Good morning, welcome to the Guardian's live coverage of the continuing crisis in Libya.
• Western air strikes hit targets in Libya again on Wednesday night, after the commander of British aircraft operating over the country said that Muammar Gaddafi's air force "no longer exists as a fighting force".
However attempts at a Nato show of unity in policing a UN arms embargo was undermined by a third day of squabbling over who should be in charge of the air campaign. Amid arguments over the scope and command of the air campaaign against Tripoli, Turkey both blocked Nato planning on the no-fly zone and insisted that Nato be put in control of it, in order to be granted a veto over its operations, senior Nato officials said.
• Nearly 12 hours of allied air strikes yesterday finally broke the Libyan regime's five-day bloody assault on the key rebel-held town of Misrata. Residents said the aerial bombardment destroyed tanks and artillery and sent many of Muammar Gaddafi's forces fleeing from Misrata, ending a siege and attack by the regime that cost nearly 100 lives from random shelling, snipers and bitter street fighting.
• Despite the strikes, stalemate is reportedly continuing outside Ajdabiya, while fears are growing that more of Gaddafi's forces are heading for Zintan, south west of Tripoli. The Libyan government denies its army is conducting any offensive operations and says troops are only defending themselves when they come under attack, but a resident in Zintan said Gaddafi forces were bringing up more troops and tanks to bombard the rebel-held town. Rebels forces in the east meanwhile are still pinned down outside Ajdabiya after more than three days of trying to recapture it.
• The US chief of staff for the mission in Libya has said there have been no reports of civilian casualties as a result of the coalition's action, the BBC reported. Gaddafi's government has repeatedly claimed civilians have been killed by what it calls "crusader, colonial" attacks.
France's foreign minister has said the international military operation against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces may last days or weeks but not months, AP reports.
Alain Juppe also said that he hopes the campaign in Libya serves as a warning to autocratic regimes elsewhere, including in Syria and Saudi Arabia.
Juppe spoke to reporters Thursday, ahead of EU and NATO meetings expected to discuss how to better coordinate the campaign of airstrikes on Libya.
The Libyan state run Jana news agency reported overnight that several civilians were killed in a night-time raid in Tajura, east of Tripoli.
The agency claimed Tajura was hit three times – with the third strike injuring rescue workers who were on the scene to aid those impacted by the first two strikes.
Despite air strikes, Gaddafi's tanks rolled back into Misrata under the cover of darkness and began shelling the area near the main hospital, residents and rebels told Reuters.
Government snipers in the city, Libya's third largest, were undeterred by the bombing raids though and had carried on firing indiscriminately throughout, residents said. A rebel spokesman said the snipers had killed 16 people.
"Government tanks are closing in on Misrata hospital and shelling the area," said a doctor in Misrata who was briefly reached by phone before the line was cut off. It was impossible to independently verify the reports.
Ian Black is in Tripoli, where he reports that Libyan TV has been showing images of civilian victims of the overnight bombing in Tajoura, east of Tripoli, which was apparently hit in an attack on a military base in the town.
The official Jana news agency said it was struck three times, the third strike hitting rescue teams who were on the scene after the first two bombings.
In the small hours of the morning foreign news agency reporters were taken to a hospital and shown 18 charred corpses, which were said be casualties of the latest attacks
After five nights of allied raids, a certain routine has been established, with the action usually beginning around 9pm local time. But the latest action continued until much later, with sustained and wildly erratic anti-aircraft fire from batteries in central Tripoli as dawn was breaking.
It is striking that the Libyan authorities have not announced any new casualty figures since the announcement on Sunday that 48 people had been killed and 150 injured. Nor has there been any breakdown of civilian and military casualties.
And here's a video showing what Libyan TV described as a military base in Tripoli which was hit overnight.
Ian Black reports that Libya's state run Jamahiriya TV is quoting a military source as reporting attacks against military and civilian targets in Tajoura, near Tripoli, at the moment.
Tajoura was hit three times during the night. If confirmed these would be the first daytime raids in or near the capital since the coalition campaign began five days ago.
The excellent Colum Lynch at Turtle Bay on the Foreign Policy website points out a little-noticed fact about the UN sanctions against Libya that could come back to haunt the international community.
