LIVE: Libyan Unrest: Revolutionaries massed for new push on Ajdabiyah

We are tracking the latest developments to keep you updated on the situation on the ground. There are interactive maps located in the Protest map page to keep up with the latest movements. Also check out the featured twitters on the sidebar. On the Go? -Follow us on Twitter @Feb17Libya for the same live updates.

All updates are in Libyan local time (GMT +2)

That wraps up our Live coverage of the unrest in Libya on March 25th. Check back shortly on the homepage for Live coverage of March 26th. Thanks for tuning in.

If you missed anything, continue reading to catch up on the day’s events…

Video: Great Inspirational Video to One Republic’s “Marchin On”

March on Libya !

God Rest Mohammed Nabbous & the souls of all our beloved martyrs and give the freedom fighters the strength to overcome.

3:3oam: Inside Gaddafi’s brutal prison: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad’s Libyan ordeal: While reporting the war in western Libya, award-winning Guardian correspondent Ghaith Abdul-Ahad was seized by Gaddafi’s militia.”I was pushed into cell 11, a windowless box, 2.5 metres x 1.5 metres, painted dark grey and lit by a weak bulb.”  He describes the two weeks inside the regime’s brutal prison system here.

3:00am: RAF Tornado jet destroys Libyan tanks: The Ministry of Defence has released footage from on-board a Tornado fighter
jet as it targets and destroys two tanks while on operations in Libya.

Precise and on target…. unlike what the Gaddafi regime has claimed.

2:46am: Individuals accused of bombing and shooting anti-government protesters in Libya will end up on trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) sooner or later, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes said. Read more.

2:15am: Reuters report of the events on March 25, 2011

 

2:09am: MUST LISTEN: In an interview a Libyan democratic activist named Asma, SERVED a Gaddafi supporter on BBC to the point he could not even respond to her points. His stuttering and unintelligent comments are  epic portrayals of the type of people that support Gaddafi. Listen to the interview.

12:49am: President Obama will speak to the nation about Libya on Monday at 7:30 pm ET from the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C., the White House announced.

12:37AM: Al-Arabiya sources report that Khamis Gaddafi was killed in the Bab Aziziyah bombing. Below is a screen shot of the news written on the bottom of the screen in Arabic:

12:30AM: Meanwhile, Ibrahim Dabbashi, who was Libya’s deputy ambassador to the UN before withdrawing support for Colonel Gaddafi, appears optimistic: “We have some information from inside the country now, there is a kind of chaos among the security forces of Gaddafi,” he tells the BBC. “I think in the next two days or three days, if the attacks continue on the same level, we expect more damage to the Gaddafi forces and I think maybe we will see some important changes.”

12:18AM: Live caller from Misrata decribes Gaddafi forces locations in the city using Google Earth coordinates and how they wear down snipers:

Source: Feb17Voices

You can view a video showing bodies of massacred children in Misrata here. WARNING: Extremely Graphic.

12:00AM: Opposition radio has announced that Misrata is under seige, BBC Monitoring reports. A radio announcer said: “We urge listeners to convey our voice to the international bodies. Misrata is besieged. There are no communications. It is hard to report what is happening in the town and we are using this medium to tell what is happening here. The town is being pounded by long and short-range artillery. Mortar shells are falling on homes, shops and mosques, but the population is determined and resisting the hordes of the tyrant”.

11:58PM: The Libyan health ministry official who told AFP that 114 people had been killed in air strikes was not able to say how many of those deaths were civilian and how many were military. A government spokesman said on Thursday that almost 100 civilians had been killed.

11:56PM: More from the Misrata resident – whose account cannot be independently verified: “The human and medical situation is awfully serious, you can’t imagine what’s happening here. Some bodies comes to the polyclinic without head or arms or legs, some are totally burned, and the injured people don’t have a place or space for treatment.”

11:53PM: The BBC has been in touch with a resident in the western city of Misrata who says Gaddafi forces have taken control of new areas there, and have been launching fireworks to celebrate. “It appears they’re celebrating and the local libyan TV is there to record that, to make it seem that Misrata is under control of Gaddafi again.”

