Libya, Syria and Middle East Unrest- Monday 3 October 2011

• Anti-Gaddafi forces prepare for assault on Sirte • Syrian dissidents unite to form opposition • Cameron emerges as “biggest hawk” on Libya • Read the latest summary 2.08pm: More than 3,000 people have been detained in the rebellious Syrian town of Rastan since government forces took back control of it at the weekend, according to AP. After five days of intense fighting between troops loyal to the al-Assad regime and soldiers who have defected to the protesters’ side, the regime appears to have hit back with force. An activist who said he was in hiding and gave his name as Hassan said those arrested were being held at a cement factory, as well as some schools and a large four-story compound called the Sports Club. He said: Ten of my relatives have been detained…The situation in the town is miserable The reports could not be independently confirmed. 1.52pm: An ominous update on the story reported earlier (see 9.52am) of David Gerbi, the Jewish Libyan who is seeking to reopen Tripoli’s main synagogue. He returned to the country after the fall of Gaddafi’s vehemently anti-Semitic regime in the hope that the new era would bring harmony and inclusiveness. However he has hit upon an early stumbling block: he is now being prevented from entering the synagogue. AP reports: A visibly angry David Gerbi says he went to clean garbage from the synagogue on Monday only to be told by men at the scene that they had warnings he would be targeted by violence. He says they told him to stop his efforts. Gerbi, who fled with his family to Italy in 1967, says he was surprised because he had permission from the local sheik. Gerbi’s colleague Richard Peters says several men armed with assault rifles later appeared to guard the building. Breaking down in tears, Gerbi says Libya needs to decide if it’s going to be a racist country or a democratic one. 1.51pm: Libya’s new rulers have named a new Cabinet, AP reports. 12.41pm: Reuters and Al Jazeera are reporting that a Red Cross convoy hoping to bring urgently needed medical supplies to the centre of Sirte was forced to turn back this morning after coming under fire. Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr tweeted that the aid trucks had turned back “after heavy exchange of fire”, with forces in the city, and an NTC commander told Reuters: The rebels secured the way for the International Red Cross to go but as soon as they entered the city they returned because of the (pro-Gaddafi) militias firing. We did not start the firing. The militias started the firing. But a Reuters team who witnessed the incident said they saw no incoming fire from the Gaddafi loyalists inside Sirte. 12.27pm: Here’s a lunchtime summary: Libya • Residents are continuing to flee the Gaddafi stronghold of Sirte as rebels prepare to launch a last big offensive to take control of the city. Those fleeing speak of a worsening humanitarian situation. Many are unafraid to make clear their support for the deposed dictator. (See 10.31am.) • The evacuation of some 1,200 migrant workers from the southern town of Sabha has begun, according to the International Organisation for Migration. The workers and their families were said to be “extremely relieved” that their long wait to leave the country was finally over. They will be taken to Chad, the IOM said. (See 11.29am.) • Gaddafi’s playboy son Al-Saadi has “strenously” denied charges of corruption and “armed intimidation” brought against him by Interpol. Al-Saadi, who is under house arrest in the neighbouring country of Niger, was issued with a red notice from the global policing body last week. Bahrain Thirty-six people have been sentenced by a court to prison sentences of between 15 and 25 years, according to Al Jazeera. Those sentenced are believed to include 14 people convicted of involvement in the killing of a Pakistani man during the anti-government unrest. Seven university students found guilty of taking part in the protests are also thought to have been among those sentenced. (See 10.21am.) Syria The formation of the Syrian National Council by the country’s chief opposition groups has been dismissed by a member of parliament. Khaled Abboud told AP that those who announced the SNC were “deluding themselves.” He added: “It’s a dream that will never come true.” 12.02pm: Al Jazeera are reporting that 36 protesters have been sentenced to up to 25 years in Bahraini jail. This could not be independently confirmed for now. Update: It appears that that figure of 36 includes the 14 people earlier reported to have been sentenced over the killing of a Pakistani man, and seven university students sentenced over the unrest. More when we have it. 11.29am: The