• Libya live
• Embassy official 'behind WPc death' found dead in Tripoli
• Britain to release £950 million to Libyan rebels
• Rebels issue Saturday ultimatum to Gaddafi forces to surrender
• Algeria
'braced for terror' as dictator's family seek refuge
• Gaddafi's daughter gives birth to girl after flight from Libya
• Tyrant's son Khamis 'killed in clashes', says opposition
• Megrahi
claims 'I am innocent' in letter to intelligence chief
Latest
22.30 That's all from the live blog tonight. For our complete Libya coverage click here.
22.20 An exclusive from the Telegraph's Richard Spencer on the supect in the killing of WPc Yvonne Fletcher found by rebel government:
The administration has confirmed that it knows the whereabouts of Matouk Mohammed Matouk, who was named in Crown Prosecution Service papers as one of two “conspirators” who could be charged in connection with the killing outside the Libyan Embassy in London in 1984. He is the last named suspect believed to still be alive.
A source close to Mr Matouk said on Tuesday that he had attempted to defect to the National Transitional Council as Tripoli fell 10 days ago.
Gaddafi with his daughter Hana in 1996
21.54 latest Telegraph video:
20.58 A US senator has called for American officials to be given access to the Lockerbie bomber to assess his health.
Senator Robert Menendez has written to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging her to ask Libya's Transitional National Council (TNC) to give American and international officials immediate access to Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.
He said Megrahi remains an "important source" of information on the bombing and should be questioned about it.
19.57 In a boost to the rebels last night, William Hague, Foreign Secretary, announced that almost £1 billion of Libyan currency held in the UK will be released to the country’s central bank after the UN Sanctions Committee approved the measure.
Some 1.86 billion Libyan Dinar (£950 million) of newly printed banknotes were held in the UK under sanctions imposed on the Gaddafi regime. Mr Hague said:
This represents another major step forward in getting necessary assistance to
the Libyan people, building on the remarkable progress in recent days.
These banknotes, which were frozen in the UK under UN sanctions, will help address urgent humanitarian needs, instil confidence in the banking sector, pay salaries of key public sector workers and free up liquidity in the economy.
19.24 European Union member Slovakia said it has officially recognised the Libyan rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) as the country's legitimate authority.
"As of August 30, Slovakia recognises the National Transitional Council as the only legitimate representative of Libya," the Slovak foreign ministry said in a statement. "The ministry believes the NTC would secure the rule of law, justice and human rights for all Libyan citizens," it added.
19.05 Gaddafi's family escaped to Algeria in armoured limousines, reports the Guardian.
According to officials in the National Transitional Council, Gaddafi's
second wife, daughter and two sons slipped out of the country along a road
through central Libya not yet under NTC control. The escape was made in a
convoy of six armoured Mercedes limousines, once part of an extensive
government fleet, which departed from the town of Bani Walid, the stronghold
of the Libya's biggest tribe, the Warfallah, where significant remnants of
the regime are holding out.
Guma al-Gamaty, the NTC's UK coordinator, said the motorcade was carrying a total of 32 Gaddafi family members, including the ousted leader's second wife, Safia, daughter Aisha and two sons, Hannibal and Mohammed, and reached the Algerian border on Saturday.
18.10 Richard Spencer in Tripoli with the latest on Gaddafi's whereabouts:
17.25 An estimated 50,000 people have been killed since the beginning of Libya's uprising to oust Muammar Gaddafi six months ago, Colonel Hisham Buhagiar, commander of the anti-Gaddafi troops who advanced out of the Western Mountains and took Tripoli a week ago, told Reuters:
About 50,000 people were killed since the start of the uprising. In Misurata
and Zlitan between 15,000 and 17,000 were killed and Jebel Nafusa (the
Western Mountains) took a lot of casualties. We liberated about 28,000
prisoners. We presume that all those missiong are dead.