11:50PM: A rebel fighter holds a RPG along Benghazi -Ajdabiyah road near Ajdabiyah March 25, 2011. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic (Reuters)

11:23PM: The Libyan health ministry says at least 14 people have died and 445 have been injured in air strikes by international forces, AFP reports.

11:18PM: Video of intense fighting in Misrata posted here.

11:08PM: More on Ajdabiya from Al-Jazeera: Libyan rebels say they have entered the government-controlled city from the east, and many pro-Gaddafi fighters were held hostage after fierce fighting.

10:58PM: NATO has agreed in principle to protect Libyan civilians and will work out details this weekend, said Gen. Carter Ham, commander of U.S. Africa Command. Ham, who is overseeing U.S. military involvement in the Libyan mission, said the biggest challenge in going after Moammar Gadhafi’s troops and snipers is when they are in close proximity to civilians.

10:43PM: Al-Jazeera Arabic reports that opposition forces have re-entered the hotly contested city of Adjabiya from the Eastern site.

10:39PM: And more from Reuters on the violence in the Libyan city of Misrata, quoting a rebel named Saadoun – whose claims cannot be independently verified – as saying: “There was shelling this morning and almost all of the day. It targeted a residential area in the outskirts of Misrata called al-Jazeera. Six people were killed including three sisters aged two, five and 12 years old. This residential compound is northwest of Misrata and they attacked it with mortars and tanks.”

10:19PM: Arwa Damon, CNN correspondent in Eastern Libya, tweets about Ajdabiya, “refugees living in tents scattered in desert outside of Ajdabiya- harrowing stories of Gaddafi troops firing on civilians… refugees say Gaddafi troops searching homes & taking men, shooting ppl after asking them 2 come out, stories of rape, 12yro listening 2 father talk about bombs & bodies in the street cradles head in arm 2 hide tears”

10:15PM: Al-Jazeera Arabic reports  that revolutionaries are entering west Misrata. It is unclear what means were to gain entry into the city.

9:50PM: Reuters quotes an opposition source in Misrata as saying that tank fire has killed six people on the outskirts of the Libyan city, while separate clashes in the city have left three opposition fighters and “some” government snipers dead.

Video of Friday prayer sermon (Arabic) given earlier today in Benghazi by Sheikh Wanees Al-Mabrouk in Benghazi’s Liberation Square:

Watch live video from almanara1702 on Justin.tv

Watch live video from almanara1702 on Justin.tv

9:39PM: NATO has planned for a three-month no-fly operation over Libya, but could make it longer or shorter if necessary, an alliance official said on Friday of a mission that is due to start early next week.

9:37PM: NATO names Canada’s Lieutenant-General Charles Bouchard as the soldier who will lead the alliance’s military operations in Libya.

8:33pm: The Fight for Ajdabiya

8:15pm:US ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz says: “It’s clear that the regime is reaching out to several possible mediators, interlocutors to try to get a message across. It clearly indicates at least some kind of desperation

8:07pm:Col Gaddafi’s promotions will also include “general security” and the police, Reuters

8:04pm: Libyan state TV: Col Gaddafi has apparently promoted all members of the armed forces

7:54pm:Nato says Qatar has joined the operation to police the no-fly zone in Libya – became the first Arab country to fly combat missions over the country.

7:50pm:Former Libyan Prime Minister Abdul-Ati al-Obeidi says Libya is ready to talk to opposition rebels and accept political reforms

7:35pm:BBC’s John Simpson was among a group of foreign journalists bussed to the suburb of Tajoura, which was targeted by international forces last night. “Nearby we were shown a farmhouse that had supposedly been hit,” he says. “There were fragments from a missile lying around and a smallish hole in the ground where something had possibly landed. But the holes in the wall that we were told were shrapnel could only have been the result of someone firing an auto rifle at it. And although the farmer, a strong Gaddafi supporter, said his 18-year-old daughter had been injured, the gardner said it was a four-year-old boy. It all looked like a rather inadequate set-up, done for effect.

