Libya Live Blog - April 21

Libya Live Blog - April 21

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

Al Jazeera is not responsible for content derived from external sites.

• Timestamp: 

  12:52am

  For more on the situation in Misurata, read this blog by Donatella Rovera from Amnesty International.

• Timestamp: 

  11:51pm

  Benghazi port tonight. Libyans show respect and solidarity for photographers Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros who died following an attack by Gaddafi troops in Misurata on Wednesday. Their bodies arrived in the port city en route home. [twitpic by @miguelmarquez]

• Timestamp: 

  11:22pm

  This footage, filmed by Al Jazeera staff in Libya, shows opposition forces arresting a man they accused of trying to steal a rebel car in Ajdabiya, on Monday, April 18.

  They said they believed the man was a "black African" from one of Libya's sub-Saharan neighbors, though he claimed he was from Tripoli Street in Ajdabiya.

  Rebels say that forces loyal to Gaddafi have been paying men to infiltrate rebel lines, steal cars, relay information to loyalist troops and sometimes open fire. They claimed this man would be taken to Benghazi and assigned a lawyer. 

• Timestamp: 

  7:13pm

  Reuters news agency has reported that president Barack Obama has approved the use of armed predator drones in Libya.

• Timestamp: 

  6:40pm

  Reuters news agency has posted these images from Misurata today following the heavy shelling there.
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Timestamp: 

  6:15pm

  AFP news agency has this picture of a Libyan rebel at the western gate of the strategic town of Ajdabiya.
  

• Timestamp: 

  6:00pm

  Al Jazeera's Sue Turton talks about the latest in Benghazi.
  

• Timestamp: 

  5:53pm

  Al Jazeera Arabic has reported that Libyan rebels said they have taken control of Wazin crossing on the border with Tunisia after fierce battles that forced a Libyan force 13 officers to Libya, including a general stationed there to flee and surrendered to the Tunisia army.
  
  On the eastern Front, Al-Jazeera Arabic correspondent in Ajdabiya reported that the rebels are carrying out massive combing in the area between Ajdabiya and al-Arbaeen.
  
  Gaddafi forces killed nine guards from al-Boster oil facility that pumps oil from the Sareer oil field to the port of Tobruk, Al Jazeera’s correspondent added.
  
  On the other hand, two ships arrived to the city of Benghazi, coming from the city of Misurata.
  
  One of the ships was carrying 1500 passengers, including 150 injured while the second was carrying 950 others. The step comes as part of cruises campaign sponsored by Qatar for the transfer of thousands of Arab nationals stranded in Libya and who wish to return to their country after the outbreak of war there.
  
  The campaign also includes providing medical aid and food to the Libyan people and to send an air bridge to transport the injured.

• Timestamp: 

  5:49pm

  Reuters news agency has reported that Libyan authorities is arming civilians to confront any possible land attack by NATO forces, a government spokesman said on Thursday.
  
  "Many cities have organised themselves into squads to fight any possible NATO invasion," Mussa Ibrahim told reporters, saying the "whole population" was being given rifles and light weapons.

• Timestamp: 

  5:30pm

  Reuters news agency has reported that the Libyan authorities is arming civilians to confront any possible land attack by NATO forces, a government spokesman said on Thursday.
  
  "Many cities have organised themselves into squads to fight any possible NATO invasion," Mussa Ibrahim told reporters, saying the "whole population" was being given rifles and light weapons.
  
  "If NATO comes to Misrata or any Libyan city we will unleash hell upon NATO. We will be a ball of fire .... We will make it 10 times as bad as Iraq."

• Timestamp: 

  4:50pm

  Shashank Joshi, from the Royal United Services institute, talks to Al Jazeera about what more can be done from the opposition in Libya.
  
  

• Timestamp: 

  4:45pm

  Ahmad Hassan, a pro-democracy activist from Misurata, talks to Al Jazeera about the worsening humanitarian crisis there. 

• Timestamp: 

  1:45pm

  British Prime Minister David Cameron insisted on Thursday that NATO is not edging toward the deployment of ground forces in Libya - despite the decision by several European nations to send military staff to assist rebel forces, according to AP news agency reports.
  
