Libya Live Blog - April 3

Libya Live Blog - April 3

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: 

  11:21pm

  Jean Ping, the African Union Commission's chief, will be meetnig with  European and NATO officials regarding the situation in Libya, according to a statement.

  Ping is to meet with William Hague, the British foreign minister, and Andrew Mitchell, the British secretary of state for international development in London.

  In Brussels, he will meet with the leadership of the European Union and NATO.

• Timestamp: 

  11:14pm

  Dimitris Droutsas, the Greek foreign minister, says that it is "necessary for there to be a serious effort for peace, for stability in the region. Greece will continue in this effort to offer its good services."

  The FM said that in talks with the Libyan deputy FM, who is now the acting foreign minister, the Greeks stressed "the clear message of the international community: the full respect and implementation of the United Nations decisions, an an immediate cease-fire, an end to violence and hostilities, particularly against the civilian population of Libya".

• Timestamp: 

  10:27pm

  More pictures from Reuters, this time from inside the Turkish hospital ship.

  

  

  

• Timestamp: 

  10:16pm

  Here's a picture Reuters has just released of al-Obeidi shaking hands with George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister in Athens.

  

   

• Timestamp: 

  10:13pm

  According to Dimitris Droutsas, the Greek foreign minister, the Libyan deputy FM is next due to head to Malta and then Turkey, Reuters reports.

• Timestamp: 

  10:01pm

  A Greek government source tells Reuters that the Abdel Ati al-Obeidi, the Libyan deputy FM sent to hold talks with the Greek PM, has said that Libya wants a peaceful solution to the current crisis.

• Timestamp: 

  9:57pm

  Accounts of those on board the Turkey-bound hospital ship are now coming through.

  Mohammed Muftah, a 34-year-old Misurata resident with shrapnel wounds on his legs, back and neck, says:

  They killed entire families, women. I have a neighbour who lost his wife and his three children. They did it just to terrorise people."

  Mohammed Ahmed, sitting next to Muftah, has pins sticking out of a surgical bandage on his arm.

  "The doctor said it's serious... it's down to the bone," he said. "I'm with the revolution, but I don't have a gun," he said, as tears streamed down his face and his voice broke into sobs. "I just want freedom for
  my country."

  "The resistance has rifles, and they attack us with with mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades," Ahmed said.

   

• Timestamp: 

  9:41pm

  These pictures were taken in Misurata, where a Turkish hospital ship today took on 250 wounded people and 100 members of their families, transporting them to Turkey for treatment. Residents of Misurata welcomed them with Guns and Roses. [Reuters]

  

  

• Timestamp: 

  9:19pm

  A doctor in tears talks to the Voices of Feb 17 group moments after the shelling of a hospital in Misurata. [This phone call was recorded 13 hours ago.]

• Timestamp: 

  9:00pm

  Abdel Ati al-Obeidi, the Libyan deputy foreign minister, has met with George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister, in Athens, though officials refuse to divulge what the content of the discussions was.

  Papandreou's office says that Baghdadi al-Mahmudi, the Libyan prime minister, requested the meeting during a phone conversation on Saturday. Papandreou has also discussed the Libyan crisis with British PM David Cameron on Friday, Qatari PM Sheikh Hamad bin Jabar al-Thani on Saturday and Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday.

  On Friday, al-Obeidi had said the Gaddafi government was attempting to hold talks with Britain, France and the United States.

  Earlier, another Libyan envoy had visited Athens in March to meet with foreign ministry officials ahead of an EU meeting on the Libyan crisis. 

• Timestamp: 

  8:52pm

  John Psaropoulous, the editor of the Greek magazine Odyssey, has just been speaking with Al Jazeera about the ties between Libya and Greece, where Libyan deputy FM al-Obedi has been dispatched by Muammar Gaddafi to conduct talks.

