Gadhafi son reported arrested by rebels is free

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's son and one-time heir apparent, who was reported arrested by rebels on Sunday when they advanced on the capital Tripoli, is free.

Seif al-Islam turned up in the early morning hours Tuesday at the Rixos hotel, where foreign journalists are staying in Tripoli under the close watch of Gadhafi regime minders. He then took reporters in a convoy on a drive through parts of the city under the regime's control.

Associated Press reporters were among the journalists who saw him and went on the tour. He told the reporters: "We are going to hit the hottest spots in Tripoli."

They then drove around streets full of armed Gadhafi backers, and controlled by roadblocks. They visited several sites where Gadhafi supporters were gathered.

U.S. Officials: Gadhafi Is Still in the Country

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's regime appears to be nearing collapse, but the colonel himself has apparently gone underground.

U.S. officials say they believe he is still in Libya, but if they have any more precise fix on his whereabouts, they aren't sharing the details.

In a briefing Monday afternoon on Martha's Vineyard, Mass., where President Barack Obama is vacationing with his family, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the "best information" indicated that the Libyan strongman was still in Libya, whereabouts unknown.

"That's the latest," Mr. Earnest said. "There's no evidence to indicate that he's left."

Dia Alhutmany, a spokesman for the rebel-aligned Libyan Mission to the United Nations in New York, said Col. Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, once seen as his possible successor, had been captured and was in rebel hands. It wasn't immediately possible to confirm cable reports that Seif el-Islam had turned up at a Tripoli hotel later Monday. He said another son, Mohammed, had been captured, but may have escaped rebel custody.

Mr. Alhutmany wasn't able to confirm reports of the capture of a third son, Saadi, and added that another son, Mutassim, may have escaped to the city of Sabha in the south.

Clashes were reported Monday around Col. Gadhafi's Tripoli compound. The colonel has held power for more than four decades, alternately defying and courting the West. He survived U.S. airstrikes in the 1980s after being linked to the bombing of a Berlin disco popular with American service members.

During the George W. Bush administration, he won renewed relations with the U.S. by agreeing to give up his quest for weapons of mass destruction.

U.S. to supply Libyan rebels with non-lethal aid to destabilize government

The United States plans to supply Libyan rebels with $25 million in urgent non-lethal aid, bolstering a European effort to help the beleaguered forces battling the army of entrenched leader Moammar Gaddafi.

The U.S. assistance, most of it from Pentagon stocks, represents the first direct American aid to the rebels and comes amid a debate over whether and how to help the Libyan opposition as it struggles to hold ground despite a NATO air campaign against Gaddafi’s forces.

President Obama has informed Congress that he intends to use his “drawdown authority” to provide the $25 million in surplus goods to help protect civilians in rebel-held areas, the Associated Press reported. The list of items is still being revised but includes medical supplies, uniforms, boots, tents, personal protective gear, radios and Halal meals, AP said.

The aid effort came as France pledged to intensify airstrikes against Gaddafi’s forces and Italy joined the French and British in announcing plans to help organize the rebel fighters.

The decisions, announced in Paris and Rome, marked another step toward deeper European involvement in the Libyan uprising as NATO and its allies struggle to break the stalemate there without directly joining the fight on the ground.

Qaddafi Forces Shell Mountain Towns in Western Libya

Muammar al-Qaddafi's troops clashed with opposition forces Wednesday in this besieged coastal city and shelled a mountain town, rebels said, as the Libyan leader sought to quell resistance in the western part of the country that is largely under his control.

France and Italy promised more support for Libya's opposition, saying they would join Britain in sending military advisers to help the rebels break a battlefield stalemate. A rebel spokesman welcomed the advisers as a big help.

France also said it would intensify airstrikes against Libyan military targets after a month of NATO airstrikes has failed to rout Qaddafi's forces.

Libyan Foreign Minister Abdul-Ati al-Obeidi said sending military advisers would worsen the conflict. If NATO attacks stopped, Libya could hold discussions about elections, democracy and constitutional reform, he told the BBC. In comments to The Guardian daily, the minister was more explicit, saying Qaddafi could go as part of reforms.

