Libya Live Blog - April 23

Libya Live Blog - April 23

By Al Jazeera Staff in

Africa

on April 22nd, 2011.

[Photo by Reuters]

Show oldest updates on top

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.

• 7:37am

  Libya's deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim said US Senator John McCain's visit to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in eastern Libya on Friday showed that the "American administration has run out of options".

  They are claiming that they are protecting civilians, but what they are doing, they are siding with the rebels.

• 7:27am

  Libyan government officials have taken foreign reporters to an unpaved plot next to Gaddafi's sprawling Bab al-Aziziya residential compound in Tripoli on Saturday to show where NATO jets hit a target nearby, purportedly a car park. Reuters news agency reporters said it looked like a bunker. Officials said the strike killed three people.

  LLibyan officials showed reporters two craters they said were from missiles from a NATO air strike [Reuters]
• 6:51am

  The Libyan government has been conducting guided tours regularly in attempts to show loyal support for embattled leader Muammar Gaddafi.

  
  Gaddafi loyalists rally with posters of the Libyan leader outside Bab al-Azibziya. [AFP]
• 6:39am

  Libyan deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim said troops are being withdrawn from fighting in Misurata, saying local "tribes" will now take over the task of subduing the rebels in the area. He said a "surgical solution" had failed due to NATO air strikes

  .
  

  We will leave it to the tribes around Misurata and its people to deal with the situation there.

  Kaim said the tribal leaders have asked Gaddafi's troops to step aside if they are unable to retake the western Libyan city and would force the rebels to surrender.

  NATO officials said Libyan government forces have adopted some rebel tactics, in plainclothes and using unmarked or civilian vehicles.
• 6:18am

  China has warned Britain against overstepping the UN mandate for operations in Libya, following British Prime Minister David Cameron's plans to send about a dozen military officers to help anti-Gaddafi forces improve their fighting capabilities.

  Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei stopped short of accusing Britain of violating the UN Security Council resolution on theLibyan conflict. Responding to the news, he said on the ministry website late on Friday:

  China believes that the United Nations Security Council has primary responsibility for protecting international peace and security, and the various sides should strictly abide by the Security Council mandate in handling matters.

  China disapproves of taking any actions that exceed the mandate of the Security Council.

• 5:37am

  NATO has carried out fresh air raids on Tripoli early on Saturday. According to AFP reporters there were several explosions after warplanes flew over the Libyan capital, triggering anti-aircraft fire.

  Al-Libya TV said the city was "now the target of raids by the barbaric crusafer colonialist aggressor".
• 4:56am

  There are reports of pro-Gaddafi sleeper cells in Ajdabiya. Al Jazeera's Sue Turton reports:
• 3:55am

  The AFP news agency has released some photos of Libyan rebles being treated at a Tunisian university hospital in Tataouine - pretty rough images:and another...

  
• 4:02am

  There's more on the Tripoli strike now on Reuters:

  Three people were killed on Saturday in a NATO airstrike that hit a carpark near Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah compound in central Tripoli, a government spokesman said.

  Mussa Ibrahim told reporters it appeared to be a 'very powerful explosion' that struck in the early hours of Saturday.

  However, the news agency is sticking to its previous line that none of its correspondents heard any explosions.
• 2:33am

  According to Libyan authorites, Tripoli has been hit with a fresh NATO strikes. Retuers reports that its correspondents did not hear "any loud explosions but heard jets fly over the city, rattling windows.
• 1:02 am

  Meanwhile, the children were watching....

  Our  Web producer, Evan Hill, sent us this shot from Benghazi. He said that,  "Most of the kids you see on the city's streets these days are carrying toy weapons or tiny BB-shooting blow guns."

  

  [Evan Hill/ Al Jazeera]
• 12:26am

  The AFP news agency reports that pro-Gaddafi forces will be leaving Misurata:

  The Libyan army will withdraw from Misurata and leave local tribes to resolve the conflict in the country's third largest  city either by talks or through force, the deputy foreign minister said Friday.

  'The situation in Misrata will be dealt with by the tribes around Misurata and Misurata's residents and not by the Libyan army,' Khaled Kaim told journalists.

  'We will leave the tribes around Misrata and Misrata's people to deal with the situation, either using force or negotiation.'