Libya Live Blog - April 18

Libya Live Blog - April 18

As the uprising in Libya continues, we update you with the latest developments from our correspondents, news agencies and citizens across the globe.

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• Timestamp: 

  11:57pm

  New Qatari camouflage being worn by boys in Ajdabiya and the inside of new Qatari body armor being worn on the front (manufactured by Miguel Caballero in Colombia). [Photos by our web producer Evan Hill in Libya]

  

  

• Timestamp: 

  8:24pm

  AFP - More than 100 people have been killed in 24 hours in Libya's rebel-held Al-Jabal Al-Gharbi district west of 

  Tripoli after it was pounded by Kadhafi forces, residents tell AFP news agency.

• Timestamp: 

  7:15pm

  AP - Tunisia's state media says that three Libyan security officials in Muammar Gaddafi's regime have defected, arriving at a Tunisian port in a boat with some 20 other Libyans.

  A colonel, a captain and another officer in the internal security forces reportedly turned up at El Ketf port in the Ben Guerdane region.

  The defections follow those of five Libyan army officers who fled to Tunisia on Friday with 13 of their countrymen.

• Timestamp: 

  6:02pm

  Reuters - Rebels say four civilians were killed in Misurata on Monday in renewed bombardment by Muammar Gaddafi's forces of the coastal Libyan city.

  Gemal Salem, a spokesman for the insurgents, also said the death toll from Sunday's shelling had risen to 25 as some of those who had been critically wounded had died. He did not say whether that figure included rebel fighters.

• Timestamp: 

  2:00pm

  Another 1,000 people have been transported out of Misurata by the International Organisation for Migration - but at least 4,000 people remain, awaiting rescue.

  The group included 650 Ghanaians, as well as 100 Libyans - among them a child who was shot in the face, said the agency. Pasquale Lupoli, IOM's Middle East representative said: 

  We have a very, very small window to get everyone out. We do not have the luxury of having days, but hours.

  Instead of carrying out several further missions that will go into next week, what we now need is to have a ship that can accommodate at least 4,000 people and do one last mission that can take everyone out at the same time immediately.

  Spokeswoman Jemini Pandya noted that those stranded in Misrata are extremely weak and dehydrated after living nearly two months in the open and with little food and no access to clean water.

• Timestamp: 

  1:51pm

  We promised you more from Mike Hanna, and here it is. 

  A sandstorm on Sunday prevented NATO aircraft from targeting Gaddafi's troops as they advanced on Ajdabiya. 

  Just 24 hours later, the weather conditions have changed, and anti-Gaddafi fighters have advanced some 40km west of the city.

  Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna reports from the western edge of Ajdabiya with more details.

• Timestamp: 

  1:41pm

  A French Rafale jet fighter takes off from the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean sea near Libya.

  

  [Picture: AFP]

• Timestamp: 

  1:20pm

  More from Baroness Valerie Amos, UN under-secretary for humanitarian affairs, who is in Benghazi to help coordinate the flow of aid arriving into the country.

  She says she asked Libyan officials to allow the UN access to the besieged city of Misurata, but Gaddafi's administration rejected a cessation of hostilities to allow civilians to move to a safer location.

  She speaks to Al Jazeera from Benghazi - and we are also joined by our correspondent Jonah Hull, who visited Misurata yesterday.

• Timestamp: 

  1:14pm

  Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna, reporting from the western gate of Ajdabiya, tells us:

  About 24 hours ago, this area was under heavy artillery and rocket fire. But there has been no shelling here in the past 24 hours.

  And we understand the anti-Gaddafi forces have advanced some 40km further down the road. The reason is that the sandstorm that was ravaging this area yesterday has passed.

  Though we have heard no air strikes from NATO aircraft, the threat of air strikes has cleared the road ...

  We understand the siege of Misurata has been intensifying as Gaddafi's forces pincer around the civilian population, trapping them into an ever smaller area around the port.

  More from Mike soon.

• Timestamp: 

  1:05pm

  Al Jazeera's Evan Hill (@evanchill) has sent us this photo of a school building in Benghazi.

  Painted on the side are Omar Mukhtar, who led resistance to the Italian occupation of Libya in the 1930s - and Gamal Nasser, former president of Egypt and advocate of pan-Arab nationalism.

  

  [Photo: Evan Hill/Al Jazeera]

• Timestamp: 

  12:29pm

  Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull, who made it into Misurata yesterday (watch his video report here) agrees with Baroness Amos that more needs to be done. Following the interview with the UN humanitarian chief, he tells us:

  Anyone listening to those words will frankly be depressed by them ...  There isn't a safe passage into the town, the only access is by sea, and the port itself is frequently bombarded ...

  But hospitals are not reporting medical supplies arriving, and they are running short.

  People who have had to leave their homes are getting hungry, are getting desperate ... And no-one knows what is going on across the line, in what is Gaddafi-controlled territory.

