Hague urges Britons to leave Yemen

• Fifth night of air strikes on Libya as Gaddafi clings on • Air strikes break siege of Misrata but battle continues • Stalemate continues in Ajdabiya despite attacks Follow live updates 1.11pm: Rebel fighters ride in vehicles as they drive in the desert along the Benghazi-Ajdabiyah Road. 1.07pm: Tweet from ABC News . #BREAKING ABC’s Martha Raddatz: #Gadhafi sends up first warplane violating no fly zone — plane is shot down by French fighter jets. #Libya 1.03pm: Asked about the arms embargo, which affects both sides, Hague says the situation is under review and whatever decision is taken must be in accordance with UN security council resolutions. He waffles a bit about whether the African Union will have a role. The former Lib Dem leader, Menzies Campbell, presses Hague on the command and control issue. Hague points out that current discussions have not impaired operations. He can only reiterate that he is hopeful that the issue will be resolved soon. 12.58pm: Back on Libya, Hague insists that the operations enjoys strong international support, although some commentators, including the Guardian’s Simon Tisdall, dispute this . 12.55pm: Hague says there are contingency plans to get British citizens out of Yemen, but there is no guarantee that everyone can be taken out. Hague came under fire for Britain’s tardiness in getting British citizens out of Libya at the beginning of the crisis. 12.46pm: Hague says sanctions are being tightened and today Libya’s national oil corporation is being targeted, cutting off Libya’s oil revenues. Moving on to Syria, he calls on the government to respect the right of civilians to protest. On Yemen, the foreign secretary calls for dialogue between the government and the opposition. He says he has temporarily withdraw UK embassy staff from Yemen leaving a small core in Sana’a and is urging all British citizens to leave Yemen without delay . 12.41pm: We are taking the utmost care to minimise civilian casualties, Hague continues, with Britain having carried out 59 aerial missions and missile strikes. On the vexed issue of who should be in charge of the operation – currently under US command – he says expects an agreement soon on command transfer to Nato. 12.38pm: William Hague, the foreign secretary, is giving the parliament an update on Libya. We continue to take robust action, he says. The case for action is “utterly compelling” he tells MPs, citing shelling of Misrata and the continuing attacks on Ajdabiya. 12.26pm: The people of Zintan, 90 miles southwest of Tripoli, have begun returning from the caves where they sought refuge from government shelling in the last few days, Reuters reports. Gaetan Vannay, a reporter for Radio Television Suisse, told the news agency: “The people have started moving back from the caves where they were for three or four days. Life is starting back a little bit. A few shops are open. People are still careful. A lot of men are watching outside the city. It is still a city under military siege. But the mood has changed since Friday.” Eight rebel fighters have died in fighting around Zintan in recent days. 12.13pm: The Quilliam Foundation, a counter-extremism thinktank in London, has rubbished Gaddafi’s claims that al-Qaida is behind the protests – with some caveats. In a briefing paper released today (pdf) , it says: Since the start of the Libyan uprising, the Gaddafi regime has tried to portray its enemies as being part of al-Qaida or as seeking to establish an ‘Islamic emirate’ or a caliphate in Libya or in Benghazi. In reality these claims are without any real foundation. That said, the breakdown in Libyan government control over much of Libya, combined with the ongoing fighting in many parts of the country, clearly gives jihadists and extreme Islamists more scope than ever before to operate in Libya. In addition, international military intervention in Libya gives groups like al-Qaida new opportunities to present themselves as defending Muslims against western aggression. These two reasons alone show why the international community should remain alert to the threat of jihadist activities in Libya. 12.06pm: A French Rafale jet fighter takes off from the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. French aircraft s struck an air base in central Libya early today in a fifth night of bombardments. A French spokesman, Thierry Burkhard, told a news briefing that around 15 French planes were deployed on Wednesday and a dozen overnight, leading to missile strikes on an air base some 155 miles (250 km) inland. The French foreign minister, Alain Juppe, defended the pace of the air operation, which has been led by France. He said five days was not long enough to achieve its goal of protecting civilians by stopping Gaddafi’s counter-offensive against rebel forces. 11.54am – Syria: AFP is reporting that around 20,000 people have gathered in Daraa, south Syria, for the burial of victims shot dead on Wednesday . 11.48am – Yemen: Presidential guards loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh clashed in the town of Mukalla with army units backing opposition groups, AP reports. The confrontation wounded one person. Protesters are planning a “day of departure” rally in the capital, Sana’a, tomorrow after prayers that could bring hundreds of thousands on to the streets. Around 10,000 people gathered this morning, chanting slogans such as “Go, go, you coward; you are an American agent”. The International Crisis Group thinktank says the political tide has turned decisively against President Saleh. His choices are limited: he can fight his own military or negotiate a rapid and dignified transfer of power. By choosing the latter path now, he has a chance of ensuring an honourable departure and, most importantly, of sparing his country a brutal and bloody civil war. ICG warns, however, that the most powerful current backers of the protest movement – Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar’s brothers and salafi leaders such as Sheikh Abd-al-Majid al-Zindani – are long-time regime insiders and symbols of the status quo. Over time, Ali Mohsen and the older generation in the president’s tribe, the Sanhan, as well as the al-Ahmar brothers, have felt increasingly marginalised by the concentration of power around the president’s son and nephews. Today, this rivalry within the Hashid tribal confederation is playing out in the context of the protest movement. 