  Well it stands to reason that the Libyans would reach out to the Greeks, if they are reaching out to anyone in Europe, because Greece is a country that has always been Arab-friendly in its foreign policy. This goes back to at least the 1980s, with Andreas Papandreou, the current prime minister's father, then prime minister, who held an overtly Arab-friendly policy with all Arab leaders, but particularly galling to NATO was his friendship with Muammar Gaddafi and with the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at the time.

  "The closeness of the relationship came up again in the early 21st century, in 2003. One of Gaddafi's sons was discussing with then Archbishop Christodoulos the possible financing of a mosque in Athens. Currently there is no mosque in the Greek capital and it has been a long-standing issue, because there is a large Muslim minority here. That was scotched by people who were against the Archdiocese, but again it underlines that Greece was open to suggestions and financing from Libya.

  "Right now, as you know, Greek public finances are a mess. That creates a weak point for the Greek state, should it be offered cheap oil or remittances from Libya in return for, perhaps, withholding military support.

  "Greece hasn't actively fought in the campaign over Libyan airspace, but it has provided territorial water to a French aircraft carrier southwest of Crete, and it does still on a permanent basis provide harbours and airfields to American and to NATO forces in Greece. So it is a strategic ally in the region, and it is worth the Libyans making an attempt atleast to see whether the Greeks are interested in showing some of their friendship."

• Timestamp: 

  8:37pm

  Members of the Libyan opposition have launched a new Qatar-based satellite television station. Al Jazeera's Nazanin Sadri reports.

• Timestamp: 

  8:29pm

  An online petition demanding the release of Iman al-Obeidi, the young Libyan woman who says she was gang-raped by Libyan militiamen loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, has reached its target of over 500,000 signatures. 

  It will now be delivered to Turkish officials in Benghazi, requesting that Ankara guarantee the "safety and release" of al-Obeidi.

• Timestamp: 

  8:26pm

  Several of the critically wounded from clashes between pro- and anti-government forces in eastern Libya have been flown out to Qatar to receive urgent medical treatment. Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher reports.

• Timestamp: 

  8:18pm

  The Associated Press has just published a great piece on reporting from within Muammar Gaddafi's "gilded cage", Tripoli's Rixos Hotel.

  It describes the surreal experience of the tightly-controlled world that foreign journalists have been given access to, with fistfights breaking out between colleagues or with government minders, and the perils facing anyone who attempts to travel off the beaten path.

  [The linked version of the piece is published on the CNBC website.]

• Timestamp: 

  7:08pm

  A Turkish ship carrying 250 wounded people left Misurata today, escorted by 10 Turkish air force F-16s and two navy frigates, Ali Akin, head of consular affairs at the Turkish foreign ministry says.

  The ship was forced to make an earlier than expected departure, as thousands pressed forward on the dockside hoping to be allowed safe passage out of the besieged city.

  Akin says the Ankara, a chartered ship, is bound for a Turkish port, where a field hospital has been set up. 

• Timestamp: 

  6:58pm

  These images, taken in Benghazi by EPA and Reuters photographers, show opposition forces receiving tactical and weapons training from soldiers who refuse to acknowledge Muammar Gaddafi's authority.

  

  

  

  

  

   

• Timestamp: 

  6:52pm

  This picture was taken on the road east of  Brega, and shows an opposition fighter surveying the front lines [Reuters]

  

   

• Timestamp: 

  6:03pm

  Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught in Tripoli reports that Obaidi had previously accompanied Moussa Koussa, the former Libyan foreign minister, to Tunisia on the trip he took which ended in his defection.

  At the moment, it appears that Obaidi is definitely headed to Greece for talks with the PM.

  McNaught reports that the links between Greece and Libya are not particularly strong, so it remains unclear as to what the reason for this visit really is.

• Timestamp: 

  6:01pm

  Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid at the main hospital in Ajdabiya reports that the situation on the frontlines appears to be unchanged, with opposition and pro-Gaddafi forces trading retreats and advances.

• Timestamp: 

  6:00pm

  Gen (retd) James Jones, former national security advisor to US President Barack Obama, says that a Libyan endgame is more "vital" to Europe than it is to the US, but that either way, it remains unclear how this conflict will end.

