Live Blog - Libya Feb 27

Live Blog - Libya Feb 27

As the uprising in Libya enters its twelfth day, we keep you updated on the developing situation from our headquarters in Doha, Qatar.

Blog: Feb17 - Feb18 - Feb19 - Feb20 - Feb21 - Feb22 - Feb23 - Feb24 - Feb25 - Feb26

AJE Live Stream  - Special Coverage: Libya Uprising - Twitter Audio: Voices from Libya 

Benghazi Protest Radio (Arabic)

(All times are local in Libya GMT+2)

• Timestamp: 

  10:11am

  Kevin Rudd, Australia's foreign minister and former prime minister, tells Al Jazeera:

  "Libya is in the middle of a civil war and that civil war has now reached the streets of Tripoli. It seems to us increasingly that the days of this regime are numbered."

  Australia has put pressure on Gaddafi and imposed what it calls autonomous sanctions. Rudd said the security situation on the ground is working against the Libyan government. 

  "The key thing is to see the unity of international opinion on this matter so that those within Libya know that the world is as one. There is one critical element of the UN Security Council resolution, which we in Australia have strongly argued for,  for the last week, and that is a reference to the International Criminal Court.

• 
  

  This is critical for the regime in Tripoli to understand. That is, if they take further actions of violence against innocent civilians in Libya, it is not just those who issue orders, but those who pull the trigger who will then become subject to the jurisdiction of the criminal court." 

  We'll post the video clip of his interview shortly.

• Timestamp: 

  9:45pm

   

  The Libyan leader's palace outside al-Baida is not just luxurious, but a bunker designed to withstand a nuclear attack. Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland took a glimpse:

   

• Timestamp: 

  9:14am

  Twitter user @paltex just sent us this picture of another US solidarity rally for Libya - this time in the city of Dallas, Texas:

  

• Timestamp: 

  8:36am

  Take a peek into Libya's revolution headquarters. Benghazi, the de facto capital of the opposition, is where much of the anti-Gaddafi action is co-ordinated and executed.

  Al Jazeera web producer Evan Hill sent in this report.

• Timestamp: 

  7:45am

  Residents of the US city of Chicago held a Libyan solidarity rally on Saturday. This picture was posted on Twitter by @HindMakki who tweeted:

  "500 protesters for #libya in #chicago cars on michigan ave honking in solidarity"

  

• Timestamp: 

  6:30am

  In this audio note, posted on Twitter by @Feb17voices with an English translation, a Tripoli man describes a "tumultuous" situation in the Libyan capital.

  "Out of 100 stores, maybe four are open. Out of 100. Even the ones that are open are not at ease. Even the food supplies are beginning to dwindle."

• Timestamp: 

  6:15am

  Hana Elgallal, a legal and human rights expert in Benghazi, said some in Libya will be disappointed that the UN did not impose a no-fly zone. "I'm one person who was hoping that we'd get that," she told Al Jazeera.

  We will not be able to move and help Tripoli because of the fear that he will use his planes. But whatever we get now we will look at it positively and consider it a victory and success.

  "Hopefully things will escalate in our benefit soon to defuse the massacres in Tripoli."

• Timestamp: 

  4:48am

  Libyan poet Prof Khaled Mattawa of the University of Michigan tells Al Jazeera that Libya's "cultural revolution" represents the end of tolerance to Colonel Gaddafi.

  "It's game over after a long, patient struggle," he says. "This is a great cleansing coming over the Libyan people"

• Timestamp: 

  4:24am

  Libyan ambassador Ibrahim Dabasshi says the diplomatic mission at the UN is not taking orders from Tripoli. 

  "I am not brave," he says. "The brave are those who face the bullets in the streets of Libya. I am just hoping to make the international community aware of what is happening."

• Timestamp: 

  4:21am

  Graffiti spotted by our correspondent in Benghazi:

  

• Timestamp: 

  4:17am

  Libyan ambassador, Ibrahim Dabasshi: "It is difficult to tell how many [are dead] in Tripoli - because when someone is killed, they come and take the body - also when they are injured." Says the UNSC resolution will send a warning to senior regime figures and encourage them to abandon Gaddafi.

• Timestamp: 

  4:15am

  Libyan ambassador to the UN: "I am a career diplomat ... I am not nominated by Gaddafi [to speak]. My colleagues and I are siding with the people." 

• Timestamp: 

  4:13am

  Libyan ambassador to UN: "We expect the people with the regime take a position and side with the Libyan people." 

