Rolling coverage of events in Libya, as behind-the-scenes moves against Col Moammar Gaddafi intensify, with updates from other conflicts around the world.
By Laura Roberts, Jonny Cooper and Barney Henderson 11:50PM BST 04 Apr 2011
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22.00 That's all from the live blog tonight. Follow all our coverage of the crisis in Libya here.
RAF Tornados launched a number of Storm Shadow missiles that destroyed bunkers to the north-west of the site
21.46 More British warplanes are being sent to Libya amid concerns that many of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s forces have survived air strikes, The Telegraph's James Kirkup reports.
21.31 The US government on Monday said it had lifted sanctions against Libya's former foreign minister Mussa Kussa, after he defected to Britain.
Kussa had his assets frozen last month as part of a US and allied campaign to put pressure on Col Gaddafi's inner circle.
"Kussa has since severed ties with the Gaddafi regime, and today the United States is lifting sanctions against him as he is no longer subject to sanctions for being a senior official of the government of Libya."
Rebels take cover from explosions during a fight with troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi outside Brega in eastern Libya
19.43 The Libyan woman who burst into a Tripoli hotel to tell foreign journalists that she was gang raped by Col Gaddafi's troops says she is not in custody.
Iman al-Obeidi made headlines last week when she was dragged away from the hotel by government officials as she screamed her allegations of rape. A government official said she was a prostitute, but her family said she is a lawyer.
On Sunday she told a Libyan dissident network based in Qatar that she was examined by a doctor to prove the rape charge. She told CNN she was detained and beaten when she tried to reach reporters a second time.
A woman the government said was al-Obeidi's lawyer told The Associated Press on Monday that her client was refusing to speak to reporters because her case was under investigation.
18.51 Read our full story on the news that four more RAF Tornado fighter jets are being sent to Libya.
18.20 Prime Minister David Cameron made a surprise visit on Monday to the Italian base hosting British jets enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya, and announced four more jets for the mission.
17.48 @NicRobertsonCNN has posted a series of tweets about the current situation of Eman Al Obeidi - the woman who was forcibly arrested in front of the press in Tripoli last week after claiming she had been raped by the the son of an offical.
Here's the final three updates to the chain of tweets:
Says after she was taken from this hotel, spent 3 days in detention & interrogation where they poured water on her face, threw food at her.
However she says it was more psychological torture than beatings. Says she still hasnt seen doctor or psychiatrist.
Says still in Tripoli & harassed whenever she leaves house--chased, detained again, taken to police who dont know what to do so let her go.
17.26 The picture gallery below documents the ongoing fighting in the Mediterranean town of Brega, the control of which has swapped back and forth between the rebels and the regime since protests began in February (see 16.37).
17.17 NATO have hit back in Misurata, which has seen heavy shelling throughout today,according to a tweet by @LibyaFeb17_com:
BREAKING: NATO just destroyed T-92 tank that was shelling homes in Misrata - #libya #feb17 - http://t.co/nWuKfyi
17.13 An anti-NATO demonstration is taking place in central Benghazi, where rebels are voicing their anger at the coalition for doing too little in the battle with Gaddafi's forces.
17.06 The full text of William Hague's speech to Parliament today is available on the Foreign Office's Website.
16.58 The Ministry of Defence has announced that Gurkhas will be among those to lose their jobs in the first trance of redundancies to hit the services under spending cuts that could affect personnel serving in Libya.
16.37 Back in Libya, the AP is reporting Brega is now largely in rebel hands. The town is one of several along Libya's Mediterranean coast that has oscillated between regime and rebel control. This latest update suggests the rebels have re-taken New Brega and are now contesting West Brega.
A rebel fighter holds a rocket propelled grenade launcher, near the front line in Brega.
16.34 Hague ends his speech with an announcement regarding the contact group he helped establish at last week's London conference.
The first meeting of the contact group on Libya that was agreed at the London conference last week will take place next week in Doha, which I will attend.
This will take forward the work agreed at the London conference, maintain international unity and bring together a wide range of nations in support of a better future for Libya.
16.28 Britain is supplying Libyan rebels with telecommunications equipment - not arms.
16.17 Returning to the subject of Libya, Hague explains the situation around Moussa Koussa. He makes it clear the law will guide the Government's actions on Koussa, just as international law is the central principle of the Libyan intervention.
Hague says Koussa has been given temporary admission to Britain. The former Libyan Foreign Minister, who is being encouraged to answer questions over the Lockerbie bombing, will not be given immunity from prosecution, but will equally not be put under a restraint that is not justified. Hague makes it clear the same will apply to any other defector:
Moussa Koussa has come to a society that is based on law. Any immigration issues will be considered on their merits, as with any other case.