  "The UN Security Council does limit us. We're not allowed, rightly, to have an invading army, or an occupying army,'' Cameron told BBC Scotland radio.
  
  "That's not what we want, that's not what the Libyans want, that's not what the world wants."

• Timestamp: 

  1:39pm

  Wazin crossing now reported to be under rebel control

  

• Timestamp: 

  1:35pm

  According to AFP news agency, Sergei Lavrov, Russian foreign minister has warned against a Western ground operation in Libya, saying it would be an "extremely risky" action with unpredictable consequences.
  
  "We consider such steps to be extremely risky and fraught with unpredictable consequences," Lavrov said, quoted by Russian news agencies.
  
  He pointed to the sending of military instructors by some EU states to assist rebels forces "There are cases in history when everything started with the sending of instructors and then everything went on for many years and led to the deaths of hundreds and thousands of people on both sides."

• Timestamp: 

  1:28pm

  Al Jazeera Arabic channel's reporter from the Tunisian side has reported that the rebels’ flag is now raised on the Wazin crossing.
  
  Eye witnesses said that about 100 Gaddafi forces fighters, thought to have been guarding the crossing, have fled to Tunisian side after being attacked by the rebels.
  
  Rebels’ victory is a surprise because they had been heavily shelled by Gaddafi forces in the last few days
  
  A Tunisian hospital near Wazin crossing is now treating people injured in Libya, including some Gaddafi troops.

• Timestamp: 

  1:16pm

  Gaddafi forces killed 9 guards of oil facility between Sarir oil field and Brega seaport, Al Jazeera Arabic channel reported.

• Timestamp: 

  1:05pm

  Al Jazeera's correspondent, Sue Turton, has reported from Benghazi that "A psychiatric doctor in Benghazi says the number of women saying they have been raped is over 200.  And due to cultural reasons, many will not report, if they have been raped, so the number could well be in thousands."

• Timestamp: 

  12:41pm

  NATO has denied that alliance warplanes killed civilians in a Tripoli suburb, saying the target was a command and control bunker in a military compound.

• Timestamp: 

  12:38pm

  
  According to Reuters news agency, thirteen Libyan officers and soldiers, including a general, turned themselves over to the Tunisian military at a border crossing after clashes with Libyan rebels, Tunisia's state news agency TAP said on Thursday.
  
  TAP cited a military source, but gave no further details.

• Timestamp: 

  11:21am

  
  Al Jazeera Arabic channel's reporter in Tunisia has said that about 100 Gaddafi forces have handed themselves over to the Tunisian borders’ guards after being chased by rebels.

  He also said that the crossing area have been witnessing heavy clashes over the last few days. Some shells hit the Tunisian side of the borders.

• Timestamp: 

  11:06am

  Breaking news out of Libya -  Al Jazeera's Sue Turton has reported that Libyan rebel forces have taken control of the Wazin border post on the Tunisian frontier after overrunning Gaddafi troops.
  
  "The border crossing is 200km south of the main crossing. there have been reports of fierce fighting, several hundred anti-Gaddafi soldiers took control of this crossing.
  
  "It is a mountainous area, which explains why they managed to take it. They have taken it before and it can go back to Gaddafi forces."

• Timestamp: 

  10:53am

  The agony of Misurata - thousands trapped in Libya's worst warzone, asking where is the international community.
  
  The humanitarian crisis is worsening in the besieged Libyan city of Misurata as the fighting continues.
  
  Medics are treating head and shrapnel wounds among children. And illegal cluster munitions are reportedly being fired at residential areas.
  
  The UN says government troops may be committing war crimes. Watch our latest update here

• Timestamp: 

  10:48am

  And according to Al Jazeera Arabic channel's reports, rebels are now in control on larger areas in eastern and western parts of Misurata.
  
  However, there is relative calm today on all fronts although Gaddafi troops are still attacking the city sporadically, from a long distance.
   
  Rebel froces have taken control over post office building and nearby buildings.

• Timestamp: 

  10:23am

  Al Jazeera's Sue Turton has this special report on the revenge killings taking place in Benghazi, the opposition stronghold. You can watch it here - a warning, some viewers may find images in this report distressing.