7:25pm:Tripoli is ready to implement a road map set out for Libya by the African Union

A mosque in Zintan completely in ruins after being hit by Gaddafi airstrikes. The are around the mosque is open space, which would suggest this was  a specific target. Watch the video here.

6:47:pm: A doctor in the besieged Libyan city of Misrata has told the BBC: “The Gaddafi troops are trying to enter the city from the west side of Misrata through an area called Zrieg, which is about 15km from the city centre.”

6:42pm:Qatar flies first sortie over Libya after joining international forces

 

6:37pm:The rebel-controlled radio in Al-Bayda, eastern Libya, has been speaking to a regular guest, Colonel Ahmad, who assures listeners that the liberation of Ajdabiya is “imminent”

6:08pm:Residents have told Al Jazeera that Gaddafi troops are patrolling Ajdabiya at night in unmarked cars searching for opposition fighters.

5:30pm:From Nato spokeswoman Oana Lungescu: “Under Operation United Protector, Nato ships, submarines and jets are cutting the flow of arms and mercenaries to Gaddafi’s forces. At the same time Nato is actively considering whether to take on a broader role under the UN Security Council resolution. Without prejudging the deliberations, we would expect a decision to take over all operations in the next few days.”

5:10pm:Government forces have kidnapped and beaten up residents of Az Zawiyah since recapturing the city near the capital Tripoli two weeks ago, a rebel  spokesman said.

 

4:32pm: Libya: Rebels on the approach to Ajdabiya say there are air strikes against Gaddafi’s forces. “I am waiting for the jets to finish bombing before goingin,” Reuters quotes rebel fighter Ahmed al-Misrati as saying.

4:30pm: US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses implementing UN Security Council Resolutions on Libya. Read more here.

4:20pm: On the diplomatic front, some not very diplomatic sounding comments from Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. According to the Turkish agency Anatolia, he has said that France will be sidelined on Libya once Nato takes control of the operation, and this will be “positive”.

4:15pm: Two explosions are heard near the eastern Libyan town of Ajdabiya, where a huge plume of smoke is seen rising, AFP reports.

Revolutionary fighters on the outskirts of Ajdabiya move towards the frontline

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4:01pm: Libyan rebels massed for a new push on Ajdabiyah on Friday and exchanged artillery fire with Muammar Gaddafi’s forces holding the strategic eastern town.

3:50pm: Iman Bughaigis, a spokeswoman for the transitional national council says that opposition forces are “doing their best”

3:38pm: The allies have fired 16 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Gaddafi forces in the past 24 hours, a US military spokeswoman says, reports Reuters.

3:18pm: Reuters: Libyan rebels massed for a new push on Ajdabiyah on Friday and exchanged artillery fire with Muammar Gaddafi’s forces holding the strategic eastern town.

3:13pm: Reuters: British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Friday the people of Libya must determine the future of the North African country for themselves.

2:40pm: AFP news agency has just news-flashed a line about Nicolas Sarkozy saying that Paris and London are preparing some unspecified political initiative on the situation

2:35pm: AFP news agency has just news-flashed a line about Nicolas Sarkozy saying that Paris and London are preparing some unspecified political initiative on the situation. Sarkozy says Paris and London have been working on a “political and diplomatic solution” to the Libyan crisis, at the two-day EU summit in Brussels.

2:14pm:Simon Brooks, head of Red Cross operations in eastern Libya, says the organisation is “deeply concerned” about the reports of fighting coming from the city. Direct access to those in need of aid has been refused, he tells Reuters, “despite repeated efforts and dialogue with Tripoli”.

2:10pm: Simon Brooks, head of Red Cross operations in eastern Libya, says the organisation is “deeply concerned” about the reports of fighting coming from the city. Direct access to those in need of aid has been refused, he tells Reuters, “despite repeated efforts and dialogue with Tripoli”.