Like similar sanctions imposed on Iran, the move to cut off Gaddafi's chief sources of revenue has the potential to inflict collateral economic harm on ordinary people. It marks a shift from the UN security council's efforts over the past decade to develop highly targeted sanctions that punish a rogue government's elite while shielding ordinary people from harsh economic pain.
"If a stalemate continues and there is no regime change, these measures will starve the economy," David Cortright, a scholar at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at Notre Dame University and one of the country's leading experts on UN sanctions, told Turtle Bay. "Sooner or later, and probably sooner, Libya will begin to face internal economic difficulties, and therefore, humanitarian difficulties."
Snippets of news are dribbling out of the country following yesterday's protests in the southern city of Deraa.
An official in the main hospital in Deraa has told Reuters that it has received the bodies of at least 25 protesters who died in in yesterday's clashes.
"We received them at 5 pm yesterday (1500 GMT). They all had bullet holes," the official said.
AP says that dozens of people held a sit-in in al-Mahata neighbourhood near the city centre.
An activist in contact with residents in Deraa says the situation is still tense, with a heavy armed presence in the streets.
Presidential guards loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh clashed in the town of Mukalla with army units backing opposition groups, AP reports.
The confrontation wounded one person. Protesters are planning a "day of departure" rally in the capital, Sana'a, tomorrow after prayers that could bring hundreds of thousands on to the streets. Around 10,000 people gathered this morning, chanting slogans such as "Go, go, you coward; you are an American agent".
The International Crisis Group thinktank says the political tide has turned decisively against President Saleh.
His choices are limited: he can fight his own military or negotiate a rapid and dignified transfer of power. By choosing the latter path now, he has a chance of ensuring an honourable departure and, most importantly, of sparing his country a brutal and bloody civil war.
ICG warns, however, that the most powerful current backers of the protest movement - Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar's brothers and salafi leaders such as Sheikh Abd-al-Majid al-Zindani - are long-time regime insiders and symbols of the status quo.
Over time, Ali Mohsen and the older generation in the president's tribe, the Sanhan, as well as the al-Ahmar brothers, have felt increasingly marginalised by the concentration of power around the president's son and nephews. Today, this rivalry within the Hashid tribal confederation is playing out in the context of the protest movement.
AFP is reporting that around 20,000 people have gathered in Daraa, south Syria, for the burial of victims shot dead on Wednesday.
A French Rafale jet fighter takes off from the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. French aircraft s struck an air base in central Libya early today in a fifth night of bombardments.
A French spokesman, Thierry Burkhard, told a news briefing that around 15 French planes were deployed on Wednesday and a dozen overnight, leading to missile strikes on an air base some 155 miles (250 km) inland.
The French foreign minister, Alain Juppe, defended the pace of the air operation, which has been led by France. He said five days was not long enough to achieve its goal of protecting civilians by stopping Gaddafi's counter-offensive against rebel forces.
Photograph: Cyril Davesne/AFP/Getty Images
The Quilliam Foundation, a counter-extremism thinktank in London, has rubbished Gaddafi's claims that al-Qaida is behind the protests - with some caveats. In a briefing paper released today (pdf), it says:
Since the start of the Libyan uprising, the Gaddafi regime has tried to portray its enemies as being part of al-Qaida or as seeking to establish an 'Islamic emirate' or a caliphate in Libya or in Benghazi. In reality these claims are without any real foundation. That said, the breakdown in Libyan government control over much of Libya, combined with the ongoing fighting in many parts of the country, clearly gives jihadists and extreme Islamists more scope than ever before to operate in Libya. In addition, international military intervention in Libya gives groups like al-Qaida new opportunities to present themselves as defending Muslims against western aggression. These two reasons alone show why the international community should remain alert to the threat of jihadist activities in Libya.
The people of Zintan, 90 miles southwest of Tripoli, have begun returning from the caves where they sought refuge from government shelling in the last few days, Reuters reports.
Gaetan Vannay, a reporter for Radio Television Suisse, told the news agency: "The people have started moving back from the caves where they were for three or four days. Life is starting back a little bit. A few shops are open. People are still careful. A lot of men are watching outside the city. It is still a city under military siege. But the mood has changed since Friday."