17.11 The BBC's Paul Danahar tweets that we should bear in mind that Libya is a pretty big country:
For anyone wondering where #Gaddafi is it's quite instructive to open out a
map & remind yourself #Libya is a bloody big place to hide in
17.06 Watch the latest Telegraph video on Libyan forces loyal to Col Gaddafi being given an ultimatum to surrender:
16.40 Rob Crilly in Benghazi on the recent PR blunders of the transitional leaders and how they are starting to get their house in order:
There are still too many people saying different things and making policy on the hoof. But they are starting to look as if they mean business.
A Libyan truck with a sign reading "Capital Tripoli Youths Union" carries a camel in Tripoli, Libya, Monday, Aug. 29, 2011. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)
16.20 The Telegraph's Richard Spencer on the Yvonne Fletcher murder suspect being found dead in Tripoli:
Because of confusion over the circumstances of his death it took until Tuesday morning for relatives to be found to positively identify his body, Osama al-Abed, a member of the revolutionary council for the capital, told The Daily Telegraph.
15.45 Nouri Berouin, the newly-appointed chairman of Libya's National Oil Corporation says oil production can restart within weeks and will reach full pre-war output within fifteen months. The country was producing 1.6 million barrels per day before the uprising began in February.
15.42 A subisidiary of French IT firm Bull helped Colonel Gaddafi's regime spy on the emails and chat messages of his opponents, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Amesys, which on its website describes itself as "a key player in the field of security and critical systems at national and international levels," installed a monitoring centre in Tripoli in 2009, the newspaper said.
15.01 Zimbabwe has expelled Libya's ambassador Taher Elmagrahi after he recognised the rebel National Transitional Council, Foreign Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi said.
President Robert Mugabe, who has close ties to Gaddafi based on their anti-Western stance, has refused to recognise the TNC even as the rebels have closed in on near-complete control over Libya.
14.53 Rebel military chief Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani tells reporters in Benghazi that the launch of the final battle in Libya is imminent.
Zero
hour is quickly approaching. We would like everyone to know that we are
ready for a final military battle.
14.48 Colonel Gaddafi is still able to command and control his remaining troops and weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, even though he is on the run and his whereabouts are unknown, says NATO spokesman Colonel Roland Lavoie.
The
pro-Gaddafi troops that we see are not in total disarray, they are
retreating in an orderly fashion, conceding ground and going to the second
best position that they could hold to continue their warfare.
14.21 Abdelgader Mohammed Baghdadi, one of the men said to be behind the shooting of WPc Yvonne Fletcher in London in 1984, has been found dead in Tripoli, a rebel official in the capital tells the Daily Telegraph's Richard Spencer.
He was alleged to have been one of two senior embassy officials who ordered a gunman to open fire.
Baghdadi was a mysterious but powerful figure who rose to become one of Colonel Gaddafi's most trusted aides.
13.47 NATO spokesman Colonel Roland Lavoie was unable to confirm what he described as "a lot of allegations and rumours" regarding Gaddafi's youngest son Khamis.
Rebel justice minister Mohammed al-Allagy had said Khamis, whose death has been announced several times since Libya's conflict erupted but never confirmed, may have been killed south of Tripoli and buried on Monday.
Khamis, 28, commanded a brigade seen as the most effective and loyal force of the Libyan leader.
A witness told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Khamis had personally ordered the massacre of up to 160 members of the Libyan armed forces after they refused to obey orders.
13.27 The words and numbers Revolution 69, symbolizing the year Muammar Gaddafi came into power, are painted on to a donkey in Ras Lanuf. The dictator's rule has come to an end just days before he was due to mark the 42nd anniversary of coming to power on September 1.
13.07 Negotiations are under way with rebel leaders to allow British police officers investigating the death of WPC Yvonne Fletcher in to Libya, Downing Street has confirmed.
Officials said the Government was "in discussions" with the National Transitional Council (NTC) over the continuing investigation and it was their "hope" that an agreement could be reached soon.
WPC Fletcher was shot while policing a protest outside the Libyan embassy in 1984 and junior diplomat Abdulmagid Salah Ameri has been named as the prime suspect.