1:37: Mustafa said he was not a rebel but a freedom fighter. “We started our revolution as a peaceful revolution, but we had to carry weapons because of the fierce retaliation of Gaddafi against us. I am a computer engineer, a business man, a graduate from US, I have a company in Dubai,” he said. “I left everything for my people and the freedom of my people.”

1:35pm: “I am sure we will defeat him,” Mustafa told the BBC. “We just need some organisation – we are working on it: we are training our people, we are reorganising, we are liaising with the army. I think we will defeat him in the end, after 42 years it is about time.”

1:31pm: A rebel fighter in Ajdabiya told the BBC he believed they would win the fight against  Gaddafi soon, and that he was grateful for the coalition air strikes as they enabled the rebels to protect their people. “They are air strikes for humanitarian reasons – Gaddafi’s brigades are killing people, torturing people,” he said.

Friday Prayer today in Benghazi

1:30pm:UK Foreign Secretary William Hague says that “if the Gaddafi regime think the will of the international community is faltering they are in for quite a surprise”.

1:22pm:UK Foreign Secretary William Hague says there is no confirmed evidence of civilian casualities from coalition air strikes, reports Reuters. Mr Hague says that “if the Gaddafi regime think the will of the international community is faltering they are in for quite a surprise”.

1:18pm: UK Foreign Secretary William Hague tells the BBC control of the no-fly zone enforcement should pass to Nato within days. “Bear in mind we only passed the UN resolution a week ago and started military operations very urgently on Saturday in order to save Benghazi from what was about to happen to it. So we have then had to put some of the arrangements of the command of this in place over this week, but that is being put together perfectly well.”

1:13pm: During the Friday Prayer sermon in Benghazi, the Imam thanked Qatar, France, US, UK and the United Nations specifically for assisting them. He also thanked Russia and China for not standing in the way.

12:26pm: Uganda has announced it is following several other countries and freezing Libyan assets worth some $375m (£232m). The assets are mainly linked to the telecommunications, hotel, banking and oil sectors.

12:20pm: Mohammed in Misrata told the BBC that while it was quiet in the city last night the situation there remains dire, with no electricity and a lack of doctors and medical supplies.”Misrata is besieged now for 35 days,” he said. “They don’t allow food to come in, they cut the water, they cut everything. And they are killing people every day by tanks and  by snipers. So really, we don’t see the benefit of the Nato strikes.”

11:33am:The AFP news agency says members of the African Union have met in Addis Ababa for talks on Libya with delegates from Libya, the EU, the UN, the Arab League and the Islamic Conference.

11:20am:BBC defence and security correspondent Nick Childs says the RAF Tornado strike on military vehicles near Ajdabiya last night was part of a significant operation involving several fighter jets and repeated attacks. “There have been a number of British strikes but they have tended to be long-range against significant major targets. This is the first of this type in which the Tornadoes have gone after forces on the ground.”

11:10am: Uganda will freeze some $375 million in assets in the financial services, telecommunications, leisure and infrastructure sectors, according to the AFP news agency, citing local media. Libya owns majority stakes in Uganda Telecom, National Housing and Construction Corporation, and Lake Victoria Hotel.

11:06am:The United Arab Emirates said last night it was sending six F-16 and six Mirage aircraft to join the coalition. Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan said the participation “will commence in the coming days”

8:23am: Al Jazeera’s Anita McNaught reports from Tripoli on the Gaddafi regimes confusing account of civilian casualties. While it appears that coalition air strikes have led to casualties, it’s so far been impossible to know whether the dead are soldiers or civilians.

7:36am: Former US fighter jet pilot Lt. Col. Jay Stout told Al Jazeera that the dual command that seems to exist within the international military campaign in Libya creates a greater risk of air-to-air collisions or, in the worst case, coalition aircraft accidentally firing on one another. If NATO is policing the no-fly zone while an unnamed coalition led by the US, UK and France can still hit ground targets, who’s in charge?

(March 24) – Libya’s neighbour Tunisia has frozen assets belonging to the family of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, a Tunisian government source said on Thursday. Read more.