  Jones was speaking with CNN. 

   

• Timestamp: 

  5:52pm

  Former Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa appears to have taken a pragmatic view of the conflict in Libya. Speaking to the BBC, he said:

  It's quite clear in the best of worlds it would be a good thing for us to say you clobber [Gaddafi], capture him and let him stand for trial ... But we know that doesn't usually happen in the world in which we inhabit."

  He added that the "lesser of two evils" could be to allow Gaddafi to "have a soft landing and save the lives of as many people as you possibly can".

• Timestamp: 

  5:41pm

  The New York Times, citing diplomatic sources, reports that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, Muammar Gaddafi's son, is proposing a resolution to the conflict that would involve the elder Gaddafi relinquishing his powers, leading to a transition to a constitutional democracy.

  The unnamed diplomat, who is the main source of the report, however, says neither Gaddafi nor the opposition appears ready to accept the plan. 

• Timestamp: 

  5:30pm

  More on that British delegation to Benghazi: it is being led by Christopher Prentice, Britain's ambassador to Italy, the British Foreign Office says.

  "It will build on the work of the previous team and seek to establish further information about the interim National Council, its aims and more broadly what is happening in Libya," read a statement.

• Timestamp: 

  5:27pm

  Here's a 1999 file photo of Libyan deputy foreign minister Abelati Obeidi from a conference in Stuttgart [Reuters]

  

• Timestamp: 

  5:12pm

  Reports indicate that the bodies of about 70 refugees of Eritrean descent have been found off the coast of Libya.

  The Jesuit Refugee Service reports that the refugees had set sail for either Italy or Malta from Tripoli on March 28. The bodies were discovered on a beach and in the ocean about 20km from Tripoli.

  Over 800 refugees have reached Malta in the past week, with most originally from either Tunisia or Eritrea.

   

• Timestamp: 

  5:08pm

  A Greek foreign ministry spokesperson has confirmed to Al Jazeera that the Libyan deputy foreign minister is in Athens to meet with George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister. 

• Timestamp: 

  5:06pm

  While the news from the fighting in Libya has largely been grim, Al Jazeera's Sue Turton in Benghazi caught up with the family of a man who survived a trek across the strife-torn country to finally reach home, two months after he had left.

  She filed this report.

• Timestamp: 

  5:03pm

  Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid in Ajdabiya reports that there appears to be a realisation amongst opposition fighters that airstrikes by NATO-led forces will not give them the kind of safety that they had assumed that they would, and that the battle ahead will have to be carefullly planned. 

• Timestamp: 

  4:51pm

  Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Commitee, says that the US and its allies must know more about the Libyan opposition before making a decision on whether or not to arm them. Rogers was speaking on NBC television's Meet The Press show. 

• Timestamp: 

  4:45pm

  Reuters reports that deputy foreign minister Obeidi is in Athens to convey a message from Muammar Gaddafi to the Greek prime minister, according to a Greek government source. 

• Timestamp: 

  4:39pm

  Our correspondent confirms that Abdelati Labidi, the deputy foreign minister of Libya, crossed into Tunisia at about 0900 GMT this morning. 

• Timestamp: 

  4:34pm

  The Libyan government has warned that NATO-led airstrikes could cause a "human and environmental disaster" if they damage the country's "Great Man-Made River" (GMMR) water purification project.

  The GMMR, built at a cost of $33 billion, extracts water from 500-800m deep under the Sahara desert, purifies it, and then transports it to the coastal cities of the north African country.

  Abdelmajid Gahoud, project manager of the GMMR, told foreign journalists in the project's control centre that a "human and environmental disaster" would occur if the GMMR was hit.

  "If one of the pipelines is hit, the others are affected as well, which could mean a humanitarian catastrophe," he said.

• Timestamp: 

  4:29pm

  The Tunisian state news agency says that the Libyan deputy foreign minister, who Reuters names as Abdelati Obeidi, was in the country on a "private visit", the same term used to describe the visit by Moussa Koussa, the former foreign minister who resigned after leaving Libya.