16.07 Hague moves on to address the violence occuring in Middle Eastern countries.
He says the government "remain[s] very concerned about the situation in Bahrain", where he asks the controlling regime to reduce sectarian tension.
The Government is also "deeply concerned by further deaths and violence in Syria". Hague calls for restraint from the Syrian security forces. He "notes the announcement of certain reforms" in the country, but says "meaningful reforms that address the legitimate demands of the Syrian people are necessary and right".
Similarly, Hague says there is an "urgent need for steps to meet the legitimate needs of the Yemeni people".
William Hague addressing the House of Commons.
16.02 Hague: "The Libyan regime is under pressure. What is required from them is clear. A genuine ceasefire is required. The world is united in believing the Gaddafi regime has lost all legitimacy and he must go".
15.59 The Foreign Secretary emphasises Gaddafi is attacking civilians in Libya, and says the coalition forces have largely eliminated the regime's air force.
15.54 William Hague is updating the House of Commons on the situation in Libya and across the Middle East.
15.31 An Algerian security official has told Reuters that Al Qaeda are exploiting the conflict in Libya to amass weapons and smuggle them into Mali. The unnamed official said:
A convoy of eight Toyota pick-up trucks left eastern Libya, crossed into Chad and then Niger, and from there into northern Mali where in the past few days it delivered a cargo of weapons. We know that this is not the first convoy and that it is still ongoing.
The weapons are said to include surface-to-air missles, Kalashnikov heavy machine guns, rifles, and ammunition.
15.06 Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen met with Turkish officials today as an envoy of Gaddafi arrived in Ankara for talks on a possible ceasefire in Libya. Rasmussen held talks behind closed doors with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a meeting attended also by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul.
He had further talks with Davutoglu before finishing his visit.
14.20 The bombardment of Misurata by Gaddafi forces continues. Government troops been shelling the rebel-held city since early this morning, a rebel spokesman said. "Gemal" told Reuters:
The shelling started in the early hours of the morning and it's continuing, using mortars and artillery. This is pure terrorism. The shelling is targeting residential areas. We know there are casualties but I don't know how many.
14.14 Britain is not pursuing an exit strategy for Gaddafi, David Cameron's spokesman has confirmed. He said:
There have been lots of reports of envoys and of the regime reaching out in a number of ways. We have been very clear throughout about what the next step should be and that needs to be a genuine ceasefire and an end to violence.
An exit strategy for Kadhafi is not something we are involved in pursuing.
The rebels have swiftly rejected any deal that would involve the Gaddafi family
13.23 Meanwhile, Greek authorities say fighter jets were scrambled to escort a British passenger plane to Athens airport following a bomb threat while the aircraft was in its way from Britain to Egypt.
Greece's Air Force said two F-16 jets and a Super Puma helicopter escorted the plane to Athens International Airport, where it landed without incident.
Greek state TV said the plane was carrying 213 people and that the bomb threat was made in a telephone call to a holiday company in Britain. No further details were immediately available, AP reports.
13.00 An envoy for the Libyan opposition is also expected to go to Turkey. Turkey said it was seeking to broker a ceasefire in Libya and expected to hold discussions with an envoy from Muammar Gaddafi's government due in Ankara on Monday and a representative of the opposition.
We will talk and see if there is common basis for a ceasefire," a Turkish Foreign Ministry official said.
Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Abdelati Obeidi was expected in Ankara later in the day and an opposition representative also would visit the Turkish capital, the official said, without disclosing who would be coming or when. He said both sides had "conveyed that they have some opinions about a possible ceasefire".
12.30 The head of Italian oil group Eni (ENI.MI) Paolo Scaroni has visited Benghazi in the past two days to discuss eneregy cooperation with the rebel movement, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini says.
The CEO of Italian company Eni visted Benghazi two days ago. He contacted the council. He had important meetings on restarting cooperation about energy with the council that has the responsibility and the possiblity to restart economic cooperation.
Meanwhile Libyan rebels will this week load the first tanker with crude since the uprising against leader Muammar Gaddafi fully suspended exports from the North African country, Platts news agency reports.
12.09 The Telegraph's Damien McElroy offers some insight into the diplomatic machinations underway in Tripoli.
Just spoke with Khaled Kiam the deputy foreign minister who has been a notable absentee from Tripoli since the middle of last week. The urbane English speaking representative of the regime tells me he has been out of town as a result of a family bereavement and will be back at his desk tonight. As the regime looks to open up a dialogue that could break the impasse, Kiam willl have his work cut out. Western diplomats are waiting for a coherent and credible position that would underpin a dialogue. Tripoli is talking reform but the west wants attacks on the opposition to stop and ultimately regime change.