   

• Timestamp: 

  9:48am

  UNICEF, the United Nations'agency for children, is responding to humanitarian needs in Eastern Libya through the delivery of health kits and hygiene kits for tens of thousands of people, through partnerships with NGOs present in Benghazi.
  
  In Misurata, UNICEF and other UN agencies have delivered critical relief supplies to the hospital. These included emergency health kits and surgical material that will cover the urgent needs of 30,000 people for a month, obstetric surgical kits, midwifery kits and hygiene kits.
  
  James Elder, UNICEF spokesperson, spoke to Al Jazeera from Benghazi about the humanitarian situation in Libya.

• Timestamp: 

  7:57am

  So far NATO efforts have been confined to airstrikes under the banner of a UN resolution - but now France, the UK, and Italy have also committed to sending small teams of military liaison officers.

  Al Jazeera's Tania Page reports

• Timestamp: 

  7:04am

  One of the last photographs filed by Chris Hondros, Getty photographer, one of the two western journalists killed in Misurata on Wednesday - Libyan rebel fighters carry out a comrade wounded during an effort to dislodge some ensconced government loyalist troops who were firing on them from a building (background) during house-to-house fighting on Tripoli Street in downtown Misurata on April 20,2011.

  

   

• Timestamp: 

  6:46am

  Hillary Clinton, US secretary of  state, said on Wednesday that the United States would not be sending military advisers to aid Libya's rebels despite decisions by France, Britain and Italy to do so.
  
  "There is a desire to help them be more organized and we support that. We're not participating in it, but we support it," she said in a conversation moderated by Charlie Rose at the State Department and aired on PBS.
  
  The White House had earlier said that US President Barack Obama backed the three countries' decisions to dispatch advisers, saying it would help the opposition battling Gaddafi forces, according to the AFP news agency.
  
  "But it does not at all change the president's policy of no boots on the ground for American troops," spokesman Jay Carney said.

• Timestamp: 

  6:19am

  Emma Daly, Human Rights Watch spokeswoman, said that the bodies of Hondros and Hetherington, the two foreign photojournalists killed in Misurata on Wednesday, were to be shipped out on the Ionian Spirit, a passenger ferry, that had just delivered food and medical supplies to Misurata.

• Timestamp: 

  6:11am

  Refugees from Libya continued to seek shelter at the Shousha camp on the Libya-Tunisia border on Wednesday, after fleeing the fighting between rebels and government forces.
  
  The camp, which has a capacity of 20,000 people, is run by the Tunisian army and international aid groups.
  
  It has become a place of shelter for thousands of stranded Libyans, where they can find food and medical support.

• Timestamp: 

  2:29am

   

  Seven civilians were killed and 18 wounded in a NATO air raid that targeted the southwestern Tripoli suburb of Khellat Al-Ferjan late Wednesday, official Jana news agency reported.

  An earlier report by the state Allibiya television said the Khellat Al-Ferjan area where three explosions could be heard was the "target of barbarian crusaders' raids that left martyrs and wounded among the residents and destroyed their homes".

  NATO warplanes carried out air raids earlier Wednesday at Bir Al-Ghanam, about 50km southwest of the Libyan capital, that left four people dead among the civilian population, according to Jana.

  France and Italy joined Britain on Wednesday in sending military advisers to insurgent-held eastern Libya, as Tripoli warned that a foreign troop deployment would only prolong the conflict.

   

• Timestamp: 

  1:55am

  Getty photographer Chris Hondros was killed on Wednesday after coming under fire in the besieged Libyan town of Misurata.

  Hondros and Oscar-nominated filmmaker and photographer Tim Hetherington, who was also killed, were among a group who came under fire on Tripoli Street, a main thoroughfare and scene of fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi.

  Doctors at a hospital in Misurata had said Hetherington had died while Hondros was in critical condition. Getty Images later released a statement saying Hondros had died of his injuries. Spanish photographer Guillermo Cervera said the group had been trying to leave Tripoli street when they came under fire.

  

  Hondros covered major conflicts including Kosovo, Angola, Sierra Leone, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Kashmir, the West Bank, Iraq and Liberia, according to his website. He received multiple awards including the 2005 Robert Capa gold medal. His work in Liberia earned him a Pulitzer Prize nomination.