.Live Blog - Libya Feb 24 Live Blog - Libya Feb 24

(All times are local in Libya GMT+2)

February 24, 2011

7:57pm Interesting bit of graffiti in Tobruk...

7:55pm Via Reuters news agency: Libyan television airs video of weapons and foreign passports allegedly seized by Gaddafi loyalists.

7:24pm The first issue of a Benghazi newspaper is out:

7:12pm Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal reporting from Saloum, Egypt, at the Libyan border, says that Egyptians living in Libya are still flowing back into Egypt on a very cold night.

"There is no United Nations, there is no shelter for these people who are trying to escape the violence in Libya," said Elshayyal, who adds that the Egyptians living in Libya felt that they were being targeted by mercenaries.

6:57pm We'll have the full speech for you shortly - in the meantime, here's a taste...

6:35pm Noted: Audioboo, the call-to-tweet site that allows people to call in messages from Libya, has been silent for 17 hours.

6:09pm Al Jazeera's correspondent in Al Baida reports says that the situation can be described as a "nervous quietness" - with most of the town being under the control of the residents as they've taken over the military barracks and all the weapons there.

"Shops are closed - life is at a standstill - schools are closed, local tribal leaders are trying to take things into their own hands...still, in the area, they say there are mercenaries," said our correspondent. The mercenaries, she said, are either Libyans working for the government or foreign fighters.

She added that in Al Baida, most people are staying indoors, and that residents there rejected any claims made by Gaddafi that they were following al-Qaeda and that they were on drugs.

She also said that people there feel like they've reached "a point of no return",

5:45pm - France's top human rights official told Reuters that up to 2,000 people could have died by now in Libya. Francois Zimeray also said there was clear evidence to suggest the Libyan leader had committed crimes against humanity.

The question is not if Gaddafi will fall, but when and at what human cost ... For now the figures we have ... more than 1,000 have died, possibly 2,000, according to sources.

5:13pm As this Tweeter puts it:

Great question. Where was Gaddafi calling from? Intially, word was that the Libyan leader would appear live and make his statement from Az Zawiyah, but then, a phone call, which ended rather abruptly. We'll Youtube that and embed it here for you shortly.

4:45pm From Tobruk, a simple request (via AFP):

4:15pm Gaddafi's speech, broadcast on state television, was a phone-in affair, in which he said that like Queen Elizabeth II, he was only a symbolic leader of Libya. Gaddafi also blamed the unrest on al-Qaeda arming drugged teenagers.

He said that married people with families and good jobs weren't participating in the protests, saying that no one over the age of 20 was involved and that "people with any brains won't take part in these protests".

He also said that "It's obvious now that this issue has been lead by al-Qaeda ...get control of your children, keep them at home".

4:00pm An eyewitness named Ali from Az Zawiyah tells Al Jazzera that soldiers fired at protesters with heavy fire arms for five hours this morning. Some of the protesters, he said were armed with hunting rifles, others were unarmed.

"The shooting was direct to the people. They shot the people in the head or in the chest. They were trying to kill the people, not just terrify them," said Ali.

He added that at least 100 people had been killed and that around 400 injured were taken to the hospital in Az Zawiyah.

3:24pm There are multiple reports of gun battles taking place between security forces and protesters in the town of Az Zawiyah, 50 km west of Tripoli, on Thursday. Reuters reports that gun fire has broken out there, while sources tell Al Jazeera that the army attacked the town this morning, firing shots at protesters for roughly four hours.

The death tolls vary greatly - from 16 to 100, and Reuters is unable to confirm any numbers. The agency reports that the army attacked the Souq Mosque where protesters had been camped out for several days:

The soldiers opened fire with automatic weapons and hit the mosque's minaret with fire from an anti-aircraft gun, he said. Some of the young men among the protesters, who were inside the mosque and in a nearby lot, had hunting rifles for protection.

The witness said that earlier in the day, a Gaddafi "envoy" had come to Az Zawiyah and told the protesters in the mosque to leave or "you will see a massacre". He also said, "Those who attacked us are not the mercenaries, they are the sons of our country".

3:15pm The US state department has issued a statement saying that in a meeting between two US diplomats and the senior Libyan officials, the US diplomats were told that while some journalists were allowed to report from Libya, others who had entered the country illegally (presumably through the country's broken eastern border) were considered "al-Qaeda collaborators" by the Libyan government.

The statement continues:

The Libyan government said that it was not responsible for the safety of these journalists, who risked immediate arrest on the full range of possible immigration charges. Foreign journalists already in Libya who are not part of the approved teams were urged to immediately join the approved teams in-country.

Be advised, entering Libya to report on the events unfolding there is additionally hazardous with the government labeling unauthorized media as terrorist collaborators and claiming they will be arrested if caught.

3:07pm Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal reporting from Saloum, Egypt, reports that things are slowing down at the eastern border crossing with Libya, where, he said, the situation has been "quite chaotic". He said roughly 20,000 have crossed the border in two days.

Elshayyal also said people continue to get injured or killed in attempting to cross the border.

2:52pm Reuters also reports that Britain has urged greater pressure on Gaddafi, while the European Union might be sending humanitarian intervention into Libya:

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said an international investigation should be launched into Libyan state violence, while Gaddafi's forces continued their week-long struggle to crush armed and unarmed anti-government protesters. ...

'We will be looking for ways to hold to account the people who are responsible for these things and they should bear that in mind before they order any more of them,' he said.
'We will want some kind of international investigation ... We are finding a lot of support from other countries,' he said.

In Brussels, senior officials said the European Union was weighing a range of options to evacuate 5,000-6,000 EU citizensstill in Libya, many of them oil company employees, and said one possibility was a military humanitarian intervention force.

2:37pm Reuters wire agency is starting to move some images from Libya - here's a shot out of Tobruk, where we can see burnt security vehicles in the background.

2:11pm Another caller from Misurata tells Al Jazeera that up to 1,000 members of Gaddafi forces - the "Hamza Brigade" - mounted an attack on protesters near the city's airport and were repelled, but later launched an attack on the centre of the city, and fighting continues. He says anti-Gaddafi protesters are holding their ground.

URL du live: http://blogs.aljazeera.net/africa/2011/02/23/live-blog-libya-feb-24