Libya - Latest Updates Part III ( Archived) (526)

0242: The BBC's Jonathan Head in Cairo says: "The uncharacteristic boldness of the Arab League's statement last week supporting an international no-fly zone over Libya surprised its detractors. Now the organisation is having second thoughts. Mr Moussa said what Western military forces were doing in Libya was not what the Arab League had signed up for. Arab states wanted the protection of civilians, not the bombardment of civilians, he added. As Arab support is considered essential by Western governments for their operation against Col Gaddafi's forces, this looks like a worrying crack in the coalition. They are counting on at least symbolic participation by the air forces of some Arab states. Public opinion here, while very sympathetic to the Libyan opposition, is suspicious of Western involvement. Without the Arab League's endorsement the no-fly zone will lose its legitimacy in this region."


0239: The Secretary General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, has criticised western military attacks on Libyan forces, saying they go beyond what his organisation agreed last week, and that they endanger civilians. The endorsement of the 22-member Arab League was considered an essential pre-condition for the military intervention authorised by the United Nations on Friday.

0247: Ambivalence in the Arab world about the use of Western military power is likely to become more emphatic the longer the raids continue, says the BBC's David Loyn. "That is why the propaganda battle is as important as the use of force," he adds. "Graphic pictures of burning tanks send one message about Western power that can only strengthen the Libyan opposition. But the longer Col Gadaffi can show funerals of the dead and injured victims in hospital, reservations about the raids in the Arab world will only become stronger."

0310: The Pentagon has denied that the missile was intended for Col Gaddafi. "I can guarantee he's not on the targeting list. We're not targeting his residence," said Vice-Admiral Bill Gortney. A coalition military official later said the target was the Libyan leader's "command and control capability". "We continue to strike those targets which pose a direct threat to the Libyan people and to our ability to implement the no-fly zone," the official told the AFP news agency.

0307: Late on Sunday night, Libyan officials took foreign journalists to Col Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli, where a four-storey building was damaged by a missile. A government spokesman said it was an administrative building, and condemned Western powers for attacking a site where they knew men, women and children had gathered to form a human shield. "It was a barbaric bombing," Moussa Ibrahim said. "This contradicts American and Western ... that it is not their target to attack this place."

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0430: Dr Ahmed Sewelhi, a British Libyan who lives in Manchester, tells the BBC that the Libyans he spoke to before Saturday were desperate for the West to do something. "And when the bombs came they were very, very happy," he says. "Talking about civilian casualties - we know that thousands of people have already been killed. Gaddafi has never accepted that that has even happened. He's denied that anybody protested, let alone that anyone was killed in the protests. [People are] willing to accept these casualties because thousands of people have already died anyway."

AH HA! I found what I was looking for!

0320: The UK's Ministry of Defence has just said RAF planes flew over Libya again tonight but didn't launch any strikes: "As the RAF GR4 Tornados approached the target, further information came to light that identified a number of civilians within the intended target area. As a result the decision was taken not to launch weapons. This decision underlines the UK's commitment to the protection of civilians," said Maj Gen John Lorimer.

The missile attack on the Bab al-Aziziya compound of yesterday was described as an attack on a "Libyan Military Command Centre" which accrding to AFP was also declared as "successful".

Meantime, foreign journalists were accompanied to the site of the clearly destroyed three-storey building earlier. The attack was described as a "barbaric bombing" by official spokesman Mussa Ibrahim. He said no one had been hurt but declined to say whether Gaddafi himself was inside or near the compound.

Commenting on the possibility of targeting Gaddafi himself, UK defence secretary Liam Fox has told BBC Radio 5 that targeting Gaddafi himself could "potentially be a possibility" if civilians would not be harmed.

US defence secretary, Robert Gates, however responded negatively to Fox's comments. He said expanding the coalition's goals could divide it and that it was "unwise" to set such specific goals that might be unachievable.

In the meantime unrest and revolts spreading to various other Arab countries are escalating in both Syria and Yemen where in the latter country 3 top Yemeni army generals have declared their support for anti-government protesters seeking the resignation of the country's president, Ali Abudullah Saleh.

Yesterday, President Saleh fired his entire cabinet, which came after a month-long popular uprising calling for political reform and his resignation.

In Syria, also yesterday, thousands took to the streets calling for an end to corruption and 48 years of emergency law and protested the killing of five civilians in a similar demonstration 2 days earlier. The headquarters of the ruling Baath party was set ablaze as were the courthouse and other buildings in the southern city of Daraa. The situation here escalated on the arrest of 15 schoolchildren detained for writing pro-democracy graffiti.