Eight rebel fighters have died in fighting around Zintan in recent days.
William Hague, the foreign secretary, is giving the parliament an update on Libya. We continue to take robust action, he says. The case for action is "utterly compelling" he tells MPs, citing shelling of Misrata and the continuing attacks on Ajdabiya.
We are taking the utmost care to minimise civilian casualties, Hague continues, with Britain having carried out 59 aerial missions and missile strikes. On the vexed issue of who should be in charge of the operation - currently under US command - he says expects an agreement soon on command transfer to Nato.
Hague says sanctions are being tightened and today Libya's National Oil Corporation is being targeted, cutting off Libya's oil revenues. Moving on to Syria, he calls on the government to respect the right of civilians to protest. On Yemen, the foreign secretary calls for dialogue between the government and the opposition. He says he has temporarily withdraw UK embassy staff from Yemen leaving a small core in Sana'a and is urging all British citizens to leave Yemen without delay.
Hague says there are contingency plans to get British citizens out of Yemen, but there is no guarantee that everyone can be taken out. Hague came under fire for Britain's tardiness in getting British citizens out of Libya at the beginning of the crisis.
Back on Libya, Hague insists that the operations enjoys strong international support, although some commentators, including the Guardian's Simon Tisdall, dispute this.
Asked about the arms embargo, which affects both sides, Hague says the situation is under review and whatever decision is taken must be in accordance with UN security council resolutions. He waffles a bit about whether the African Union will have a role. The former Lib Dem leader, Menzies Campbell, presses Hague on the command and control issue. Hague points out that current discussions have not impaired operations. He can only reiterate that he is hopeful that the issue will be resolved soon.
#BREAKING ABC's Martha Raddatz: #Gadhafi sends up first warplane violating no fly zone -- plane is shot down by French fighter jets. #Libya
Rebel fighters ride in vehicles as they drive in the desert along the Benghazi-Ajdabiyah Road.
Photograph: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters
Our colleague, Mona Mahmood, has been speaking to Muhammed, a rebel spokesman, in Misrata. This is what he told her.
Misrata is in a miserable situation, people can hardly go out for their basic needs because of the snipers on top of the main hospital, University Hospital, which has tanks surrounding it. The hospital is empty of patients but has become a base for government forces.
I helped in evacuating 19 bodies and more than 100 wounded. The rebels moved to the other hospital in the city which is 1.5km from the vegetable market after the main
hospital was taken by Gaddafi forces. There are some tanks stuck in this covered market. If they come out, they come under rebel fire and if they try to flee, the crews will be killed by the people.The 10-floor hospital is full of wounded, but their families are scared to visit because of the shooting and there is an acute shortage of medical supplies. There is a a clinic for new born babies called al-Saeed clinic. It was hit by tank fire and we do not know what happened to the babies there.
There is no fighting between the rebels and Gaddafi forces, but snipers are not giving a chance for any one to move and the tanks are shooting at random.
My 14-year-old son, Hassan, was shot in the leg, which had to be amputated because there is no proper medical treatment. Power comes and goes in the centre of the city but there is no power at all in the outskirts. we depend on generators. Still, getting fuel is not that easy, so we have to use it carefully. Mobiles and landlines are dead only Skype is working and this is how we chat to each other and transmit news between different cities in Libya.
Water is a real problem in Libya before the war but now it is worse cause the main city that supplied Misrata with water, Sekket, is controlled by Gaddafi forces. Misrata is well-known for being a commercial city but with no more food coming to the city, we do not know what will happen. People are trying to share their food now.
Here is a late lunchtime summary:
• French aircraft struck an an air base deep inside Libya. The overnight raids overnight hit a base about 155 miles south of the Libyan coast. There are unconfirmed reports that a Libyan plane was shot down by French aircraft, the first since the no-fly zone came into force.
• The Libyan military has reported attacks against military and civilian targets in Tajoura, near Tripoli. If confirmed these would be the first daytime raids in or near the capital since the coalition campaign began five days ago.