11.49 Al Jazeera television, citing unnamed witnesses, has reported that forces loyal to Gaddafi have bombarded Misla oil field in eastern Libya. Misla, operated by the eastern-based Arabian Gulf Oil Company (Agoco) which is under the control of rebels, lies in the desert about 400 km (250 miles) south of the rebel-held town of Ajdabiyah.
11.22 Italy has recognised Libya's interim national council as its sole interlocutor and said it would send planes and ships to evacuate the wounded from the besieged city of Misurata. Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said after talks with council foreign affairs chief Ali Al-Isawi that diplomatic overtures by the Gaddafi regime to nations such as Greece were not credible. He said:
The proposals are not credible. It is not possible to accept them.
This follows a rejection of diplomatic negotiations by the rebel council earlier this morning.
He also said the option of arming the Libyan opposition to fight against Gaddafi loyalists could not be excluded but would be "an extreme measure". Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas said the Gaddafi regime was "looking for a solution" to the conflict, following talks between Prime Minister George Papandreou and Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Abdelati Laabidi.
An injured man evacuated from the besieged Libyan city of Misurata, arrived in Sfax, Tunisia
11.19 An envoy of Col Gaddafi was expected in Ankara today to seek Turkish help for a possible ceasefire with opposition forces, government officials said.
10.39 The price of oil continues to be affected by the Libya conflict as well as other supply networks around the world.
Oil price hits highest level since recession on supply fears
09.52 Northern Ireland police have arrested a 41 year-old man on suspicion of terrorist activity, Sky News reports.
09.47 According to a report by AFP the Yemen army has shot dead one protester and wounded 30 in Taez.
09.43 More on the bus bomb in Pakistan. The attack was carried out by a teenage suicide bomber and killed seven people.
The bomb exploded in the small town of Jandol in the district of Lower Dir, 125 miles from the capital Islamabad. Pakistani troops fought a major offensive to expunge the Taliban from the area nearly two years ago.
Dir district police chief Saleem Marwat said seven civilians were killed and 18 wounded at the bus terminal, close to a car showroom, which was also damaged in the blast. Marwat said:
We have found the head of the bomber. He appears to be a teenager, a 15 to 16-year-old boy.
09.39 The Libyan rebels' Transitional National Council has rejected any transition under Gaddafi's sons after The New York Times reported that two of them had proposed that. Speaking in the rebel strongyhold of Benghazi spokesman Shamseddin Abdulmelah said:
This is completely rejected by the council. Gaddafi and his sons have to leave before any diplomatic negotiations can take place.
09.28 South Africa's foreign ministry says the army chief for Ivory Coast's entrenched strongman has left their embassy in Abidjan after seeking refuge there last week. Spokesman Clayson Monyela said Gen. Phillippe Mangou Mangou left on Sunday. He could not say where Mangou had gone, or whether he would rejoin Laurent Gbagbo after his desertion last week.
"I can only confirm that he left the embassy," said Monyela, who was reached by telephone in Johannesburg.
Mangou sought refuge along with his wife and five children as an army aiming to install Gbagbo's rival amassed on the outskirts of Abidjan.
09.25 The opposition is renewing its offensive at Brega today with a column of Libyan rebel fighters pushing towards the key oil town after having beaten a scattered retreat when ambushed by Gaddafi's forces the previous day.
The fighters made it to within five miles of the outskirts of Brega without encountering any resistance from loyalist forces, an AFP correspondent reported.
Libyan rebels flash victory signs as they advance towards city of Brega
09.09 Nato says a person wearing an Afghan police uniform has shot dead two service members, according to a report by Associated Press. The shooting took place this morning inside a compound in northern Afghanistan. The international military coalition says it's still investigating the incident in Faryab province. But initial reports say the shooter fired the shots and fled the scene. It did not provide further details.
09.07 Nato says the US military is pulling its warplanes from front-line missions today and shifting to a support role in the Libyan conflict. Britain, France and other Nato allies will now provide the fighter and attack jets to conduct intercept and ground attack missions. The hand-over is expected to take place late in the day, said a Nato official who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
Last week, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told Congress the US will continue to provide assets that others don't have in sufficient numbers. These are expected to include AWACS air surveillance planes, electronic reconnaissance aircraft and aerial refueling tankers.