nightmare may be over for some 1,200 migrant workers and their families who had been stuck in Sabha waiting to be able to leave Libya. According to AP, the International Organisation for Migration has said the workers are being evacuated to Chad. IOM chief of mission in Chad, Qasim Sufi, said Monday the group of people from 11 different nations are “extremely relieved” after enduring weeks of hardship and anxiety while trapped at a transit center in the embattled city. Gunfire and fighting had prevented IOM from getting the group out of the center or bringing supplies to them in Sebha, which also lacks running water and electricity. The group, including women and children, began leaving Sunday in a convoy of 15 trucks. The journey to Chad is expected to take about a week. Earlier reports suggested that around 3,000 migrants and their relatives had been contained in the southern town, which until late last month was controlled by pro-Gaddafi forces. A spokesman for the IOM said last month that the evacuation had been delayed because the NTC wanted to “make sure of the migrants, to register them and to identify who is a real migrant and who is not.” Sub-Saharan Africans have been a target of suspicion by the interim authorities ever since Gaddafi hired mercenaries to help him fight the rebels. 11.18am: Libya’s revolutionary army is an army that starts fighting at 10am and downs tools at 6pm — whether the battle is over or not , reports the Times this morning. Tom Coghlan writes that, what with their “courageous, chaotic, charming, inventive and incompetent” approach to battle, “it is hard not to like them immensely”. They even, he writes, have free cake and coffee on the frontline. But the amateurish tactics can often go wrong: Revolutionary commanders were somewhat embarrassed by the latest attack, which occurred during what was supposed to be a ceasefire for the Red Cross to visit the city. “There are many, many revolutionaries fighters, teenagers actually, who want to enter Sirte by themselves,” said Commander Omran al-Awaib yesterday. There is, he insisted, a high-level plan for taking the city. But the fighters often go out of their way to stress their lack of military training or indeed interest in military matters. “I got one lesson for 30 minutes,” smiled Ismael al-Zoubi, a 23-year-old graduate who now operates a multi-barrelled rocket launcher. High numbers of accidents are one result of an astonishingly relaxed attitude to weapons safety, particularly resulting from a relentless enthusiasm for shooting into the air. Recent accidents included a jerry-built rocket launcher bursting into flames, scattering its crew and filling the air with burning ammunition. On the same day another rocket launcher was accidentally fired inside a revolutionary camp killing two fighters. 10.31am: It is perhaps an indication of how bad the situation inside Sirte has got that many of the residents now fleeing the city are supporters of Gaddafi who say they simply cannot continue to live there. In this report from Al Jazeera English, the correspondent reports that “even the [NTC] fighters acknowledge that”. One woman, fleeing in her car, says: I am from Sirte. I am loyal to Gaddafi. I’m not with the rebels and NATO. I was living in my house. The bombardment forced us to leave everything. Inside the city, resistance to the NTC also remains strong, according to this report from the LA Times which contains interviews with residents . One man, a father, is quoted as saying: The rebels are worse than rats. NATO is the same as Osama bin Laden. The paper’s Ruth Sherlock continues: Revolutionary leaders say they are supported by a mandate to oust a brutal dictator. But many inhabitants of Sirte said they longed for Libya to be “just as it was” before the uprising began in February. “We lived in democracy under Moammar Kadafi; he was not a dictator,” said another Surt resident, Susan Farjan, who said she had been an on-screen journalist for Libyan state television. “I lived in freedom; Libyan women had full human rights. It isn’t that we need Moammar Kadafi again, but we want to live just as we did before.” Despite the living conditions and her dust-ridden clothes, Farjan’s makeup, Chanel perfume, diamante earrings and gold necklace told of a better life in times past. “Everyone loves Kadafi. My father loves him so much, the blood is green in his veins,” Farjan said as tears welled in her eyes, alluding to Kadafi’s use of green as the national color. Women and children gathered around Farjan suddenly burst into a raucous, tearful chorus: “God, Moammar, Libya. This is all we need!” 10.21am: A Bahraini court has sentenced 14 people to life imprisonment for the killing of a Pakistani man during