12.54 The festival of Eid, marking the end of Ramadan, is being described in Tripoli as the Eid of Victory, but celebrations are hampered by shortages.
12.38 More details on the ultimatum given to pro-Gaddafi forces by Libya's new interim rulers.
Fighters still resisting in Sirte and elsewhere have until Saturday to surrender or face military force, says interim council leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil.
His forces intended to take over central and southern Libya as well as Sirte, Gaddafi's hometown, and he urged residents to cooperate. He told a news conference:
By
Saturday, if there are no peaceful indications for implementing this we will
decide this manner militarily. We do not wish to do so but we cannot wait
longer.
12.30 Pro-Gaddafi forces in Sirte have cut two-thirds of the water supply to Tripoli, according to a report by the European Union's humanitarian office.
Water is in short supply in the Libyan capital, forcing aid agencies to bring tankers by land and sea to keep the Libyan capital functioning.
12.15 More details on Colonel Gaddafi's daughter Aisha, who fled to Algeria with other family members and has given birth to a baby girl. A government official tells AFP:
Aisha
gave birth very early this morning. She had a little girl. Mother and
daughter are doing fine.
12.10 Libya's interim leader has issued an ultimatum to pro-Gaddafi forces in Sirte and other towns, saying they have until Saturday to surrender or face military force, Reuters reports.
12.04 Colonel Gaddafi's daughter has given birth to a baby girl in Algeria, according to Algerian authorities, says AFP.
12.01 UN Human Rights chief Navi Pillay has expressed alarm at reports of summary executions. Spokesman Rupert Colville said:
We
are extremely alarmed by the emerging reports of atrocious violations in
Libya, including what appear to be mass summary executions, mostly
apparently carried out by the forces of the Kadhafi government during the
last few days before they lost Tripoli.
11.50 Major General Nick Pope, the Chief of the Defence Staff’s communications officer, issues an update on the latest military action in Libya.
UK
forces, as part of NATO’s Operation Unified Protector, have taken further
action against elements of Colonel Qadhafi’s former regime which continue to
threaten the people of Libya.
On Monday morning, Royal Air Force Tornado and Typhoon aircraft on an armed reconnaissance patrol located an ammunition lorry near to the heavily damaged central ordnance depot at Waddan, in central Libya.
A Brimstone missile destroyed the vehicle. In the course of the evening, a further RAF patrol successfully targeted three buildings near Bani Walid, 100 miles south east of Tripoli, which NATO surveillance analysis had shown were in use by Qadhafi’s forces for command and control purposes and ammunition storage; Paveway precision guided bombs destroyed all three.
HMS Liverpool remains on patrol off Tripoli, helping to ensure the safety of vitally needed humanitarian shipping movements into the port.
11.46 Colonel Gaddafi's son Khamis' bodyguard tells Sky News that Gaddafi was last seen heading south towards Sabha, and that he was in Tripoli until last Friday.
11.45 Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's senior political analyst, says Libya must not be haunted by the legacy of Gaddafi and that the dictator is "a background noise that will go away sooner rather than later":
A
liberated Libya 2011 is no occupied Iraq 2003. Contrary to certain
sensationalist estimates, Gaddafi cannot seriously fight back long-term with
a gold- or dollars-financed insurgency. The old man is finished, and neither
he nor his family will be able to mount any serious challenge to reborn
Libya.
Deborah Haynes, in the Times(£) is more pessimistic.
Anyone
who believes that with the fall of Colonel Gaddafi Libya will transform
itself into a peaceful, progressive democracy is naive or delusional.
Hamit Dardagan, in the Guardian, wonders why if the justifciation for bombing Libya was to protect civilians, casualties are not being recorded.
No
one deserves to die without their death being recorded. Except, it seems,
when they are the 'collateral damage' of military interventions to 'protect'
them.
The New York Times says the six-month military campaign by NATO has revealed "serious problems".
This
was NATO’s first attempt at sustained combat operations with the United
States playing a support role. Europe’s military capabilities fell far short
of what was needed, even for such a limited fight.