• Timestamp: 

  4:11am

  Ban Ki-moon: "In the following days, even more bold action may become necessary." 

• Timestamp: 

  4:06am

  The UNSC resolution also includes a ban on selling weapons to the Libyan regime, Al Jazeera's Kristen Saloomey notes 

• Timestamp: 

  4:04am

  Those slapped with a travel ban: Liaison office head Dr Abdulqader Mohammed al-Baghdadi, Gaddafi's bodyguard chief Abdulqader Yusef Dibri, extrenal intelligence agency boss Abu Zayd Umar Dorda, defence minister Major General Abu Bakr Yunis Jabir,  Utilities secretary Matuq Mohammed Matuq, alleged hit squad chief Sayyid Mohammed Qadhaf Al-dam, Gaddafi's daughter Aisha, sons Hannibal Muammar, Khamis Muammar, Mohammed Muammar, Mutassim, Saadi, Saif al-Arab and Saif al-Islam. Also military intelligence director Col Abdullah al-Senussi - and Gaddafi himself.

• Timestamp: 

  3:55am

  Here's a photo of that vote...

   

• Timestamp: 

  3:17am

  US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice: "When atrocities are committed against innocents, the international community must act with one voice - and tonight it has."

• Timestamp: 

  3:11pm

  All 15 members vote for SC resolution 1970, a unanimous decision.

  Gaddafi family members will have their assets frozen, and which administration members will be prevented from leaving Libya. 

  Asset freeze: Aisha, Hannibal, Khamis Muammar, Muammar Mohammed Abu Minyar, Mutassim and Saif al-Islam Gaddafi.

• Timestamp: 

  3:05am

  All 15 UN Security Council members are reportedly "on board" to pass a resolution referring Libyan officials to the International Criminal Court, says Kristen Saloomey, Al Jazeera's correspondent at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

  It is the first time the council has referred a country's leadership to the ICC, she says. Vote expected very soon - we're watching the diplomats settling into their chairs now. 

• Timestamp: 

  2:38am

  Al Jazeera understands the UN Security Council resolution will freeze the assets of six members of the Gaddafi family, including the Libyan leader - while 16 members of his administration will be slapped with a travel ban. Waiting on news of the vote... But you can watch all the details as they unfold on our TV stream - live - by clicking here: Watch Al Jazeera now.

• Timestamp: 

  2:18pm

  As many as 50 civilians and many more severely wounded in an attack by Gaddafi loyalists in the oil refining town of Zawiyah, 50km west of Tripoli, a resident named Ibrahim told Reuters.

   

• Timestamp: 

  1:33am

  An Al Jazeera correspondent who has made it to Benghazi tells us the city's court house has become "press/uprising central", with a media centre, printing press, newspaper, medical clinics and satellite internet.

  

  

• Timestamp: 

  1:25am

  Henry Schuler, former US diplomat, tells Al Jazeera that the Obama administration "inherited a terrible situation created by the Bush administration in letting Gaddafi off the hook in 2004".

  "Time will tell whether that was accomplished based on a clear assessment of US interests, or to get the oil companies back into Libya, or to promote the re-election campaign of George W Bush.

  "It's a fool's errand if anyone thinks sanctions will persuade Gaddafi to back off. He said he will shed his last drop of blood on Libyan soil. What the US should be doing is ensuring that as little as possible other Libyan blood is shed." 

• Timestamp: 

  1:00am

  The World Food Programme says the food supply chain in Libya "is at risk of collapsing". The Red Cross has also launched an appeal for more than US$6million for medical assistance.

• Timestamp: 

  12:42am

  The Libyan ambassador to the US has announced his support for the interim government formed in Benghazi, Reuters reports.

• Timestamp: 

  12:11am

  We're hearing that the UN Security Council is due to vote on a draft resolution - including an arms embargo on Libya, as well as a travel ban and "asset freeze" of  "targeted individuals" - at around 1:00am GMT, that's in about three hours.

  The draft also authorises UN members to "take all measures to enable the return of humanitarian assistance to Libya".

• Timestamp: 

  12:02am

  We have received this statement from a group named "The Network of Free Ulema - Libya", which purports to be a collection of Muslim religious scholars and intellectuals, calling for humanitarian aid - but rejecting international military action.

  

• Timestamp: 

  12:00am

  Missed our liveblog from yesterday?  Catch up by clicking here.