Discussions on reform could include "whether the leader should stay and in what role, and whether he should retire ... Everything will be on the table," he was quoted as saying.

The U.N's top human rights official, meanwhile, said Libyan government forces may be committing war crimes by using heavy weapons against civilians in the besieged port city of Misrata. Navi Pillay said Qaddafi's troops should be aware that their actions will be scrutinized by the International Criminal Court.

India opposes plan to expand sanctions list in Libya

India has opposed the proposal of western countries to expand the list of sanctioned Libyan entities by the United Nations Security Council following concerns that such a move may adversely affect its economic interests in the troubled North African nation.

Since February, Libya has been torn apart by a civil war between rebels in the western region and security forces of the long-reigning Muammar Gadaffi.

On Feb 26, the UNSC had first imposed travel bans against 16 individuals and ordered the freezing of assets of Muammar Gaddafi, four of his sons and daughter. About a month later, another UNSC resolution was passed, listing more individuals and for the first time also bringing in five entities.

In the first week of April, the western countries, which include Britain, France, Germany and the United States, circulated two different lists for expanding the group under sanctions. The proposals were made before the UNSC's Libya sanctions committee, of which India is the vice-chair.

"We have put it on technical hold, while we examine how it will affect us," a senior official of the external affairs ministry told IANS. The expansion is also being opposed by Russia and China, both of whom are also executing several projects in Libya.

While Libya's National Oil Corporation had already been sanctioned in the March 17 resolution, the new list would have named more Libyan state companies, most of them subsidiaries of Libya's National Oil Corporation.

According to officials, India is especially concerned that the asset freeze will affect the payment of contracts and salaries for Indians who had been working in that country.

"We had 18,000 Indians working in Libya. How will they be paid? It has to be made clear. There should not be any retrospective freezing of assets," he said.

Britain denies ‘mission creep’ in sending advisers to Libya

British military advisers will follow American CIA teams already deployed in Libya as part of the broad Western effort – beyond any UN mandate – to help rebel forces oust the despotic and ruthless Moammar Gadhafi.

Mission creep is denied, nonetheless. “This deployment is fully within the terms of UN [Security Council Resolution] 1973, both in respect of civilian protection and its provision expressly ruling out a foreign occupation force on Libyan soil,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague said. “Our officers will not be involved in training or arming the opposition’s fighting forces.”

The British advisers will take handguns but leave their uniforms at home to preserve the appearance that foreign forces are not deploying to Libya. “We will now move quickly to expand the team already in Benghazi to include an additional military liaison advisory team,” Mr. Hague said.

France, the most aggressive of the allies in pushing for robust military strikes to topple Col. Gadhafi, also has military advisers in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. However, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé rejected calls for special forces to help target air strikes. “I remain, for my part, entirely hostile to the deployment of forces on the ground,” he said.

Accusations of “mission creep” are steadfastly rejected, even as senior allied officers charged with running the war acknowledge that air strikes alone won’t save the tens of thousands in besieged Misrata from Gadhafi loyalists indiscriminately engaging in brutal urban warfare.

Fighting rages in western Libyan city of Misrata

Heavy fighting raged Tuesday in the western Libyan city of Misrata, witnesses said, while a NATO commander complained the alliance was having trouble destroying Moammar Gadhafi's mortars and rockets attacking rebels there and Britain said it would send senior military officers to advise the opposition in the east.

A senior Libyan official, meanwhile, ruled out the possibility of allowing foreign troops to escort humanitarian aid convoys in Libya, saying the government would view such a deployment as a military mission.

Explosions and gunfire were heard in central Misrata, Libya's third-largest city, with clashes between government troops and rebels, said a resident who identified himself only by his given name, Abdel Salam, for fear of retaliation. The city has been besieged by government forces for more than a month.

NATO planes flew over Misrata while the shelling from Gadhafi forces continued, he said, adding that the only targets the alliance hit were radars and air defences north of the city on Monday night.

NATO Brig. Gen. Mark van Uhm said fighting has been intense in Misrata for the past 10 days, and he said his forces have destroyed more than 40 tanks and several armoured personnel carriers there.