   

• Timestamp: 

  12:18pm

  Baroness Valerie Amos, UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs is in Benghazi following talks with Libyan government officials in Tripoli. She tells Al Jazeera what progress is being made in Misurata:

  We've managed to get some food in. The International Organisation for Migration is evacuating people out of Misurata. We've got medical supplies in, and, of course, there are NGO partners also assisting.

  But we have no real sense of what the real needs are. I feel we need to be able to get in there, to assess the situation - and this is one of the things I was talking to officials in Tripoli about.

  I called for a cessation of hostilities, so people could move to places of safety ... We have migrant workers who are desperate to leave, but that call has not been heard by the government of Libya. They did say they would accompany a team into the city, but that is not enough ...

  We need a cessation of hostilities in all towns and cities where fighting is taking place and where people are extremely vulnerable.

  I raised [the reports of human shields and cluster bomb use] and there was an immediate denial. We all know how dangerous they are. Children get injured by them, as they see them as toys - but there was an immediate denial.

• Timestamp: 

  11:57am

  Associated Press reports that the UN is going to start distributing humanitarian aid in Libya's capital, Tripoli.

  The deal was made today by Valerie Amos, UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, said UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

  CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post did not attribute the AP news agency as the source. Apologies.

• Timestamp: 

  11:45am

  More from TNC oil official Wahid Bughaigis:

  As for the future policy, we will look into ending corruption in the oil industry and strengthening our national technical expertise in oil fields, in all fields of that industry.

  This does not mean that we will not have foreign partners going forward, we will respect all our agreements we have with them right now, and we will welcome new investments in the country ...

  Naturally it is important that we get back on stream. We need financing for all the efforts which are done to overthrow Gaddafi. We will look into assistance in getting things back from other Arab countries, eventually also from Western countries if possible.

  But we will rely mainly, as we see it right now, on our own capabilities to put back on stream what has been destroyed by the Gaddafi regime.

• Timestamp: 

  11:40am

  The Benghazi-based Transitional National Council will not sell any oil until production resumes in what officials hope will be "a few weeks".

  TNC oil official Wahid Bughaigis says they are still assessing damage to fields they control after a recent attack by Gaddafi's troops  halted production.

  Their ability to produce and market oil could prove decisive in their capability to sustain their fight - after recently selling one million barrels through a deal with Qatar earned the movement an estimated US$120million, says the Associated Press.

  TNC officials say they'll use the money to buy food, fuel and arms. 

  Bughaigis said Monday the Benghazi council control fields representing about one-third of Libya's oil production capacities.

   

• Timestamp: 

  10:45am

  Al Jazeera's Evan Hill, reporting from Benghazi, has sent us these photos of life in the stronghold of anti-Gaddafi forces.

   

  You can follow Evan's travels in Libya on his twitter feed: @evanchill - and right here with Al Jazeera Online.

• Timestamp: 

  10:00am

  Misurata is once again under fire from rocket and mortars launched by Gaddafi's troops, an opposition fighter tells Reuters.

• Timestamp: 

  9:45am

  More from Al Jazeera's Sue Turton in Benghazi on the coordination of relief efforts.

• Timestamp: 

  9:10am

  Al Jazeera's Sue Turton, reporting from Benghazi, tells us that - despite a French plane full of aid arriving a few days ago, it remains unclear that supplies are reaching all those who need help. She tells us:

  While it's been well publicised that Misurata needs help, we were in a camp for internally displaced people outside Ajdabiya just a few days ago - and there was little sign that they had received any aid whatsoever.

  To watch Sue's report on the displaced children of Libya, click here.

• Timestamp: 

  8:53am

  Some 1,000 people have been killed and 3,000 injured in Misurata alone within the past six weeks, a senior medic tells the AFP news agency.

  Libya's third largest city has been besieged, shelled and subject to hidden rooftop snipers. Dr Khaled Abu Falgha, administrator of the city's main hospital told AFP:

  Some 80 per cent of the deaths are civilians.

  He also said medical staff have seen a sudden rise in the number of people brought into the hospital in the last week suffering gunshot wounds to their heads and necks - the preferred target zone of marksmen.

• Timestamp: 

  7:33am

  Some 17 people were killed yesterday in Misurata, an NGO workers and an opposition activist tells the Associated Press. The death toll reportedly includes a girl shot in the head. 

  They died during street fighting in the centre of the besieged city, amid shelling and sniper fire. At least 70 others were wounded. Resident Abdel-Salam told the agency:

  Residents have become so accustomed to the sound of mortars and missiles.

  Snipers are still on the rooftops of tall buildings, shooting at anything that moves in the city centre.

• Timestamp: 

  6:54am

  The Nigerian daughter of a migrant worker waits in the port of Misurata to board the relief ship for its return journey and escpae the besieged city.

  

  [Picture: GALLO/GETTY]

• Timestamp: 

  6:49am

  An ambulance disembarks The Ionian Spirit ferry in the port of Misurata, a converted aid ship carrying supplies for those trapped in the besieged city.