• Fighting has ceased at the western city of Misrata but government snipers have continued firing from the top of the city's main hospital. Government forces continue to occupy the hospital and the surrounding area.
• The Foreign Secretary has urged all British citizens to leave Yemen "without delay". William Hague said there are contingency plans to evacuate British nationals.
Mercenaries and soldiers loyal to Gaddafi sit inside a prison in Benghazi.
Photograph: Suhaib Salem/Reuters
Curiously, confirmation of the Libyan plane shot down by a French aircraft has come from the US rather than France. AP has this one line on the incident: US official: French jet has attacked and destroyed a Libyan airplane.
France has been carrying out the brunt of the air strikes against Libyan government forces.
Our colleague Mona Mahmood has managed to contact another resident in Misrata, Ahmed, who describes himself as a political activist. This is what he told her.
The situation is much quieter than yesterday. Snipers are still in Tripoli street in the city but it seems the coalition bombing yesterday helped to stop tank fire. It seems that the snipers in the city lost contact with central command and do not know what to do. People are out today but they are very cautious. Some of the shops are open.
The baby clinic was fired on by tanks and I have seen a video released by the rebels showing injured babies. The city has been under siege for almost a month now, so no food is coming in. We depend on what we have stored since the start of the uprising.
Part of the hospital came under under fire yesterday. The main problem now, is the lack of medical supplies which are running out quickly because of the number of wounded.
Gaddafi's forces were searching houses and took away many men. Some of the houses only had old men. They were given the Libyan green flag and told to keep them. The soldiers said the men would be arrested if they did not find the flags when they returned.
AP has more on the shooting down of the Libyan jet, all based on anonymous US sources as France has yet to confirm the incident.
The French Rafale fighter helping enforce a no-fly zone over Libya destroyed what was identified as a Libyan G-2/Galeb, which is a trainer aircraft, near the coastal city of Misrata. The US official said the Libyan plane may have been landing at the time of the attack. The official cautioned that details were still being confirmed.
Michel Goya, a French defence expert, has made some interesting points in an interview with Le Monde. He said given the military weakness of the rebellion, the objective is limited to a halt to the fighting as a prelude to negotiations. He also reminds us of how long air strikes lasted against Slobodan Milosevic in Kosovo.
It took two months of bombing and several tens of thousands of air missions combined with the threat of massive ground intervention to make Milosevic bend in 1999.
A wounded rebel fighter is transferred to an ambulance near Ajdabiya.
Photograph: Sean Smith for the Guardian
France has finally confirmed what ABC News tweeted about three hours ago (1.07pm). This from Reuters.
A French warplane fired an air-to-ground missile at a Libyan military plane and destroyed it just after it landed at Misrata air force base, a French armed forces spokesman said on Thursday. "The French patrol carried out an air-to-ground strike with an AASM weapon just after the plane had landed at the Misrata airbase," the spokesman said, adding that the plane, belonging to Muammar Gaddafi's military, had breached the UN-imposed no-fly zone.
In his update to MPs, William Hague said Libya's National Oil Corporation would be subject to sanctions (12.46pm). The tightening of the economic noose on Gaddafi means the regime has been cut off from oil revenues. But economic sanctions will also hit the opposition, points out Samuel Ciszuk, a Middle East energy analyst with the IHS consultancy.
The state-owned NOC subsidiary, the Arabian Gulf Oil Co. (AGOCO), the upstream, midstream and downstream infrastructure of which the opposition largely controls, has been named as a sanctioned entity, making any near-time efforts to sell crude through the eastern oil port of Marsa El-Harigh for now, rather impossible. For the opposition movement, which cannot fall back on rumoured large gold reserves, this poses a significant immediate problem.
Katherine Marsh (a pseudonym) in Damascus has just told us that Syria has announced major concessions ahead of planned protests tomorrow. The government says it will look at removing emergency laws, prepare new laws for political parties, media and respond to "legitimate demands".
AP has a bit more on those government concessions in Syria.
Presidential adviser Buthaina Shaaban says the government is drafting a law that would allow political parties besides the ruling Baath party. She tells reporters that President Bashar Assad's government will begin studying a possible ending to the emergency laws in place since 1963 and putting in place mechanisms for fighting corruption. She also promised higher salaries for public servants. The pledges appear unlikely to satisfy protesters in the city of Daraa after a violent crackdown that killed what many say are dozens of demonstrators.