"The situation on the ground is fluid there, with ground being won and lost by both sides," van Uhm said at NATO headquarters in Brussels, adding: "Gadhafi's forces have shelled Misrata indiscriminately."

But he cautioned that "there is a limit to what can be achieved by airpower to stop fighting in a city."

"We are doing everything to prevent civilian casualties by our own attacks (while) degrading (Gadhafi's) ability to sustain forces there," he said.

Adm. Giampaolo Di Paola, the chairman of the alliance's military committee, said in Rome that even though NATO operations have done "quite significant damage" to the Libyan regime's heavy weaponry, what Gadhafi has left is "still considerable."

Asked if more NATO air power and bombing are needed, Di Paola said any "significantly additional" allied contribution would be welcome.

Given NATO's humanitarian mandate reflecting the U.N. Security Council resolution on Libya, which does not allow ground forces, "it's very difficult" to stop the regime's firepower on Misrata, he said.

Zuma gave Gaddafi a call

Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma phoned Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi at the weekend, his spokesperson said on Monday, after the collapse of a truce he had brokered with a team of African leaders.

Zuma's spokesperson Zizi Kodwa told AFP that the two leaders spoke after Zuma returned from a Brics emerging markets summit in China, which also includes Russia, India and Brazil.

"The conversation was between the two leaders," Kodwa said. "I can't disclose the conversation between the two leaders."

After the summit on Thursday, the five nations spoke out against using force in Libya and across the Arab world, with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev saying force was not authorised by the United Nations.

Zuma visited Tripoli on April 10 as part of a high-ranking African Union delegation to broker a truce between Gaddafi and rebels, but a peace plan fell through when the rebels insisted the strongman step down.

South Africa voted for the UN resolution authorising the no-fly zone over Libya, while the other four Brics countries abstained.

Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said South Africa's vote had not emerged as a sore point during the summit in China.

"In our bilateral meetings, not a single member said they were aggrieved by South Africa voting the way we did," she said. "There was no awkwardness whatsoever."

Gadhafi shows cunning in safe-passage offer for Misrata civilians

Despite the sense of relief after Monday's deal for a humanitarian corridor into the besieged city of Misrata, some rebels remain skeptical of Colonel Moammar Gadhafi's motives for the gesture.

The city's name has become a rallying cry for the rebellion, and a shorthand among international diplomats for the compelling reasons to escalate efforts in Libya. In that context, Col. Gadhafi made a politically astute decision by cutting a deal with the United Nations to allow overland shipments of food and medicine into Misrata. Such supplies are desperately needed in the embattled city, and the deliveries will soften the impression that the regime wants to wipe Misrata from the map.

Libya's third-largest city stands as the biggest exception to the east-west split emerging in the country, and it's now perhaps the most hotly contested patch of ground. Rebels hold the neighbourhoods around the port, sneaking boatloads of food and weapons into the city at night. Government troops occupy the main avenue. Nobody knows precisely how many have been killed, after almost two months, but it's easily into the hundreds.

The deal could prove tactically useful for the regime, as well, if it allows the government to eventually claim that only armed rebels remain in some areas. A spokesman in Tripoli was quoted saying the deal will allow “safe passage for people to leave Misrata,” presumably clearing the way for more intense offensives against the fighters who stay behind.

Col. Gadhafi's forces have already faced criticism for using cluster bombs in Misrata, and some rebels fear the humanitarian corridor could become a prelude to further attacks with heavy weapons. One rebel sympathizer commented on Twitter: “The UN is doing Gadhafi's work for him. What the ---- is wrong with you?”

Former US lawmaker hold talks in Libya

A former U.S. congressman says he told a senior Libyan official that it was time for Moammar Gadhafi to step down and hand power to an interim government.

Thursday's meeting between Curt Weldon and Libya's prime minister is part of a private mission by the former Pennsylvania lawmaker, who has visited Libya several times including as part of a 2004 U.S. government delegation to rebuild ties with Gadhafi.

Weldon told reporters that he urged the prime minister, Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, that Gadhafi should step down to avoid dragging the country deeper into crisis.