11.23am – Syria: Snippets of news are dribbling out of the country following yesterday’s protests in the southern city of Deraa . An official in the main hospital in Deraa has told Reuters that it has received the bodies of at least 25 protesters who died in in yesterday’s clashes. “We received them at 5 pm yesterday (1500 GMT). They all had bullet holes,” the official said. AP says that dozens of people held a sit-in in al-Mahata neighbourhood near the city centre. An activist in contact with residents in Deraa says the situation is still tense, with a heavy armed presence in the streets. 11.15am: The excellent Colum Lynch at Turtle Bay on the Foreign Policy website points out a little-noticed fact about the UN sanctions against Libya that could come back to haunt the international community. Like similar sanctions imposed on Iran, the move to cut off Gaddafi’s chief sources of revenue has the potential to inflict collateral economic harm on ordinary people. It marks a shift from the UN security council’s efforts over the past decade to develop highly targeted sanctions that punish a rogue government’s elite while shielding ordinary people from harsh economic pain. “If a stalemate continues and there is no regime change, these measures will starve the economy,” David Cortright, a scholar at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at Notre Dame University and one of the country’s leading experts on UN sanctions, told Turtle Bay. “Sooner or later, and probably sooner, Libya will begin to face internal economic difficulties, and therefore, humanitarian difficulties.” 10.53am: Ian Black reports that Libya’s state run Jamahiriya TV is quoting a military source as reporting attacks against military and civilian targets in Tajoura, near Tripoli, at the moment. Tajoura was hit three times during the night. If confirmed these would be the first daytime raids in or near the capital since the coalition campaign began five days ago. 10.36am: And here’s a video showing what Libyan TV described as a military base in Tripoli which was hit overnight. 10.28am: Ian Black is in Tripoli, where he reports that Libyan TV has been showing images of civilian victims of the overnight bombing in Tajoura, east of Tripoli, which was apparently hit in an attack on a military base in the town. The official Jana news agency said it was struck three times, the third strike hitting rescue teams who were on the scene after the first two bombings. In the small hours of the morning foreign news agency reporters were taken to a hospital and shown 18 charred corpses, which were said be casualties of the latest attacks After five nights of allied raids, a certain routine has been established, with the action usually beginning around 9pm local time. But the latest action continued until much later, with sustained and wildly erratic anti-aircraft fire from batteries in central Tripoli as dawn was breaking. It is striking that the Libyan authorities have not announced any new casualty figures since the announcement on Sunday that 48 people had been killed and 150 injured. Nor has there been any breakdown of civilian and military casualties. 9.41am: Despite air strikes, Gaddafi’s tanks rolled back into Misrata under the cover of darkness and began shelling the area near the main hospital, residents and rebels told Reuters. Government snipers in the city, Libya’s third largest, were undeterred by the bombing raids though and had carried on firing indiscriminately throughout, residents said. A rebel spokesman said the snipers had killed 16 people. “Government tanks are closing in on Misrata hospital and shelling the area,” said a doctor in Misrata who was briefly reached by phone before the line was cut off. It was impossible to independently verify the reports. 9.30am: The Libyan state run Jana news agency reported overnight that several civilians were killed in a night-time raid in Tajura, east of Tripoli. The agency claimed Tajura was hit three times – with the third strike injuring rescue workers who were on the scene to aid those impacted by the first two strikes. 9.14am: France’s foreign minister has said the international military operation against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s forces may last days or weeks but not months, AP reports. Alain Juppe also said that he hopes the campaign in Libya serves as a warning to autocratic regimes elsewhere, including in Syria and Saudi Arabia. Juppe spoke to reporters Thursday, ahead of EU and NATO meetings expected to discuss how to better coordinate the campaign of airstrikes on Libya. 9am: Good morning, welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the continuing crisis in Libya. • Western air strikes hit targets in Libya again on Wednesday night, after the commander of British aircraft operating over the country said that Muammar Gaddafi’s air force “no longer exists as a fighting force”. However attempts at a Nato show of unity in policing a UN arms embargo was undermined by a third day of squabbling over who should be in charge of the air campaign . Amid arguments over the scope and command of the air campaaign against Tripoli, Turkey both blocked Nato planning on the no-fly zone and insisted that Nato be put in control of it, in order to be granted a veto over its operations, senior Nato officials said. • Nearly 12 hours of allied air strikes yesterday finally broke the Libyan regime’s five-day bloody assault on the key rebel-held town of Misrata. Residents said the aerial bombardment destroyed tanks and artillery and sent many of Muammar Gaddafi’s forces fleeing from Misrata, ending a siege and attack by the regime that cost nearly 100 lives from random shelling, snipers and bitter street fighting. • Despite the strikes, stalemate is reportedly continuing outside Ajdabiya, while fears are growing that more of Gaddafi’s forces are heading for Zintan, south west of Tripoli. The Libyan government denies its army is conducting any offensive operations and says troops are only defending themselves when they come under attack, but a resident in Zintan said Gaddafi forces were bringing up more troops and tanks to bombard the rebel-held town. Rebels forces in the east meanwhile are still pinned down outside Ajdabiya after more than three days of trying to recapture it. • The US chief of staff for the mission in Libya has said there have been no reports of civilian casualties as a result of the coalition’s action, the BBC reported . Gaddafi’s government has repeatedly claimed civilians have been killed by what it calls “crusader, colonial” attacks. Libya Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Muammar Gaddafi Defence policy Nato Adam Gabbatt Mark Tran guardian.co.uk

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