anti-government unrest, according to AP. Seven university students charged with causing violence amid the protests were also sentenced, the news agency added. We will report more detail when we have it. 10.04am: US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has blunt words for Israel today on the impact of the Arab Spring . Speaking to journalists on his way to Jerusalem, he said: There’s not much question in my mind that they maintain that [military] edge. But the question you have to ask: is it enough to maintain a military edge if you’re isolating yourself in the diplomatic arena? Real security can only be achieved by both a strong diplomatic effort as well as a strong effort to project your military strength. 9.52am: There is a lovely tale in the Wall Street Journal today about the efforts of David Gerbi- the so-called ‘revolutionary Jew’ of Tripoli- to promote his faith in the new Libya . Gerbi, who fled the country as a 12-year-old boy in 1967 when anger was mounting throughout the region over Israel’s Six Day War, returned to the country this summer to help with the uprising against Gaddafi. Two years after Gerbi and his family left, the former dictator expelled the rest of the country’s Jewish community , the AP reports. But, yesterday, Gerbi took the first step towards what he hopes will be a brighter, more inclusive future in the post-Gaddafi era, reopening Tripoli’s lone synagogue for the first time in 44 years. 9.36am: Al-Saadi Gaddafi, the ousted Libyan dictator’s playboy son, “strenuously denies” charges of corruption and armed intimidation made against him by Interpol. According to an email forwarded to the Associated Press , the former head of the country’s Football Federation insisted he had “worked tirelessly” to promote Libyan soccer, and accused Interpol of taking a “political decision” to recognise the NTC. In the email, al-Saadi called the Interpol notice a “clear political decision to recognize the de jure authority of the National Transitional Council taken without appropriate regard to the current absence of a functioning, effective and fair system of justice in Libya.” It said al-Saadi “worked tirelessly to promote football in Libya, priding himself on the fact that Libya was formerly selected to host the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.” It added that Gadhafi’s son “continues to call on all sides to seek a negotiated and peaceful resolution to the present conflict.” 38-year-old Al-Saadi, Gaddafi’s third son, is under house arrest in Niger, where he sought refuge last month . 8.49am: Welcome to Middle East live. Here’s a summary of developments across the region. Libya • A ceasefire declared by the NTC to allow residents to flee the Gaddafi stronghold of Sirte has ended, and forces loyal to the interim authorities are preparing for an all-out assault. The humanitarian situation inside the city, meanwhile, is grim. A doctor told the Guardian that residents have run out of basic medical supplies and are drinking contaminated water to survive. • A Guardian investigation has revealed David Cameron’s determination to push for military action on Colonel Gaddafi , and how he overrode scepticism from both his cabinet and MI6 to enter his first non-inherited war as prime minister. One minister who attended meetings of the National Security Council (on Libya) is quoted as saying: The prime minister was always the biggest hawk in the NSC. He was always the person who was pushing and saying ‘how can we get things moving in this way?’ • Leading opposition groups have decided to form a national council to help topple Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Figures from the previously fragmented dissident movement said they hoped it would be a big step towards democratic change. • It was another bloody weekend for Syria. Mahmoud Merhi, head of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, has told Bloomberg that security forces killed at least 10 protesters yesterday in Homs, Idlib and Deraa . United Arab Emirates Five activists on trial for insulting the Royal Family and threatening national security have refused to appear in court. The men, who include blogger Ahmed Mansoor, have already been jailed since April and say they would not get a fair trial. Bahrain Some of the doctors facing years in prison for their role in the uprising have alleged that a princess working undercover as a police detective was involved in their torture. The Times reports that Sheika Noora bint Ibrahim Al-Khalifa “beat prisoners with sticks and a rubber hose, and gave electric shocks to the face with a cable”. Syria Libya Bashar Al-Assad Bahrain Lizzy Davies guardian.co.uk

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