We've had a few commenters asking about the "endgame" now the intervention has taken place. Fareed Zakaria in Time magazine, who thinks Obama is right to be ultra-cautious, lays out some prescriptions.
The coalition needs to get active putting all the pressure it can on Gaddafi, economic and political, to get him to quit. The people around him should be given inducements to defect. And those incentives cannot be all sticks. Gaddafi retains loyal support in most African countries, a product of his generosity over the decades... Those countries could be intermediaries and potential retirement homes. Gaddafi will have to see some kind of exit strategy that doesn't end at the war-crimes tribunal in the Hague.
At the same time, we should arm the Libyan opposition forces. Now that we have tied ourselves to their fate, we certainly need to help them more substantially. The arms embargo, which applies equally to Gaddafi and the opposition, will have to be circumvented. A genuine rebel army would put further pressure on Gaddafi, who would know that he faced death at its hands, and would push him toward some kind of exit.
Here's an afternoon summary of events in Libya and of unrest elsewhere in the Middle East.
A French fighter destroyed a Libyan military aircraft after it landed at Misrata air force base. A French military spokesman said the plane had breached the UN-imposed no-fly zone. Residents in Misrata say tank shelling has stopped after western air strikes in the past few days. Some shops have reopened but people are cautious because of continued sniper fire.
The Syrian government says it will consider lifting a state of emergency in place since 1963. It says it will also prepare new laws for political parties, media and respond to "legitimate demands". The concessions were announced ahead of planned demonstrations tomorrow.
William Hague has urged all British citizens to leave Yemen "without delay" and has reduced the British embassy in Sana'a to a core staff. Contingency plans are in place to evacuate British nationals. Protesters are planning a "day of departure" rally aimed at President Saleh in Sana'a tomorrow after prayers that could bring hundreds of thousands on to the streets.
US defense secretary Robert Gates has said that Syria should follow the example of Egypt in the face of popular protests. Reuters reports from Tel Aviv, where Gates is visiting:
"I would say that what the Syrian government is confronting is in fact the same challenge that faces so many governments across the region, and that is the unmet political and economic grievances of their people," Gates said during a visit to Israel. "Some of them are dealing with it better than others. I've just come from Egypt, where the Egyptian army stood on the sidelines and allowed people to demonstrate and in fact empowered a revolution. The Syrians might take a lesson from that," he told reporters.
Interesting news from CBS News via Twitter:
Turkish foreign minister quoted as saying NATO will take command of Libya operation. DEVELOPING
CBS News
CBSNews
Quite how that meshes with the diplomatic spat between Turkey and France is a different question.
More on the Nato command issue, this time from Reuters:
FLASH: Turkish foreign minister says compromise reached with allies for NATO to take full control of operations in Libya
Reuters Top News
Reuters
More details as they emerge.
Command of military operations in Libya will be transferred from the US to Nato within a day or two, Reuters is quoting the Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu as saying:
"Compromise has been reached in principle in a very short time," Davutoglu told reporters. "The operation will be handed over to Nato completely."
He said this would happen as soon as possible, within one or two days. Agreement had been reached in a teleconference with his counterparts from the United States, France and Britain.
A formal statement from Nato is expected within the next hour.
Is the US at war? Not at all. According to White House spokesman Jay Carney at his briefing today, the conflict in Libya is a "time-limited, scope-limited military action". That's clear.
Yemen's president Ali Abdullah Saleh has appeared on television this evening and pledged to transfer power "peacefully," in bringing forward the country's next presidential election from September 2013 to January 2012.
But Saleh's statement – shown on al-Jazeera – was vague on the details involved. Saleh also optimistically offered an amnesty to soldiers who switched support to the opposition:
I announce a general amnesty for those who committed foolishness before and after Monday. We consider it foolishness and a reaction to what happened on Friday.
