Libya Live Blog - April 28

Libya Live Blog - April 28

By Al Jazeera Staff in

Africa

on April 27th, 2011.

Libyan rebels call for arming the revolution and to reject foreign ground troops in Benghazi [Reuters]

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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.

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(All times are local in Libya GMT+2)

• 4.50pm

  Gaddafi's forces have now taken the Dehiba-Wazin border crossin, with the conflict spilling into Tunisia. Fighting broke out in the Tunisian town of Dehiba after the crossing was attacked, Reuters is reporting.
• 4:34pm

  David Trefgarne, the chairman of the Libyan-British Business Council and a former government minister, discussed how the conflict is affecting business ties between the two countries:

  Before all this began, there was £370 million ($615) worth … of British exports to Libya, in the form of goods and services, and a great deal larger than that in energy exports to the UK from Libya

  That trade is at a virtual standstill, besides a single recent export of crude oil from eastern Libya to UK, made with assistance from Qatar.
• 4.04pm

  Forces loyal to Gaddafi shelled rebel positions around the Dehiba-Wazin border crossing with Tunisia today, according to a cameraman for the Reuters news agency.
  
  Some of the artillery rounds appeared to have landed on the Tunisian side.
• 3:54pm

  Some 935 people were evacuted from Misurata to the relative safety of Benghazi aboard the International Organisation for Migration's Red Star today:

  
• 2:15pm

  Following are the latest available details of military activity in Libya:
  
  * The United States took steps to throw a financial lifeline to rebels controlling eastern Libya while forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi focused their firepower on pockets of resistance in the west.
  
  * Rebels said Gaddafi's forces fired Russian-made Grad rockets, which rights groups say should not be used in civilian areas, at the rebel-held western towns of Misurata and Zintan, following NATO strikes to free Misurata's port.
  
  * Remoter areas of western Libya also came under fire from forces loyal to the Libyan leader, who is trying to break the uprising against his four-decade rule that has put most of the east in rebel hands since it began in mid-February.
  
  * Gaddafi's forces clashed with rebels in the desert town of Kufra in Libya's remote southeast, Al Jazeera has learned.
  
  * Seven rebel fighters in the city of Misurata were killed overnight when government forces hit their checkpoint with artillery fire and rockets, a local doctor said.
  
  * Russia is not planning to request an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss what Moscow has called Western aggression in Libya, Itar-TASS news agency quoted a foreign ministry official as saying on Thursday.
  
  * NATO conducted 119 sorties on Wednesday, with 41 intended as strike missions. NATO defines strike sorties as missions intended to identify and engage targets, but which do not always involve the use of munitions.
  
  It said targets included:
  
  - One communications facility, two vehicle storage buildings and one surface-to-air missile storage facility near Tripoli;
  
  - Two rocket launchers, two artillery vehicles and one armoured personnel carrier in the vicinity of Misurata;
  
  - Seven ammunition storage bunkers near Mizdah;
  
  - Twelve ammunition storage bunkers near Sirte.
  
  * Wednesday's missions brought the total number of sorties conducted by NATO since it took command of western operations on March 31 to 4,100. A total of 1,699 strike sorties were conducted.
  
  * Nineteen ships under NATO command are actively patrolling the central Mediterranean Sea. Twenty vessels were hailed on Wednesday to determine destination and cargo. Two boardings were conducted but no vessels were diverted.
  
  * A total of 682 vessels have been hailed, 20 boardings and five diversions have been conducted since the beginning of arms embargo operations.
  
   
• 10:55am

  Heavy clashes between rebels and Gaddafi forces in the desert town of Kufra in Libya's remote southeast.
• 10:28am

  Seven rebel fighters in the Libyan city of Misurata were killed overnight when forces loyal to Gaddafi hit their checkpoint with artillery fire and rockets, a local doctor said.

  
  "Fifteen of our rebels at a checkpoint near the front line have been attacked by Gaddafi's troops with heavy artillery and then with rockets," said the doctor. "We received seven dead and four injured."