Weldon says he came to Libya on the invitation of Gadhafi, but the trip has no ties with the U.S. government.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Gadhafi asks Obama to call off NATO military campaign

Embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi reached out to the U.S. on Wednesday, sending a letter to President Barack Obama asking him to halt the NATO military campaign in his country.

NATO has been on a mission to enforce a no-fly zone and protect civilians from attack by pro-Gadhafi forces. NATO jets have destroyed much of the Libyan air force's firepower.

In Gadhafi's three-page letter, he calls the U.S. president "our son" and describes the mission as an "unjust war against a small people of a developing country."

The rambling communique, which was sent to the State Department and forwarded to the White House, also wishes Obama good luck in next year's presidential election and strikes a conciliatory tone.

"To serving world peace ... Friendship between our peoples ... and for the sake of economic, and security co-operation against terror, you are in a position to keep NATO off the Libyan affair for good," Gadhafi writes in the letter, obtained by The Associated Press.

While the White House confirmed that the letter had been received, an official said the ceasefire request could not be met at this time.

"The conditions the president laid out are clear," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters.

The news Wednesday came on the same day a former U.S. congressman arrived in Libya for talks with Gadhafi. Curt Weldon, who was personally invited by Gadhafi, described the trip as a private mission to urge the longtime leader to step down.

He said he had informed the White House about the trip as well as some members of Congress. It wasn't clear whether Gadhafi's letter to Obama was linked to Weldon's visit.

Refugees head for Europe from Tunisia and Libya

More than 6,000 migrants from North Africa are likely to flood into Europe after Silvio Berlusconi pledged to remove them from a tiny Italian island that has been overwhelmed with an influx of refugees.

Most of the 18,000 migrants who have landed on Lampedusa since the beginning of the year are Tunisian, but Italy fears a far bigger exodus if the situation in Libya deteriorates further.

An Italian assault ship and five ferries will remove the migrants from the island, a speck of land which lies closer to Tunisia than Italy, within the next two days.

They will be taken to tented camps and converted barracks on the Italian mainland but it is expected that most will escape and head for other countries, including France.

Migrants who were transferred to the camps in the past few days were filmed and photographed vaulting wire fences, evading security guards.

Italy faced a diplomatic confrontation with France after an estimated 3,500 Tunisians, most of whom had arrived in Europe via Lampedusa and then escaped from detention centres in recent weeks, massed at the Franco-Italian border yesterday, demanding to be allowed in.

Franco Frattini, Italy's foreign minister, accused Paris of showing "a grave lack of solidarity" in refusing to permit the Tunisians to enter French territory from the border town of Ventimiglia.

Just this week, a group of Eritreans, Somalis and Ethiopians who had been living and working in Libya reached the wind-swept island, which in summer is a popular holiday destination for Italians.

Ministers have warned of a "biblical exodus", saying Italy cannot handle the crisis alone and calling for urgent EU assistance.

NATO concern at Libya use of human-shields in Misrata

Nato says forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi are using human shields in the war-torn town of Misrata.

The coalition says Col Gaddafi's troops are using civilian vehicles and hiding their heavy armour in civilian areas.

Nato spokeswoman Oana Lungescu told the BBC: "Misrata remains our number one priority... but [Gaddafi's troops] are using human shields to protect themselves."

Earlier a rebel urged Nato must do more to help the besieged western town.

Gen Abdul Fattah Younis of the anti-Gaddafi forces complained that bureaucracy was causing Nato to take hours to respond to calls for air strikes.

"[Nato] is letting the people of Misrata die every day," he said.

In a separate development, a former US Republican congressman is now in Tripoli to hold talks with Col Gaddafi.

Curt Weldon said his aim was to persuade Col Gaddafi to "step aside".

Mr Weldon said he was visiting the Libyan capital in a personal capacity at the invitation of Col Gaddafi's chief of staff and that the administration of Barack Obama was aware of the trip.

Exclusive: Gaddafi pre-planned attacks on civilians: prosecutor

The International Criminal Court prosecutor said on Tuesday Libyan authorities had decided they were ready to kill unarmed protestors opposed to Muammar Gaddafi's rule even before unrest spread from Tunisia and Egypt.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said the plan, which the government of Gaddafi began developing in January, authorized the use of tear gas and, if necessary, killings.

