Libya live: endgame for Gaddafi as Tripoli battles rage
Live coverage of events in Libya as Gaddafi's son and heir apparent Saif as-Islam reappears on the streets of Tripoli after previous claims he had been detained.
• Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam reappears despite arrest claims• Father's regime is still in control, claims Saif al-Islam
• Col Gaddafi remains "safe and well", adds son and heir
• Gaddafi's son Mohammed also free after house arrest
• Another son, Khamis, rumoured to have been killed
• Fighting in Tripoli reported to be ongoing
Latest
10.39 Our video team have compiled a video of the surprise emergence of Gaddafi "captured" son last night. Here it is:
10.24 Gaddafi forces have fired three scud missiles at Misurata.
"We can confirm reports concerning the firing of three surface-to-surface Scud missiles from the vicinity of Sirte," chief Nato spokeswoman Oana Lungescu told AFP.
"They landed in the coastal area of Misrata, most likely in the sea or on the shore," she said, adding "we are not aware of damage or casualties."
10.21 The explosions seem to be centred around the Baba al-Aziziyah compound, Sky News is reporting. They are showing footage of smoke billowing from a building. This is where Gaddafi is believed to be holed up.
10.16 Today's National Security Council will be chaired by Nick Clegg as David Cameron has returned to Cornwall to finish his holiday.
10.12 The BBC is now reporting that some rebels are retreating, as Damien McElroy suggested earlier. This is what he said again.
There has been a massive drive of rebels through the centre of Tripoli along the western road. Two hundred vehicles and fighters chanting "God is great" are moving west. It is unclear if it is reinforcements moving around the city compound or whether it is the rebels making a retreat.
He also said there had been heavy gunfire and multiple rocket launchers were being used for the first time.
10.10 The tabloid papers have their own take on the Libya conflict. The Sun reports: "4p off petrol if Gaddafi goes"
Experts said global oil prices are set to tumble as Libya's production returns to normal when fighting ends - and that will be passed on at the pumps.
The revolution's effects on prices were already apparent yesterday, when Brent crude fell more than one per cent in London to 107.9 dollars a barrel.
10.05 Was the rebels' advance into Tripoli a trap? That is what Saif al-Islam is claiming.
09.56 Fadi el-Abdallah, a spokesman for the International Criminal Court (ICC), has told the BBC it had been difficult for them to verify suggestions that Saif al-Islam had been captured.
What we said yesterday is that we received information about the arrest of Saif al-Islam and we were trying to confirm that by contacting the National Transitional Council in Libya, but Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was not under the custody of the ICC.
The media was reporting about his arrest. We tried to contact different persons of the National Transitional Council and there were different opinions and different answers. That's why we said there was no official confirmation about his arrest.
09.50 A bit more on what Nato spokesman Col Roland Lavoie told BBC Radio 4's Today programme earlier. Despite Saif al-Islam's claims that his father's regime was still in control, Col Lavoie said most of Libya was being held by rebel fighters.
We have enough to be busy with the current situation. This mission is not finished yet. It is clear the Gaddafi regime has lost its grip and control over the capital.
But there is still shelling, there's still fighting (and) pockets of resistance, especially in the traditional strongholds of Gaddafi.
The game is not over yet.
09.45 Guido Fawkes tells us how British political commentators may be reacting to Saif al-Islam's reappearance.
Commentariat shifting: from "brilliant brave Cameron vindication" to "it could be messy" now Saif has popped up.
less than a minute ago via TweetDeck Favorite Retweet Reply
Guido Fawkes
GuidoFawkes
09.39 Our man on the ground Damien McElroy has phoned in from Tripoli. He says there has been heavy gunfire this morning and for the first time multiple rocket launchers have being used.
There has been a massive drive of rebels through the centre of Tripoli along the western road. Two hundred vehicles and fighters chanting "God is great" are moving west. It is unclear if it is reinforcements moving around the city compound or whether it is the rebels making a retreat.
09.36 There are several reports of snipers around the city centre, a sign of Gaddafi forces fighting back.
09.30 Some reaction now from Saif al-Islam's claims overnight that his father's regime had "broken the backbone" of the rebel uprising. Libyan opposition TV has dismissed the claims saying:
It does not matter if Saif al-Islam appears on TV channels or not... The important thing is that Tripoli's youths freed the capital in less than 48 hours. It is just a matter of hours until youths arrest the whole ruling family.
