• NTC forces make rapid advances in Sirte
• Sirte could fall today, Peter Beaumont reports
• Iran accuses of US of warmongering over plot claims
• Israeli and Hamas agree Gilad Shalit swap deal
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Libya's new regime forces fight as a comrade plays a guitar during a battle in Sirte. Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images
11.04am: Egypt's military rulers will hold a press conference later today as criticism of their role in the bloodshed at the march by Coptic Christians in Cairo on Sunday increases.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) press conference is due to start at 12pm BST. Protesters on the march have accused the security forces of instigating the violence on Sunday, rubbishing claims by state TV, which, during the march, reported that Christians were attacking police and armed forces and urged people to go out onto the streets of Cairo to defend the military.
The military rulers can expect some tough questions from the media on the violence which left 26 dead and more than 500 injured. Egyptian media have traditionally refrained from criticism of the military but some elements have abandon their traditional subservience to the army in the wake of the deaths at the march (see 9.20am).
Daily News Egypt reports a poll that found 90% of Egyptians trust the military council to lead the transitional period to democracy but the poll was conducted before Sunday's events.
10.59am: The Sirte guitar player has made it to main picture on the blog following various mentions in the comment section below the line. Thanks for the tips, please keep them coming.
10.50am: Our interactive map on the battle for Sirte has been updated to show the dwindling areas still occupied by Gaddafi's forces.
This detail of the map shows our understanding of the current state of the battle.
10.26am: There was speculation from the BBC yesterday that Nato jets hit Sirte in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Nato says it has conducted only reconnaissance over Sirte. It has hit only one target (last Friday) in the city in the last ten days.
In its latest update Nato said it hit six military vehicles in Bani Walid on Tuesday.
10.21am: Sky News is predicting that the fall of Sirte is just "hours away".
Alex Rossi, it's reporter in the city said:
The fall of Sirte is inevitable - most likely today. The big question is who is inside this city and why have they put up such a resistance.
It is believed that senior members of the Gaddafi regime have been here and were resisting so much because they know what fate awaits them.
9.37am: The fighting in Sirte could be over by the end of today, Peter Beaumont reports from the centre of the city.
Gaddafi loyalists are not returning fire from one of the pockets of the city that they still occupy, he says.
The fighting that seems to be going on, in what maybe the last pocket, is about a kilometre to the west of me, in district two. The whole east of the city is under government control. The centre of the city nearly all the way down to the beach; the police station; and I understand the main square fell in fighting last night. From the east I'm just not hearing anything. The biggest danger to us today was friendly fire.
Mutassim Gaddafi is still believed to be in the Dollar area of the city between districts one and two. District three on east of the town is now occupied by new government forces, Peter said.
Some of the [Gaddafi] fighters have been seen coming out with Qur'ans. We walked down a street where there had been pro-Gaddafi fighters. And there were a couple of houses where uniforms were strewn on the floor, where they had taken uniforms off to change into civilian clothes.
On Jalil's claim that Sirte could fall within two days, Peter said: "It is not an idle boast. It could easily be over by the end of today. We are hearing no out going fire at all."
Peter also described coming across the mobile phone of one of Mutassim Gaddafi's friends. It had Mutassim's phone number together with pictures of white stretched limos. "He's thrown his phone away probably because it had the phone number [Mutassim's] on it when he left," he said.
9.20am: The involvement of the security forces in Sunday's violent crackdown against Coptic Christians has prompted some elements of Egyptian media to abandon their traditional subservience to the army, writes Jack Shenker.
Open criticism of the military is a red line for the mainstream Egyptian media. That's been particularly true since the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces took power back in February. The ruling generals have taken explicit steps to crackdown on editors, journalists and commentators who have dared to speak out, but there has also been a measure of self-censorship on the part of media outlets.
This can partly be put down to a tradition of journalistic subservience to the political elite and partly to an awareness of the army's symbolic role in the eyes of many Egyptians - this is the institution that, in popular consciousness, helped liberate Egypt from royalty and colonialism and defended it from Israel; plus, as a conscript army, almost everybody has a friend or relative who is currently serving as a soldier or officer.
Which makes this editorial from Egyptian newspaper al-Masry al-Youm all the more interesting in the light of Sunday night's events. Entitled "The military has gone too far", it dismisses the army's claims to have "upheld order" and accuses it instead of having "allowed – possibly even encouraged – disorder and the stoking of religious hatred". The editorial continues:
"Sunday night's events were marked by many firsts: It was the first time the army attacked a Christian demonstration, the first time soldiers may be directly implicated in the killing of protesters, and the first time a sectarian crisis can boil over into wider discontent with military rule. But the deadly violence was also an example of ongoing political failures under the Egyptian military's leadership.
"Since taking over power, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) has failed to address many legitimate grievances raised by Egyptians; it has failed to ensure that peaceful protests are not exposed to sabotage or violent crackdown; it has failed to protect places of worship and hospitals from mob violence. Most importantly, the Scaf has shown itself incapable or unwilling to foster a political environment where legitimate demands can be addressed through existing laws and state institutions. Instead, grievances are left to fester, and when public anger escalates the military and police resort to force and intimidation."