His comments mark the first time since Libya was referred to The Hague-based institution in February that a senior international legal official has said evidence exists the Gaddafi government planned to kill its own people, although Western political leaders have previously alluded to this.

"We have evidence that after the Tunisia and Egypt conflicts in January, people in the regime were planning how to control demonstrations inside Libya," Moreno-Ocampo told Reuters.

"They were hiding that from people outside and they were planning how to manage the crowds ... the evidence we have is that the shooting of civilians was a pre-determined plan."

"The planning at the beginning was to use tear gas and (if that failed to work)..., shooting," he added.

Ex-Libyan official urges West to act

Several members of Moammar Gadhafi's inner circle want to defect but are too scared about the safety of their families and friends to do so, Libya's former energy minister said Wednesday.

Omar Fathi bin Shatwan, who also served as Libya's industry minister, told The Associated Press that he had fled by fishing boat to Malta on Friday from the western Libyan city of Misrata.

Shatwan, who left the government in 2007, said he still was in contact with some top government figures. He explained that many feared for their safety if they flee — in some cases, their families are under siege, he said.

"Those whose families are outside Libya will flee if they get a chance," Shatwan said in a telephone interview from Malta. "But many can't leave, and all the families of ministers are under siege."

Shatwan said he last had contact with Gadhafi in 2006, and had not spoken with the tyrant's sons. "Ministers who are friends of mine, I have spoken to them," he said.

He said he spent 40 days bunkered down at his home in the central port of Misrata before escaping from Libya, and witnessed Gadhafi's forces pounding the city with heavy artillery and relentlessly shooting civilians.

Libyan Govt says Qadhafi won’t step down

The Libyan government on Tuesday said it was open to political reforms but rejected Western demands that country’s strongman Muammar Qadhafi step down, saying he was a unifying force and must stay in power to avoid a Somalia or Iraq-style power vacuum.

Mr. Qadhafi’s spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said that everything except the exit of the Libyan leader was negotiable, in first concrete comments from the beleaguered regime whose forces have been hit relentlessly by Western missiles and air strikes for weeks.

“The kind of political system which can be implemented in the country is negotiable. We can talk about it,” he told reporters in the capital as rebel forces made a renewed push to recapture the oil town of Brega and the U.S. military withdrew its fighter jets from an international air campaign over the war-torn north African country.

Quoting rebel spokesman, Al-Jazeera said, opposition forces had managed to push into the town seizing half of it.

The control of the oil town is vital to rebel stakes as the capture of the oil pipeline terminus, small refinery and the Mediterranean port could boost the opposition hunt for revenues.

The pan-Arab channel said the rebel forces stormed into the city after U.S. and allied air strikes had hit Mr. Qadhafi’s defending tank column.

“The rebels are in the streets of new Brega, a largely residential town separated from the city’s oil refinery by a stretch of highway,” the Al-Jazeera said.

The firm comment by the Libyan government spokesman that Mr. Qadhafi would not quit came after opposition rebels flatly rejected a reported peace deal that could have seen the dictator’s son Seif-ul-Islam taking over.

Terming Mr. Qadhafi as the “safety valve”, the Libyan spokesman said his stay in power in the country was essential for the unity of nation’s tribes and peoples.

Qaddafi and rebels look for friends: April 4 Mideast update

Check back weekday mornings for a quick tally of the latest developments in the Middle East and North Africa.

Libya

The weekend was a busy one on the diplomatic front for both sides in the Libyan conflict. The government's Deputy Foreign Minister Abdelati Laabidi (the elected foreign minister Moussa Koussa defected last week) traveled to Greece this weekend to meet with the Greek prime minister as an envoy for Qaddafi's government. His trip sparked speculation that he too was defecting, but representatives insist he is not.

Mr. Obeidi (whose name is also spelled Abdel Ati al Obeidi) is today headed to Turkey, which aims to lead efforts to broker a cease-fire.