08.26 A bomb exploded at a bus terminal in north-west Pakistan this morning, killing up to six people in the sixth bomb attack in as many days to strike the country, police said.
08.22 Al Arabiya news channel is reporting that 400 people have been wounded in police clashes in Yemen.
Police using live rounds and tear gas wounded more than 400 protesters who tried to march to a presidential palace in Yemen's Red Sea city of Hudaida early on Monday, as reports said that President Barack Obama's administration has shifted position on President Ali Abdullah Saleh and now believes he should leave office.
08.18 Foreign Secretary William Hague will make a statement to Parliament on Libya and Moussa Koussa today.
08.14 France is considering evacuating all its citizens as the violence worsens in the city of Abidjan, Ivory Coast. There may be nearly one million people currently on the move in Ivory Coast trying to escape the fighting. There are 9,500 UN troops in the country in addition to French forces.
08.08 Christopher Prentice, former British ambassador in Baghdad and now based in Rome, has arrived for talks with rebels in Benghazi - the first of diplomatic talks in the region.
08.03 The details of the latest victim of sectarian violence in Ireland is reported by the Telegraph's John Bingham in Omagh bombing: Ronan Kerr’s death a Mother’s Day tragedy. Our crime correspondent Mark Hughes has put together a profile of the IRA splinter group thought to be responsible for the bombing. Oglaigh na hEireann profile: police issued with bomb mirrors to counter splinter group
08.00 Foreign Office officials are due to meet with Scottish prosecutors today to discuss what role Moussa Koussa may have played in the Lockerbie bombing, Sky News has just reported.
Abdelati Obeidi, the Libyan former prime minister, has reportedly crossed from Libya into neighbouring Tunisia and flown to Athens.
07.40 The US has agreed to Nato's request for a 48-hour extension of American participation in coalition airstrikes against targets in Libya. The US Defence Department said:
Due to poor weather conditions over the last few days in Libya, the United States has approved a request by NATO to extend the use of some U.S. strike aircraft. These aircraft will continue to conduct and support Alliance air-to-ground missions throughout this weekend.
07.31 The Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera says one of the network's four reporters who were captured in Libya last month by pro-Gadhafi forces has been released. Three others remain held.
In a statement emailed to the AP today, Al-Jazeera says the journalist who has been released is Lotfi al-Massoudi of Tunisia. The four journalists from the Qatar-based network were captured in the western Libya 27 days ago. The three who are still being held in Libya are: Ahmed Vall Ouldeddin of Mauritania, Ammar al-Hamdan of Norway and Kamel al-Tallou of Britain. While the network staff were "glad to see an end to the ordeal" of al-Massoudi, the statement called for an "immediate release" of his three colleagues.
07.27 Meanwhile Aislinn Laing reports on the deteriorating situation in Ivory Coast where two presidents are battling it out for power. Her report - France sends more troops as Ivory Coast worsens - details how civilians are now being caught up in the violence with most barricading themselves in their homes with dwindling power, water and food supplies as armed looters roam the city.
07.22 The Guardian has an interview with Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton who claims that the RAF is being stretched to the limit by current air campaigns and that after six months in Libya it will need more funds for the 2014-15 review.
07.20 An interesting report from the New York Times that appears to show even Gaddafi's sons are turning against him. The paper says that Saif and Saadi el-Kadhafi are proposing a transition to a constitutional democracy that would include their father's removal from power. It is not clear whether Gaddafi himself has signed off on this proposal or whether they are working against him.
At least two sons of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi are proposing a resolution to the Libyan conflict that would entail pushing their father aside to make way for a transition to a constitutional democracy under the direction of his son Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, a diplomat and a Libyan official briefed on the plan said Sunday.
07.15 Tales from the front-line of Misurata as an aid ship rescues the wounded and dispossessed from the city which has spent most of this conflict as a front-line battle zone falling in and out of rebel control. Gaddafi snipers have beseiged the city which has been without electricity and running water for weeks. More than 250 patients were brought on Sunday to the rebel port of Benghazi on board a Turkish aid ship, which was to pick up another 60 or so wounded people from the eastern front before steaming on to the Turkish port of Cesme. Mohammed Muftah, 34, said:
They killed entire families, women. I have a neighbour who lost his wife and his three children. They did it just to terrorise people.
Fighting continues to rage in the oil town of Brega. An uneasy stalemate is developing between the rebels and Gaddafi's forces.
07.10 Richard Spencer is reporting on the situation in other parts of the Middle East as demonstrations continue in Syria, Bahrain and Yemen. He looks at Syria, where mourners assembled to mark the deaths of protesters killed in demonstrations agsinst President Bahsir al-Assad.