  Reuters, citing a Tunisian security source, says Obeidi has flown to Athens from Djerba airport.

• Timestamp: 

  4:23pm

  A British delegation has arrived in Benghazi and will be meeting with the Libyan transition national council, according to Mustafa Gheirani, a spokesman, AFP reports.

  The visit comes after an early British contact team, reportedly consisting of six soldiers from the elite Special Air Service (SAS) and two diplomats, was rounded by lightly armed rebels soon after they touched down near Benghazi by helicopter. 

• Timestamp: 

  4:20pm

  NATO says its aircraft have flown 184 sorties today, with 70 of those described as "strike sorties". Strike sorties are those flown by aircraft carrying bombs or missiles, but the designation does  not necessarily mean the ordinance was fired. 

• Timestamp: 

  4:18pm

  Reuters reports that Abdelati Laabidi, Libya's deputy foreign minister, has flown to Athens from Tunisia's Djerba airport.

• Timestamp: 

  4:15pm

  AFP reports that the Libyan deputy foreign minister who is in Tunisia is Abdelati Laabidi. He crossed into the country from the main Ras Ajdir border post, and was headed for Djerba, witnesses told AFP.

  Laabidi is also the deputy minister for European Affairs, and was travelling in an official vehicle, with an escort.

• Timestamp: 

  4:05pm

  Reuters, citing the Tunisian state news agency, reports that the Libyan deputy foreign minister has crossed from Libya into Tunisia, and is bound for the airport.

  It is unclear as to whether or not he is travelling in an official capacity.

• Timestamp: 

  3:40pm

  Mohammed Ibrahin al-Ellagi, a former secretary general of the Libyan Human Rights Society, and newly appointed justice minister in the Libyan transitional national council, tells Al Jazeera that there is a possible "conspiracy" to be seen in the fact that NATO and allied troops have not bombarded Gaddafi positions in Misurata and Az Zintan in the same way that they did in Benghazi.

  al-Ellagi, speaking only in his capacity as a human rights activist, says UN Security Council Resolution 1973 is "flexible" and meant to provide protection to civilians, and that it should provide complete cover for allied forces to launch attacks on Gaddafi's forces across the country.

  He terms the situation in the western mountains of the country "very dire", saying that "heavy attacks" have been launched by pro-Gaddafi forces on the opposition there.\

  Al-Ellagi says a possible motive for allied forces to not take on Gaddafi in the west would be to allow Gaddafi to "create a solid platform for negotiation", or to choke the rebels' movement. 

• Timestamp: 

  3:07pm

  Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid in Ajdabiya reports that front lines do not appear to have moved over the last 24 hours. The fighting appears to follow a rhythm of advance and retreat over a range of about 5km from Brega, near the university.

  Doctors at the hospital in Ajdabiya say that four people have been killed today, and nine others wounded.

  Army commanders have now taken stronger command of the opposition forces near Brega, using simple high frequency radios and GPS systems to institute better communications and strategy.

  "I wouldn't say that it's highly organised at the moment, but it's slowly getting there," Abdel-Hamid reported.

  She says that two retreats, and a number of casualties and deaths, have made the opposition fighters realise that their enthusiasm alone may not be enough, and that they must ponder their strategy.

• Timestamp: 

  1:33pm

  Here's the latest on the overnight report from Al Jazeera's Laurence Lee regarding claims from a Libyan rebel that he and other fighters have received specialised training from US and Egyptian special forces on newly arrived Katyusha rocket systems.

  The Egyptian and US governments have both denied that they have special forces training the rebels, and a spokesman for the Libyan opposition's Transitional National Council has declined to say whether the rebels have bought new weapons or are receiving such training.

  The spokesman, Mustafa Gheriani, said the rebels are seeking weapons and would welcome training from any friendly country. The opposition has almost from the beginning of the uprising sought to purchase weapons from other countries and on Friday announced a deal whereby it would sell oil to Qatar and use the revenue to purchase weapons and supplies.