Col Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam makes the victory sign as he appears at the Rixos hotel in Tripoli, Libya AP/Dario Lopez-Mills
09.20 Mr Mitchell also said the Government's National Security Council will meet again today.
He also insisted the "Free Libyan forces are doing well" despite the reappearance of Saif al-Islam but said it would be a "bumpy ride".
But if you look at the events over the past week or so it is clear that the Free Libyan forces are doing well and now occupy very large parts of Libya.
09.18 The killer of British policewoman Yvonne Fletcher could be brought to justice as Muammar Gaddafi's grip on Libya crumbles, Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell has said.He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme:
There is no question whatsoever that, following a free Libya under the transitional control of the NTC (National Transitional Council), that is an issue the British Government will want to pursue with the new Libyan authorities
I am reasonably confident that a judicial process designed to bring that heinous crime to court would indeed take place.
09.11 We now have some really good images of Saif al-Islam during his reappeared on the streets of Tripoli.
His reappearance contradicted previous claims - which were confirmed by the ICC - that he had been detained.
Some are speculating that he may have escaped whereas others are wondering whether previous reports had been incorrect.
Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi greets supporters in Tripoli REUTERS
09.09 Nato has been dropping leaflets on Tripoli calling on pro-Gaddafi fighters to lay down their weapons and join the rebels, according to Al Jazeera. One of the leaflets urges regime soldiers: "Return to your family and serve your country by laying down your weapons, leaving your post and respecting the right of all Libyans to live in peace."
09.07 The rebel leadership reacted with shock to news that Saif al-Islam was free. The leadership's spokesman, Sadeq al-Kabir, had no explanation and could only say, "This could be all lies."
08.58 A few bits from overnight. Here is the video of Gaddafi's son and heir apparent Saif al-Islam greeting supporters from an armoured convoy on the streets of the city.
And here is some of what he said:
I am here to refute the lies. Tripoli is under our control. Everyone should rest assured. All is well in Tripoli.
[The government has] broken the spines of those rats and gangsters. To hell with the ICC.
Asked if his father was safe and in the capital he said: "Of course".
ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo had earlier said the 39-year-old was arrested and in detention.
08.56 Tripoli's "Green Square" is already appearing as Martyr Square in Google Maps (thanks to Martin Stabe).
08.45 Italy's foreign minister Frattini says he expects Libya's rebel government to honour existing contracts with other countries and confirmed that they have already agreed to revive Italy-Libya ties.
08.43 Patrick Cockburn writes in The Independent that although Gaddafi has lost power it is unclear who has gained it. He says Nato's interference has skewed the balance and confused matters.
The civil war in Libya went on longer than expected, but the fall of Tripoli came faster than was forecast. As in Kabul in 2001 and Baghdad in 2003, there was no last-ditch stand by the defeated regime, whose supporters appear to have melted away once they saw that defeat was inevitable.
While it is clear Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has lost power, it is not certain who has gained it. The anti-regime militiamen that are now streaming into the capital were united by a common enemy, but not much else. The Transitional National Council (TNC) in Benghazi, already recognised by so many foreign states as the legitimate government of Libya, is of dubious legitimacy and authority.
There is another problem in ending the war. It has never been a straight trial of strength between two groups of Libyans because of the decisive role of Nato air strikes. The insurgents themselves admit that without the air war waged on their behalf – with 7,459 air strikes on pro-Gaddafi targets – they would be dead or in flight. The question, therefore, remains open as to how the rebels can peaceably convert their foreign-assisted victory on the battlefield into a stable peace acceptable to all parties in Libya.
08.40 Nato spokesman Col Roland Lavoie has been speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. He tells them it is difficult to separate which parts of Tripoli are rebel-controlled and which parts are Gaddafi-controlled.
Each side is claiming victories, and of course clarity is the first casualty in that conflict, because we were bombarded with a variety of information. I would say, globally speaking, it is clear that the Gaddafi regime has lost its grip and control over the capital
08.30 A draft of Libya's new constitution appears to now be on the internet - however, as blogger Lachlan Markay points out, there is no way of verifying its authenticity.