It concludes by declaring that Scaf 'must stop behaving like the guardian of the Egyptian revolution that stands above any criticism. It does not. While some Egyptians may have given the Scaf a mandate to guide the transition to democracy, nobody has granted it license to monopolize the political process and silence its opponents, especially through the use of force.' The editorial is from the English version, at it will be fascinating to see whether the Arabic paper follows the same line. Either way, it's clear that some segments of the formal media landscape are opening up to the anti-Scaf sentiment that has long been prevalent on blogs and social media sites, and that could represent an important turning point.
8.40am: Welcome to Middle East Live. Apologies for the Groundhog Day headline, but Sirte remains the place to watch. For weeks NTC forces have been saying that the Gaddafi coastal stronghold is on the brink of falling. Now that fighting has reached the centre of the city that prospect really does look imminent.
Here's a round up of the latest developments:
Libya
• Libyan government forces have made rapid advances in several parts of the besieged city of Sirte, capturing large areas and gaining a seemingly unstoppable momentum. Pro-Gaddafi defenders of the city were pushed into an ever smaller pocket measuring about 6 sq km, which one advance threatened to cut in half.
Fighters believe that one of Muammar Gaddafi's sons Mutassim is holed up in the Dollar area of the city.
• National Transitional Council chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil predicted that Sirte would fall in two days. Speaking on tour of the city he said: "We need two more days."
• Forces on both sides of the fighting in Sirte should minimize harm to civilians and treat all prisoners humanely, Human Rights Watch has urged. Civilians from the former the pro-Gaddafi town of Tawerga, who fled to Sirte, are especially vulnerable to abuse, it said.
The NTC-aligned forces attacking Sirte include people from Misrata, who allege that Tawerga residents were part of the Gaddafi forces who committed atrocities in Misrata. In early October, Human Rights Watch documented abuses, including torture, in and around Misrata by Misrata fighters against people from Tawerga.
• The International Committee of the Red Cross has again expressed alarm about the fate of thousands of civilians still trapped in Sirte, after its workers rescued 25 war-wounded patients. Patrick Schwaerzler, the ICRC delegate in charge of the evacuations, said: "We saw hundreds of civilians fleeing Sirte ... but thousands are still caught inside the city. There is no electricity, and no food has reached civilians in the city for weeks. All parties engaged in the hostilities must take all possible precautions to spare them."
Iran
• The Obama administration has directly accused the Iranian government of involvement in an alleged plot to blow up the Saudi ambassador and scores of others at a Washington restaurant with the help of a Mexican drug cartel. The US attorney-general Eric Holder said Iran would be "held to account" over what he described as a flagrant abuse of international law.
• There is scepticism among analysts that Iran could be behind such a brazen and reckless plot, according to the Guardian's diplomatic editor Julian Borger.
Robert Baer, a former CIA agent with long experience of observing the QF, said: "This stinks to holy hell. The Quds Force are very good. They don't sit down with people they don't know and make a plot. They use proxies and they are professional about it. If Kassim Suleimani was coming after you or me, we would be dead. This is totally uncharacteristic of them."
• Iran has complained to the United Nations about the allegations, accusing the US of "warmongering". Iranian foreign ministry Spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, said the accusations were "ludicrous".
Israel
• Israeli and Hamas officials have agreed a prisoner swap deal to secure the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been held in captivity in the Gaza Strip by Hamas for five years. Following an emergency cabinet meeting last night the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, made a nationally televised announcement to say the historic deal had been struck. Under the terms of the deal Israel will release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Egypt
• More eyewitness testimonies have emerged contradicting the official accounts of the violence at a march of Coptic Christians in Cairo that left 26 dead and more than 500 injured. Egyptian state television initially blamed the bloodshed on protesters, who it said had attacked security forces. There were also attempts to portray the violence as sectarian in nature. But more and more people who were caught up in the violence have been coming forward to point the finger of blame squarely at the security forces.
• The Egyptian finance minister Hazem Beblawi has resigned over the violence, the LA Times reports. "Despite the fact that there might not be direct responsibility on the government's part, the responsibility lies, ultimately, on its shoulders," the state news agency MENA quoted Beblawi as saying.
Syria
• The ruling Assad family is portrayed as a ruthless mafia dynasty in a detailed profile by Nour Ali and Esther Addley.
Despite the family's obsessive secrecy, tantalising clues to their relationships and often dysfunctional workings can be gleaned from talking to former associates, embassy officials, biographers and diplomatic correspondence, including cables released by WikiLeaks. They paint a picture of a once-humble family that rose, ruthlessly, to rule Syria with a combination of megalomania and arrogance, corrupted by power and paranoia.
• You can read profiles of the key Assad family members in our new interactive Assad family tree.
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