforce the no-fly zone in the middle of next week.

• Timestamp: 

  11:39am

  Abdelilah al-Khatib, the UN special envoy to Libya, has arrived in Benghazi to meet officials of the rebels' provisional council.

  "He is coming to Benghazi to see the transitional national council about the situation and the needs of the people. We hope he will see for himself the effect on east Libya," Salah Hedin, a senior member of the council's foreign affairs committee, told Reuters.

• Timestamp: 

  11:16am

  Khaled al-Farjani, a captain in the Libyan air force who is now fighting with the rebels, says:

  Some military have come and strengthened the rebel lines. God willing, they will begin with Ajdabiyah and go to Brega and Ras Lanuf.

• Timestamp: 

  11:08am

  Families who lost loved ones when a French plane was blown up in 1989 want the recently defected Moussa Koussa questioned in the case. The head of an association of victims' families, Guillaume Denoix de Saint-Marc, said that the group will meet with French prosecutors to press for a renewed look at the case.

• Timestamp: 

  10:30am

  Rebels moved rockets and other equipment forward towards Brega today, seeking to retake the oil town and regain momentum against better equipped government forces.

  At a checkpoint on the outskirts of the strategic eastern town of Ajdabiyah, rebels prevented unarmed Libyans seeking to join battle from going beyond the town's boundaries towards Brega, where rebels and Gaddafi's troops fought on Thursday. [Reuters]

• Timestamp: 

  10:24am

  Rebels rest at a makeshift camp outside Ajdabiyah in eastern Libya, April 1, 2011. [Reuters]

  

• Timestamp: 

  10:10am

  Al Jazeera's Laurence Lee speaking live from Benghazi, said that there was lots of confusion and conflicting reports.

  He said that the former US ambassador to Libya made an interesting point - Moussa Koussa may not have defected at all, but may be "on an errand for Gaddafi", meaning that he might either be discussing an exit strategy or even sowing misinformation.

• Timestamp: 

  10:00am

  British media say an envoy of Gaddafi visited London in the past few days to meet with UK authorities. The BBC and other media say the envoy was Mohammed Ismail, a senior aide to Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam, who is British-educated and has been among the most visible of the Libyan leader's children.

  The reports say Ismail is believed to be back in Libya following his talks with British officials. The Foreign Office said Friday it wouldn't "do a running commentary on who we are or are not speaking to" but that in any contact "we make it clear that Gadhafi has to go".

• Timestamp: 

  9:35am

  Vehicles belonging to forces loyal toGaddafi explode after an air strike by coalition forces, along a road between Benghazi and Ajdabiyah on March 20.

  

  [Reuters]

• Timestamp: 

  9:23am

  Osama Kubbar speaks to Al Jazeera in our studios. He is from the Libyan Information Centre an anti-Gaddafi advocacy group based in Doha.

  There is difference between those who are fighting for their own dignity, freedom and future and those fighting for someone else, and for money.

• Timestamp: 

  9:14am

  Pro-democracy forces in Libya are regrouping to try to re-take the town of Brega from forces loyal to Gaddafi.

  After making gains over the last week aided by international air strikes, they are now struggling to hold back the Libyan leader's army.

• Timestamp: 

  8:18am

  German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle says Libya's crisis cannot be resolved through military means and all sides must get to work on a political resolution.

  Westerwelle said on a visit to China that a first step must be a cease-fire that is heeded by Gaddafi.

  Speaking before Westerwelle at a Friday briefing, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi also expressed Chinese support for a diplomatic solution. He says China is worried about reports of continuing clashes and civilian casualties.

  Both China and Germany abstained in the UN Security Council vote that authorised the establishment of a no-fly zone and demanded that Libyan government forces pull back from population centers.

• Timestamp: 

  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.

  "We are all here the sons of Bu Selim,"' shouted Mohammad Mansour over the loud pro-Gaddafi music.

  We are all ready to defend the leader with our lives.

• Timestamp: 

  7:25am

  A Libyan loyal to Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi and who is part of a human shield flashes the victory sign at Bab Al-Aziziyah, Gaddafi's heavily fortified compound, in Tripoli last night.

  

• Timestamp: 

  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.

• Timestamp: 

  6:30am

  Mustafa Gheriani, the opposition spokesman, compared Gaddafi to a wounded animal:

  We believe that the regime is crumbling from within. An injured wolf is much more dangerous than a healthy wolf. But we hope the defections continue and I think he'll find himself with no one around him.

• Timestamp: 

  4:30am

  Mohammed Ismail, a "senior aide" to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, has been sent to London for talks with British officials, says the Guardian newspaper. A foreign ministry spokeswoman neither confirmed nor denied the report:

  We are not going to provide a running commentary on our contact with Libyan officials ... In any contact that we do have, we make it clear that Gaddafi has to go.

• Timestamp: 

  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.

• Timestamp: 

  3:10am

  In Tripoli, speaking out against Libya's longterm leader Muammar Gaddafi is a dangerous business, with reports of horrific violence meted out to those who have told media operatives of their support for the opposition.
  
  With the movement of journalists in Libya's capital city heavily restricted, these voices often go unheard.
  
  In the first of three special reports, Al Jazeera meets those willing to talk about the hopes and frustrations of life in Tripoli.

• Timestamp: 

  2:47am

  In case you missed it... NATO's mission title for its military action to supoprt UN Security Council resolution 1973 is Operation: Unified Protector.

• Timestamp: 

  2:25am

  In this photo, taken on a Libyan government-guided tour, Gaddafi loyalists gather as human shields in a rally at the Libyan leader's home and compound in southern Tripoli.

  

  [Picture: Reuters]

• Timestamp: 

  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.

• Timestamp: 

  1:38am

  Minister Louis Farrakhan, leader of the US-based Nation Of Islam, has defended Gaddadi "as a brother", and said Libya has loaned "millions of dollars" to his movement, says the Associated Press news agency.

• Timestamp: 

  1:20am

  Crowds of Gaddafi supporters have formed a human shield, gathering for another night inside the Libyan leader\s Bab al-Azizia compound in a southern Tripoli suburb, says the Reuters news agency. A teenage girl among the gathering told the agency:

  You keep talking about human rights but you keep bombing our Libyan citizens. We are here and not afraid, we are not afraid of your no-fly zone. We will always protect our leader and we have been in Libya fighting with armed gangs and terrorists.

• Timestamp: 

  12:45am

  US defence secretary Robert Gates says there will no US "boots on the ground" in Libya - despite reports that CIA operatives are already active within the country, making contacts with anti-Gaddafi fighters and officials, and guiding air strikes.

• Timestamp: 

  12:20am

  Gadadfi's forces have advanced this week - because of the weather, says the US military. Admiral Mike Mullen, the country's top military officer, told senators:

  The biggest problem the last three or four days has been weather.

  We have not been able to see through the weather or get through the weather to be able to do this kind of identification of targets ...

  And that has more than anything else reduced the impact... reduced the effectiveness, and has allowed the regime forces to move back to the east.

  Gaddafi's forces had consolidated their positions to the south of Ajdabiya and were expected to renew an offensive towards Benghazi, Mullen said.

• Timestamp: 

  12:02am

  Hello and welcome to our live blog for April 1. We'll be keeping you fully up to date with the latest news and reports emerging from Libya all day. But if you feel there's something you missed - don't forget, you can check out yesterday's blog, by clicking here.