  

  [Picture: GALLO/GETTY]

• Timestamp: 

  6:19am

  Gaddafi's spokesman has repeated the government position that al Qaeda is part of the uprising against the long time leader. Musa Ibrahim told reporters: 

  The involvement of al Qaeda in the conflict in Libya is proven every day. We believe it's very dangerous if these people establish themselves in this country, have control of its future, its immense wealth a footstep from Europe.

  Ibrahim said his government had information that "the famous Abdelhakim al-Hasadi, the very famous Al Qaeda leader, who has a jihadist history and fought in many countries including Iraq and Afghanistan", had left the eastern city of Benghazi for besieged Misurata.

  Hasadi, who he said was "very well-known to intelligence services around the world", was travelling in an old Egyptian ship, the Al-Shahid Abdelwahab, accompanied by 25 "highly trained fighters". He added:

  They repaired the ship and they filled it with weapons and advanced communication gadgets. And unfortunately the coalition knows about this, as they are observing our waters, and unfortunately they are prepared to allow known Qaeda members to pass from Benghazi to Misurata.

• Timestamp: 

  6:09am

  Al Jazeera Online's very own web producer Evan Hill is in Ajdabiya. He sent through this photo of anti-Gaddafi gihters checking their provisions before heading back to the front line.

  

  [Photo: Evan Hill/Al Jazeera]

  You can follow Evan's travels on his Twitter feed: @evanchill - and here on Al Jazeera, follow his latest blog posts:

  

• Timestamp: 

  3:18am

  Mourners pray next to the grave of a rebel, whom they say was killed in Brega by forces loyal to longtime Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, during his funeral in Benghazi yesterday: 
  
  Photo: Reuters

• Timestamp: 

  2:55am

  Abdelati Obeidi, the Libyan foreign minister, has held talks with Abdelilah al-Khatib, a UN envoy, in Tripoli and said Libya was ready to comply with United Nations resolutions to implement a ceasefire and allow the delivery of humanitarian aid, according to Jana, Libya's official state news agency. 

• Timestamp: 

  1:55am

  The western Libyan city of Misurata continues to be under siege by Muammar Gaddafi's forces.

   

  Its only lifelines are the sea routes to Benghazi, Tunis, and Malta, from where a steady stream of supplies has been trickling in over the past few weeks. 
  
  However, food and medical supplies are growing increasingly scarce in Misurata, Libya's third largest city. 
  
  Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull and cameraman Craig Pennington, boarded a trawler carrying humanitarian supplies, for a 24-hour voyage to the city, and filed this exclusive report, embedded below.
  
  Warning: This package contains images that may disturb or offend some viewers.
  
  
  
• Timestamp: 

  12:50am

  The Obama administration is seeking a place of exile for longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi, possibly in an African state that has not signed a treaty that might allow Gaddafi to be turned over to the International Criminal Court in the Hague, the New York Times reported yesterday, citing three administration officials who were not identified by name. 
  
  "After 40 years in power, I am not sure Gaddafi's ready to live the life of an exile," Andrew Terrill, a Middle East specialist at the Strategic Studies Institute of the US Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, told Bloomberg.
  

  "Any country he goes to may be subject to Western pressure, and probably he assumes that once he got to that African country he'd be defenseless."

  Terrill also said that he does not believe the rebels "have the logistics or organisation to move forward with major objectives at this time". 
  
  "Unless we see large scale surrender from Gaddafi loyalists, I don't see too many cities changing hands." 

  
  With NATO air attacks on Gaddafi's troops and supplies slowly crippling his war machine, "time is much more on the rebels' side," he said.

  "The rebels are getting stronger and Gaddafi is getting weaker; I don't see the urgency of mounting an offensive."

• Timestamp: 

  12:44am

  Rebels in the eastern stronghold of Benghazi are shipping food, medical supplies and weapons, including anti-tank rounds seized from Libyan army depots, to their fellow fighters in Misurata, according to reports.
  
  For more of our special coverage, click on the box below: 
  
   

• Timestamp: 

  12:38am

  Rebels came under fire on the outskirts of Ajdabiya on Sunday, hemming them into their eastern outpost and denting their hopes of pushing west to try to end a stalemate in the Libyan war.
  
  Below, a rebel fighter, armed with sticks of dynamite, joins his comrades at a street in an effort to defend Ajdabiya from advancing Gaddafi forces:
  
  

• Timestamp: 

  12:08am

  For those joining us, here is a recap of events in Libya:
  

  * Pro-democracy forces in Libya say they are in control of Ajdabiya.

  * Earlier, government troops took advantage of a sand storm forcing the rebels into a retreat.

  * The weather also forced NATO to ground their jets.

  * Anti-aircraft fire has been heard in the capital Tripoli. 

• Timestamp: 

  12:00am

  Welcome to today's live blog! We'll keep you updated throughout the day with all the latest reports and developments from Libya.
  
  However, if you feel there is something you may have missed - check out yesterday's blog by clicking here.