Yesterday, March 24, Benghazi held a large rally to thank  the coalition forces for protecting them from Gaddafi air strikes. If you missed it watch it here.

Controversial French intellectual celebrity Bernard-Henry Levy gets the credit for convincing President Nicholas Sarkozy to recognise the Libyan opposition in a new AFP article. Having traveled to Benghazi shortly after the uprising, Levy brought three members of the transition national council to Paris to meet with Sarkozy on March 10; after the meeting, Sarkozy made his announcement, which reportedly even caught Foreign Minister Alain Juppe off guard.

6:39am: Fox News reports that Libyan Foreign Minister Musa Kusa made his second call to Jeffrey Feltman, a high-ranking State Department diplomat, on Sunday. Fox attributes the story to “a senior State Department official intimately involved with the Libyan crisis.” The source did not share the contents of the call, but Feltman has personally thanked Kusa for his help during the evacuation of US citizens from Libya.

4:30am: AJ correspondent James Bays reports on the desperate conditions for people who have chosen to stay in Ajdabiya, a city which has been fought over for more than two weeks.

4:10am The Kremlin says Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has called Barack Obama to discuss the Libyan crisis. ”The Russian president especially noted the need to avoid casualties among the civilian population and the priority of achieving goals set by UN Security Council Resolution 1973,” the Kremlin said.

3:00am: China reaches out to Germany on Libya: Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi laid out China’s “principled stance” about the U.N.-authorized military campaign against  the embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi during a telephone call on Thursday with the German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, said the Chinese Foreign Ministry website (www.mfa.gov.cn). Find out more here.

Westerwelle will visit China next week for talks that appear sure to cover the crisis in Libya. Although Beijing and Berlin have often traded barbs on human rights, trade and security, they have found some common ground in shared misgivings about the Western air campaign against Gaddafi.

2:40am: Libyan television footage shows a serious fire after allied air attacks on what the TV report said was a military base in the capital, Tripoli, badly damaging military vehicles. Wonder who actually caused this fire.

2:21am: Here’s a video recording of Secretary Clinton’s statements about the crisis in Libya earlier today:

Source: CNN

2:08am: EU Council President Herman von Rompuy after talks in Brussels: “From the beginning of the crisis, the European Union was at the forefront imposing tough sanctions. Today we decided that we are ready to adopt further sanctions, including measures to ensure that oil and gas revenues do not reach the Gaddafi regime. Member states will ask the United Nations to do the same.”

2:06am: Al Jazeera Anita McNaught, in Tripoli, says she has heard less military action in the city tonight than the previous five nights since the no-fly zone was imposed.

2:05am: Al Jazeera’s Anita McNaught, in Tripoli, says the lives of the Libyans are getting “harder by the day” as many petrol stations and shops are shut and many people stay at home because they fear airstrikes.

1:51am: EU Council President Herman von Rompuy after talks in Brussels: “From the beginning of the crisis, the European Union was at the forefront imposing tough sanctions. Today we decided that we are ready to adopt further sanctions, including measures to ensure that oil and gas revenues do not reach the Gaddafi regime. Member states will ask the United Nations to do the same.”

1:42AM: CNN’s Nic Robertson describes a media trip gone wrong in Tripoli, when they could not find a civilian house that the Libyan government claimed was bombed by Coalition forces:

1:48AM: French President Nicolas Sarkozy says international action in Libya must “remain eminently political”, whatever Nato’s role, AFP reports. Mr Sarkozy also claims that international action has saved “thousands and thousands” of lives.

1:39am French President Nicolas Sarkozy says international military action in Libya has prevented “thousands and thousands” of deaths over the past six days.

1:13am: Al Jazeera’s Anita McNaught, in Tripoli, says the lives of the Libyans are getting “harder by the day” as many petrol stations and shops are shut and many people stay at home because they fear airstrikes.

1:11am: NATO will not engage targets on the ground unless they’re attacked by targets on the ground.