  The rebel source told Al Jazeera that he had been taken to a "secret facility" in the east to receive training on advanced, "heat-seeking" Katyusha rockets but had wound up receiving a shoulder-mounted model. Such a scenario is unlikely, though, since Katyushas - Russian-made rockets in use for decades - are heavy weapons with little guidance that are usually mounted in multi-barrel arrangements on truck beds. 

  Several media sources have said that CIA and SAS clandestine intelligence officers are in Libya, likely liasing with and training the rebels. It's possible that a civilian rebel with no military training could confuse such officers with special forces troops such as the Green Berets, who traditionally train foreign fighters.

• Timestamp: 

  9:50am

  American public support for the military intervention in Libya is fading, reports Camille Elhassani, Al Jazeera's senior White House producer. 

  Just after the strikes began on March 19, a Gallup poll found 47 per cent support and 37 per cent disapproval. Those numbers have almost flipflopped in the intervening days: a Quinnipiac University survey just found that 47 per cent of registered voters now disapprove while 41 per cent support it. 

• Timestamp: 

  9:19am

  Around 70 corposes have been retrieved from the Mediterranean Sea over the past few days, and they're believed to be sub-Saharan refugees who tried to flee Libya.

  The bodies are believed to have belonged to a group of Eritreans who left Tripoli on March 28 on a dinghy, the head of the Jesuit Refugee Service in Malta told Al Jazeera. Some of the bodies washed up on shore, and others were picked up at sea across an area spanning 10 kilometres.

• Timestamp: 

  8:10am

  Starting today, US aircraft are not to fly strike missions in Libya, though NATO commander General Charles Bouchard can request them, which would trigger an approval process in Washington DC, the AP reports. On Saturday, just before the deadline, US combat aircraft flew 24 strike missions in Libya, the Pentagon said.

• Timestamp: 

  4:44am

  At least one person was killed and several wounded early on Sunday when forces loyal to Gaddafi shelled a building in the rebel-held city of Misurata, a resident told the Reuters news agency. 

  The shelling hit a building which was previously being used to treat the wounded from the fighting in Misrata, the resident said by telephone. He added:

  We have one confirmed dead and we don't know how many wounded. The ambulances are arriving now bringing the wounded
• Timestamp: 

  4:14am

  Supporters of Muammar Gaddafi step on a defaced portrait of US President Barack Obama on Saturday as they protest against coalition air strikes in front of the United Nations office in Tripoli:

  

  [Image by Reuters]

• Timestamp: 

  2:11am

  Scottish detectives and prosecutors are to meet with Foreign Office officials on Monday to discuss the Libyan foreign minister Mussa Kussa, as part of the Lockerbie bombing probe, the AFP news agency said.

  Kussa, who defected to Britain on Wednesday, was not offered immunity following his unexpected arrival there.

  British prime minister David Cameron has urged police to follow the trail of evidence over the 1988 jumbo jet bombing wherever it leads.

• Timestamp: 

  1:31am

  Fighting continues between pro- and anti-Gaddafi fighters, and as Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid reports from eastern Libya, rebels there are concerned that Gaddafi forces - dressed as civilians and driving mounted pick-up trucks - may have actually infiltrated their ranks:

   

• Timestamp: 

  12:07am

  In case you missed this on our Live blog yesterday, US and Egyptian special forces have reportedly been offering covert armed training to rebel fighters in the battle for Libya, Al Jazeera has been told.

  An unnamed rebel source related how he had undergone training in military techniques at a "secret facility" in eastern Libya.

  Our correspondent Laurence Lee reported from the rebel-stronghold of Benghazi:

   

• Timestamp: 

  12:00am

  Welcome to today's liveblog.

  We'll be keeping you up to date with breaking news and reports as they emerge from Libya. But if you feel there's something you've missed, you can always check out yesterday's blog by clicking here.

  And don't forget, you can also tune into our live TV feed online: Watch Al Jazeera