Syria: Thousands gather in Damascus for funerals
President Bashar al-Assad has appointed former agriculture minister Adel Safar to lead a new government. Further unrest is expected as activists use Facebook to urge more demonstrations in what they call "Martyrs Week".
Richard is also reporting on an about-turn by Judge Richard Goldstone, the lead author of a UN report accusing Israel of war-crimes, who now claims that he no longer believes it was army policy to target civilians. Israel calls for Goldstone report on Gaza to be withdrawn
07.00 The Telegraph's Nick Allen tells us in his report Libya: Former Guantánamo detainee is training rebels .
He writes: A former detainee at Guantánamo Bay has taken a leading role in the military opposition to Col Muammar Gaddafi, it has emerged, alongside at least one other former Afghan Mujahideen fighter.
Rebel recruits in the eastern port city of Derna are being trained by Sufyan Bin Qumu, a Libyan who was arrested following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and held at Guantánamo for six years.
Abdel Hakim al-Hasidi, a senior Libyan rebel commander in Derna, was also held following the invasion of Afghanistan and handed over to Libyan custody two months later.
Both men were said to have been released from prison in Libya in 2008 as part of a reconciliation process with Islamists in the country.
06.55 Toby Harnden has written an insightful piece into the the links between IRA terrorism and the Libyan regime in Libyan arms helped the IRA to wage war.
He writes: For almost 25 years, virtually every bomb constructed by the Provisional IRA and the groups that splintered off it has contained Semtex from a Libyan shipment unloaded at an Irish pier in 1986.
The arrangements for the biggest arms consignment ever received by the IRA had been made between Thomas "Slab" Murphy, a 36–year–old pig farmer from South Armagh, and Nasser Ali Ashour, a diplomat and Libyan intelligence officer.
Ashour, five years older than Murphy, was believed by MI6 to have been an acolyte of Moussa Koussa, who later became Col Muammar Gaddafi's intelligence chief. It took 30 Libyans two nights in October 1986 to load the Villa, a converted Swedish oil rig replenisher, with 80 tons of arms.
The cargo, landed near Clogga Strand, Co Wicklow, included seven rocket propelled grenades (RPGs), 10 surface–to–air (SAM) missiles and, most significantly, a ton of Semtex–H plastic explosive.
06.45 The Telegraph has a front-page report - Omagh bomb 'may have used Semtex from Libya’ - which highlights the police investigation in Ireland into whether the republican bomb that killed Pc Ronan Kerr at the weekend was made from semtex supplied by Libya.
Detectives are trying to establish whether the car bomb was made using Semtex – a plastic explosive that the IRA sourced from Libya in large quantities in the 1980s.
The potential link prompted urgent questions from Conservative MPs about the role of Libya’s foreign minister, Moussa Koussa, in arming the IRA.
Yesterday it emerged that Mr Koussa – who fled to Britain from Libya last week – has been named in US court documents as one of the men who oversaw the regime’s supply of Semtex to the IRA.
David Cameron was already facing pressure to ensure that Mr Koussa co-operates with the authorities investigating the Lockerbie bombing and the murder of Pc Yvonne Fletcher.
The Prime Minister is now facing calls to ensure that Mr Koussa is investigated for his role in the supply of an explosive that was used in some of Britain’s worst terrorist atrocities.
06.31 There is fresh hope that Gaddafi may be preparing to stand down as it emerges that he has sent a special adviser to Greece.
Damien McElroy reports in today's paper Libya: Col Gaddafi sends envoy to the West
He writes:
Abdulati al-Obeidi, who has emerged as the Libyan regime’s acting foreign minister after the defection to London last week of Moussa Koussa, was meeting George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister, in Athens last night.
He is the first senior envoy sent by Col Gaddafi since the international coalition started to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya. Greek officials said Mr Obeidi, who recently was said to be close to defection himself, was carrying a message from Col Gaddafi. The trip raised the prospect that the Libyan leader would be willing to seek a ceasefire and to acknowledge international demands for his removal.
Mr Papandreou’s office said he was meeting Mr Obeidi “at the request of the Libyan prime minister”, Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmudi.
06.22 Welcome back to the Libya live blog for April 4. The Telegraph has comprehensive coverage of events in Libya, the defection of Moussa Koussa and also what links the recent murder of a Catholic police officer in Omagh, Northern Ireland may have had with the Libyan regime. It appears that Libyan arms may have helped the IRA in their violent campaign.
Our team in Libya:
Rob Crilly
Damien McElroy
Richard Spencer
Colin Freeman
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