Meanwhile, Italy became the third country (after France and Qatar) to recognize the opposition's interim government as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people. The Italian foreign minister said the only acceptable result of the conflict is Muammar Qaddafi's departure.

Qaddafi and rebel forces appear locked in a stalemate east of Brega, where forces have been gathered since March 31. Brega is the last town to the west of Ajdabiya, which itself is the last city before the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

Yemen

The death toll in Yemen's unrest rolled over 100 this weekend, and today's protests also turned violent. Agence France-Press reports that 17 people have so far been killed Monday alone in Taez, about 125 miles from the capital of Sanaa, which was also the site of protests Monday.

The New York Times reported over the weekend that the US is backing away from its staunch support of Saleh, no longer convinced that he has a "tenable" hold on power.

Bahrain

The Bahrain News Agency reported that the Gulf's regional and economic bloc, the Gulf Cooperation Council, condemned Iran for sowing instability in region, particularly Bahrain. The Bahraini government believes that the country's uprising is an Iranian conspiracy meant to shake the Sunni monarchy from power.

NATO Airstrike Reportedly Kills Rebels in Libya

BREGA, Libya — A NATO airstrike intended for the forces of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi apparently killed at least eight rebel fighters in the battle outside this pivotal oil port, an ambulance driver and news reports said Saturday.

The deaths underscored the challenge that the Western allies and the rebels face in relying on airstrikes to push back the Qaddafi forces as the two sides mix in the battle zone along the front.

Perhaps in response to the Western airstrikes, the Qaddafi forces are increasingly plunging into combat in equipment similar to what the rebels are using, mainly pickup trucks mounted with machine guns or artillery. The move makes it increasingly difficult for even the combatants to distinguish one group from the other at first sight.

NATO, which said Saturday that it had conducted 148 airstrike sorties in the previous 24 hours, said it was investigating the episode, according to news reports.

News services reported other rebels grieving for their dead. A rebel spokesman said he could not confirm that the dead were rebels, but he called for continued airstrikes.

“You have to look at the big picture,” the spokesman, Mustafa Gheriani, told Reuters. “Mistakes will happen. We are trying to get rid of Qaddafi, and there will be casualties, although of course it does not make us happy.”

Libya mission: US eases off, Gadhafi holds on

Two weeks after a dark-of-night barrage of mostly U.S. missiles and bombs opened the international air assault on Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, the American combat role is ending, the rag-tag rebels are reeling and the Pentagon is betting its European allies can finish the job.

Gadhafi is still standing, with a few uncertain signs that his inner circle could crack. The Obama administration is hoping that if Gadhafi's government doesn't implode soon, a relentless campaign of airstrikes on his tanks, air defenses and most trusted army units will at least weaken his ability to survive a renewed uprising by a disjointed opposition. The rebels initially rattled Gadhafi but in recent days have given up most of their gains.

The bottom line, according to Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: "He's still killing his people."

So the mission remains incomplete, but the U.S. is following through on a pledge to shift the main combat burden to Britain, France and other NATO allies.

Starting Sunday, no U.S. combat aircraft are to fly strike missions in Libya. Also falling silent on Sunday will be the initial workhorses of the military campaign: U.S. Navy destroyers and submarines that launched Tomahawk cruise missiles from the positions in the Mediterranean Sea.

The planes and naval vessels will be on standby in case NATO commanders decide their own forces cannot handle the mission on their own. Combat air missions will continue to be flown by Britain, France and other NATO member countries.

A larger group of participating air forces will patrol over Libya to ensure that Gadhafi's air force stays grounded. U.S. planes will support them with refueling aircraft and electronic jammers.

Libyan rebels say 13 killed in NATO airstrike

The main Libyan opposition spokesman says 13 rebels have accidentally been killed and seven injured in a NATO airstrike targeting Moammar Gadhafi's forces.

Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga said Saturday that the attack occurred as the rebels prepared to take over the oil city of Brega.

His comments are the first confirmation that the rebels were killed in an airstrike. NATO says it's looking into the report.

Calling it an "unfortunate accident," Ghoga says the rebels were killed as they moved forward while the NATO strike was in progress late Friday.