The draft constitution on the internet calls for Shariah Law.
I'll get a copy uploaded onto this blog in a few minutes.
08.22 Many are laughing at the irony of Gaddafi hiding from the rebels - particularly at rumours he is trapped underground.
Mohammad Sweidan, an engineer, tells Damien McElory:
He called us rats, accused us of using drugs and being fanatical Muslims. Now he is underground scurrying for his life and we, the good people, are going to do our best to build a modern country open to the world.
08.14 Alex Benwell has composed a montage of today's papers; most focus on the battle for Tripoli and the hunt for Gaddafi. Here is The Daily Telegraph's front page story: the battle turns bloody.
08.00 Retired British ambassador to Libya Oliver Miles says the uprising in Tripoli shows the rebels can successfully run the country post-Gaddafi.
The collapse of Gaddafi's regime in Tripoli was and was not a surprise. Libyans told me they were expecting one of two scenarios, implosion or a dreadful battle of Tripoli.
Implosion it seems to have been, thank God, not yet quite complete or certain because there are still reports of pockets of resistance in Tripoli.
07.50 Damien McElroy, our man in Tripoli, writes a fascinating dispatch of yesterday's bloody battle and how Gaddafi's treasures were transferred into rebel hands.
It could have been contents of an upmarket car boot sale but the jewel-encrusted sword waved above the rebel fighter's head told a different story.
A white pickup filled with enough treasure to stock a small boutique was picked over by a unit of Libyan rebels sent to Tripoli to liberate its residents from 42 years of Col Muammar Gaddafi's rule.
07.30 A must-read account in today's Daily Telegraph by Gordon Rayner, chief reporter, Thomas Harding, defence correspondent, and Duncan Gardham, security correspondent, on how Britain backed the rebels.
For weeks, military and intelligence officers have been helping the rebels plan their co-ordinated attack on the capital, and Whitehall sources have disclosed that the RAF stepped up raids on Tripoli on Saturday morning in a pre-arranged plan to pave the way for the rebel advance.
MI6 officers based in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi had honed battle plans drawn up by Libya’s Transitional National Council (TNC) which were agreed 10 weeks ago.
The constantly-updated tactical advice provided by British experts to the rebel leaders centred on the need to spark a fresh uprising within Tripoli that could be used as the cue for fighters to advance on the city.
07:00 Mustapha Ben Halim, Libyan prime minister from 1954-57 who has urged Saif al-Islam to pursue reform, has told CNN: "The circus is over." He says he expects Gaddafi to go into exile and to "continue his fight". He called on the new government to care for the orphans and families of "20,000 martyrs".
06:52 Damien McElroy reports from Tripoli:
There have been a fair few exchanges of gunfire outside my hotel and across Tripoli this morning, it seems that Gaddafi's forces are certainly not going to go down without a decent fight.
06:13 Rebels in Tripoli remain defiant, despite the push back from loyalists. Fighter Abdel Azouz told the Washington Post:
We are winning, it is safe. There's just a few dirty rats here and there who don't want to give up.
05:58 As Libyans wake up to images of Saif al-Islam free and defiant, the rebels are facing hard questions about how he managed to escape detention, or if he was ever captured at all. Sabri Malik, a UK-based Libyan dissident, has claimed that Saif al-Islam was arrested but then freed by a rebel faction secretly protecting the Gaddafi family, according to the BBC. Al-Jazeera reports rebels in Benghazi are shocked and dismayed by his reappearance.
05:39 Good morning, if you have just joined us these the main events of the past few hours:
• Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi's son and heir apparent, has reappeared on the streets of Tripoli after the ICC said he had been detained by the rebels.
• A jubliant Saif al-Islam told reporters that Gaddafi forces were in control of Tripoli and that his father was in the capital and was safe and well.
• His brother, Mohammed, is also free after escaping house arrest.
• Elsewhere in the city, the gains made by rebels during their first push into Tripoli are being countered by a fight back from reinforced loyalist soldiers, although the rebels remain in control of several neighbourhoods and are still confident of victory.
• The whereabouts of Col Gaddafi are not known.
No comments:
Post a Comment