  The rebels said the Libyan army had withdrawn from central Misurata but that fierce fighting was still ongoing for control of the city's port. Read the full story here.
• 09:58am

  A humanitarian rescue ship carrying nearly a thousand migrants from the Libyan city of Misurata has arrived in Benghazi.

  The vessel, Red Star, had been held off the Libyan coast as pro-Gaddafi forces shelled the port of Misurata.

  Also on board are 25 seriously injured people - three are said to be in a critical condition.

  Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons, reporting from onboard the Red Star, said "many are hanging on to life by a thread".
  
  Watch his report below:
  
   
• 09:20am

  Here's a quick recap on today's developments in Libya:

  
  - In Libya, opposition forces say they are making gains in the western town of Misurata.

  
  - After days of fighting rebels say they are consolidating their grip on the contested area of Tripoli street. 

  
  - Armoured trucks sporting the Libyan flag adopted by the rebels have gathered near the front line.
• 07:55am

  Russia is not planning to respond to Libya's plea that it call an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss what Moscow has described as Western aggression, a foreign ministry official told Itar-TASS news agency.

      

  Vladimir Putin, Russia's prime minister, has criticised the Western countries enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya and said they have gone beyond the limits of a Security Council resolution designed to protect civilians.
  
  

  Libya urged Moscow on Tuesday to request an emergency Security Council meeting. But, quoting deputy foreign ministry head Gennady Gatilov, Itar-TASS said: "An emergency meeting of the Security Council is not planned."

      

  Russia holds the power of veto as a permanent member of the Security Council but abstained last month in a vote on a resolution authorising force to protect civilians.  
• 07:40am

  Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught went to the town of Nalut, in the Nefusa mountain range of western Libya, to meet the people testing their new sense of freedom - and the risks that come with it.

  
  The report below includes scenes and images never seen before of the uprising in Nalut:
  
  
• 06:30am

  With the conflict raging on in Libya, education is suffering, especially in the rebel-held areas.

  
  Al Jazeera's Omar Al Saleh has this report from Benghazi, where some students and teachers are finding themselves on the frontline in the battle against government forces:
  
   
• 05:34am

  Revolutionary graffiti can be seen emblazoned on walls across the rebel-held cities in eastern Libya.

  
  Graffiti seen on March 31 in Adjabiya, the gateway to the east and about 150km south of Benghazi [Reuters]
• 05:16am

  Libya's tribes urged Gaddafi to cede power as rebels backed by NATO air strikes said they forced the missiles out of range of the port city of Misurata.

  
  Rebels participate in military training camp in Zintan in the region of Nalut [AFP]
• 03:34am

  Hundreds of migrant workers and Misurata residents have boarded the Red Star to escape the war-torn city in western Libya. The ship achored out at sea because of heavy shelling. The migrants mainly from Niger and Chad came under fire in their makeshift camp near the port.
• 03:24am

  Pro-Gaddafi forces blasted the western rebel-held town of Zintan with rockets on Wednesday, leaving at least three people wounded. A local hospital was also damaged in the attack, according to eyewitnesses.

  At least 20 Grad rockets struck Zintan, with three of them crashing near the hospital. The town located southwest of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, has been pounded by Gaddafi forces since Sunday.
• 01:52am

  Libya's opposition Transitional National Council hailed a move by the US to ease sanctions to open a stream of funding to forces seeking to topple Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The council said:

  The people of Libya are brave and defiant but we need access to oil revenues so that we can feed, protect and defend our families.

  These funds are crucial to establishing a stable and secure future nation, and we welcome the US decision to ease sanctions on our exports.

• 11:18pm

  Many Gaddafi aides want to defect but fear is preventing them from abandoning the Libyan leader, the US envoy to Tripoli said on Wednesday.

  Referring to Libyan government ministers "and other technocrats" in Gaddafi's inner circle, Ambassador Gene Cretz said in Washington:

  They would like to break, but they're, number one, afraid - afraid for their lives. And they're also afraid for their families.

  Cretz said Gaddafi's hardcore supporters "probably believe that their last stand has to be with him because they probably don't have a future".