10.53 Algeria's UN envoy has defended his country's decision to grant refuge to the wife and three children of Colonel Gaddafi. Mourad Benmehidi told the BBC that in the desert region there was a "holy rule of hospitality".
10.50 The UN's World Food Programme is sending 600 tons of food and 500 tons of water to the Libyan capital Tripoli to aid civilians affected by the conflict in western Libya.
The Rome-based agency said the flour, pasta, oil and tomato paste would be distributed by the Libyan Red Crescent in Tripoli, coastal areas and the Nafusa Mountains and would be enough to feed 35,500 people for one month.
10.02 Prime Minister David Cameron is chairing a meeting of the National Security Council, which will discuss developments in Libya, in Westminster this morning.
09.40 NATO warplanes have fired a new barrage of bombs against Gaddafi forces holed up in the Libyan leader's hometown of Sirte, the regime's last stronghold, AFP reported.
The alliance said it had destroyed 22 vehicles mounted with weapons, four radars, three command and control nodes, one anti-aircraft missile system and one surface-to-air missile system in the town's vicinity yesterday as well as hitting two military supply vehicles, one command post and one military facility.
09.30 Where are Colonel Gaddafi's children?
Eldest son Mohammed is in Algeria with brother Hannibal and sister Aisha.
Another son, Khamis, is said by a senior rebel officer to have been killed in battle near Tripoli.
Saadi and Saif al-Islam, two other sons, were believed by Libyan diplomats in Rome to be in Bani Walid - with their father, according to an Italian agency.
Saif al-Arab Gaddafi was killed in a Nato air strike earlier this year.
Mutassim, another son, was last seen in one of his Tripoli homes before the city was stormed by rebels.
The whereabouts of Milad, Gaddafi's nephew adopted as a son, are unknown.
Here is a Gaddafi family tree from the BBC's website.
09.10 Algeria is bracing itself for "massive" terrorist attacks following the arrival of members of Colonel Gaddafi’s family from neighboring Libya, according to an interior ministry source.
09.00 Libyan activists putting up memorial wall in Tripoli to commemorate those killed.
08.52 International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell tells Sky News it's "not a matter for disappointment" that Gaddafi family have fled.
08.45 Video: NTC warn Algeria over harbouring Colonel Gaddafi and his family
08.40 The BBC's Jeremy Bowen tells Radio 4's Today programme that while there have been some claims that Colonel Gaddafi's phone calls have been intercepted, he appears to have simply "disappeared".
Also on the programme, a witness tells how he saw Khamis Gaddafi order the massacre of up to 160 members of the Libyan armed forces who refused to obey orders.
07.45 Convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi maintained that he was an "innocent man" in a private letter to Libya's intelligence chief, discovered in a ransacked office, the Wall Street Journal reports.
07.35 Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akabr Salehi has invited the head of the Libyan rebels' National Transitional Council to visit Tehran, a foreign ministry statement said on Tuesday.
06.50 In the last hours there have been reports from rebels in Libya that Col Gaddafi's son Khamis has been killed in battle near Tripoli.
Richard Spencer wrote a report on the appalling actions of the 32 Brigade, the nation's most feared militia, which was loyal to Khamis Gaddafi. Human rights investigators have accused Gaddafi's forces of multiple war crimes, as part of a pattern of rapes, slayings, "disappearances".
Col Gaddafi's wife and three children have fled the country to Algeria. The Libyan National Transitional Council described this development as an “act of aggression” and demanded they be extradited.
06.48 Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Libya on Tuesday, August 30.
•
Libya, August 29 as it happened
•
Libya, August 28 as it happened
•
Libya, August 27 as it happened
•
Libya, August 26 as it happened
•
Libya, August 25 as it happened
•
Libya, August 24 as it happened
•
Libya, August 23: fall of Gaddafi's Tripoli compound
•
Libya, August 22: endgame for Gaddafi
•
Libya, August 21: fall of Tripoli