Former assistant attorney general Jack Goldsmith explains the legal rationale for why the Obama administartion is trying to avoid the W-word:
It is impossible for outsiders to know how much the "no war" rhetoric and the imperative for the United States to withdraw soon from active hostilities are being driven by domestic and international politics, and how much are being driven by the Justice Department's (or the White House's) skittishness about indulging a broader theory of presidential power. The more the administration keeps insisting that the Libya intervention is "not war" in the face of growing domestic skepticism about the claim, the more I think legal considerations are driving the rhetoric.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, says representatives of Gaddafi's regime and the Libyan opposition will both attend an African Union meeting in Addis Ababa tomorrow.
The emergency meeting of the AU was called by Uganda to discuss the situation in Libya, and is part of an effort to reach a cease-fire.
My colleague Ewen MacAskill is watching a briefing going on at the Pentagon from Vice-Admiral Bill Gortney – and the message of the day is to accentuate the limited nature of the US involvement in the action against Libya.
Gortney says 75% of combat missions over Libya are now being flown by non-US coalition members, and that of the 350 planes involved, only half are American.
Gortney also says the US will still supply "interdiction strike packages" – Pentagon speak for planes with missiles that can shoot things down.
Hillary Clinton will go to London next week for William Hague's international conference to coordinate coalition strategy in Libya, the US state department says.
Reuters is reporting some potentially significant news from Deraa, the centre of the protests in Syria:
Syrian security forces pulled out from the main Omari mosque on Thursday in the centre of the city of Deraa where six people were killed, a Reuters witness said.
Several thousand people later converged on mosque to celebrate its "liberation", setting off fireworks and honking car horns.
There are later reports of sustained chanting of "revolution" around the mosque.
No deal on Nato taking over the leadership role for military action against Libya – it appears Turkey remains unhappy at the terms being proposed and has objected, so a deal is still being worked out tonight.
An interesting snippet from AP's latest wrap-up:
A US intelligence report on Monday, the day after coalition missiles attacked Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound in the capitol, said that a senior Gaddafi aide was told to take bodies from a morgue and place them at the scene of the bomb damage, to be displayed for visiting journalists. A senior US defense official revealed the contents of the intelligence report on condition of anonymity because it was classified secret.
Katherine Marsh in Damascus reports for the Guardian on the deadly violence in the protest centre of Deraa:
Syria's government pledged to consider protesters' "legitimate demands" after thousands took to the streets for the funerals of nine people killed by the military.
Rights activists described Wednesday's shootings in the southern city of Deraa as a massacre, claiming that more than 100 people may have been killed when troops fired on a mosque in the early hours and throughout the day.
With protests called for after Friday prayers, Buthaina Shaaban, adviser to President Bashar al-Assad, announced that the government would consider ending Syria's emergency law and revise legislation for political parties and the media. Similar reform pledges have been announced in the past, and are unlikely to satisfy protesters.
In Deraa, funeral-goers chanted "God, Syria, Freedom" and "The blood of martyrs is not spilt in vain!", Reuters news agency reported. Some reports said that up to 20,000 people attended, but this could not be verified. The city has been cordoned off .
Deraa's hospital reported receiving 37 bodies from Wednesday's violence. YouTube videos apparently showed bloody scenes at the mosque.
Electricity and communications in the city were cut before the attack, which sources said was by a unit of forces headed by the president's brother, Maher al-Assad.
It's time to close this live blog for the evening. Here's a summary of the most recent news:
• Rebels in Misrata said they killed 30 government snipers and liberated the port from forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, potentially opening up an aid lifeline to the besieged city
• A French fighter jet attacked and destroyed a Libyan military aircraft after it landed at Misrata air force base
• Objections by Turkey appear to have held up an agreement on Nato taking over operational control of military action against the Gaddafi regime from the US
• Syrian army units are reported to have withdrawn from the centre of Deraa after a day of violence left as many as 100 protesters dead in the city
• Yemen's president Ali Abdullah Saleh appeared on television and pledged to transfer power "peacefully," without giving details. His offer was rejected by leaders of Yemen's protest movement
• British foreign secretary William Hague urged all British citizens to leave Yemen "without delay" and has reduced the British embassy in Sana'a to a core staff
There will be on-going coverage on events in the Middle East in the Guardian's world news section.