Libya: hunt for Gaddafi – live updates

• Pro-Gaddafi forces still fighting in east, south and Tripoli • Gaddafi ‘was nearly caught yesterday’ • Doctors running short of supplies in capital • At least part of NTC moves to Tripoli • Italy unfreezes £300m for rebels •  Read a summary of today’s key developments 2.36pm: The rebels are saying they believe they have Muammar Gaddafi trapped in an apartment complex near to his compound, Sky News is reporting. 2.32pm: Rebels believe they have got Muammar Gaddafi and an unspecified number of his sons surrounded in Tripoli, Reuters is reporting. 1.56pm: Gaddafi’s sons are thought to be holed-up to the east of Tripoli airport, Martin Chulov reports after witnessing heavy fighting in the area. Speaking via Skype Martin said: The airport seems to be under a concerted attack from fields to the east which appears to be a Gaddafi stronghold … That’s where figures like Saif al-Islam Gaddafi are expected to have fled to and are regrouping and continue to fight. He also reported seeing Nato jets bomb Tripoli to the south of the Bab al-Aziziya compound at around 12.30pm. “It is a city which is by and large calm, but every now and again we see these spasms of violence. And that’s situation that’s going to continue for the next few days,” he said. On the hunt for Gaddafi, Martin said: People are guessing – there doesn’t seem to be any informed lead as to where he may be. His son, or his sons in general, are thought to be in Tripoli. This area near the airport is being heavily contested by members of the standing Gaddafi army, it is not mercenaries. They are continuing to do fight, now why are they doing so? There has to be a reason – they are protecting not only their own interests but they are protecting the regime itself. It is reasonable to deduce that. It seems hard for them to have slipped the drag net around Tripoli. I would think the sons are in town. The father – who knows – it’s anyone’s guess. But central Tripoli is slowly returning to normal, Martin said. “Shops are very slowly starting to open. We could actually go out and buy some water and food today. We could get hold of some petrol and we haven’t been able to do that for three or four days, and there are water tankers turning up in the suburbs, so there are slight signs of normality … [But] it is a city where the situation is still fluid … and the old guard is still around. It does occasionally poke its head up and say ‘hey we are here’. 1.10pm: Here is a lunchtime summary . Libya • Libyan rebels are fighting pro-Gaddafi forces in the east of the country and are continuing to face resistance in Tripoli. In Sirte, Muammar Gaddafi’s home town, loyalists were still putting up a fierce fight ( see 10.55am ). Opposition leaders say they are trying to negotiate a peaceful surrender of the city. Near the town of Bin Jawad, 350 miles (560km) south-east of Tripoli, pro-Gaddafi forces ambushed rebels and killed 20 of them, according to the Associated Press news agency. Rebels have also seized several parts of Sebha, another Gaddafi stronghold – this one much further south – where fighting is still taking place. You can see on this map where Bin Jawad, Sebha and Sirte are in relation to Tripoli . • Muammar Gaddafi’s whereabouts remain unknown. Paris Match magazine said Libyan commandos nearly caught him yesterday and Libyan and Arab intelligence services believe he is still in Tripoli ( see 12.15pm ). Liam Fox, the British defence secretary, said Nato was involved in the hunt for the Libyan leader ( see 11.58pm ). The rebels have offered $2m and an amnesty to the person who captures or kills him. Yesterday Gaddafi told a television channel in a phone call he was prepared to fight “until victory or martyrdom”. His son Saadi – previously reported captured – sent emails to CNN offering to broker a truce ( see 11.14am ). • Doctors are running desperately short of medical supplies in Tripoli. One told the Guardian: “We don’t have operation theatre nurses and emergency nurses, paramedics, ambulances” ( see 12.23pm ). • At least part of the rebel National Transitional Council has now moved to Tripoli, rebel prime minister Mahmoud Jibril said at a press conference with Silvio Berlusconi in Milan ( see 12.32pm ). He gave no further details. • Italy has begun unfreezing €350m (£308m) of Libyan funds for the use of the rebels ( see 12.25pm ). Italian oil and gas group Eni (ENI.MI) is expected to sign a deal on Monday in Benghazi to supply a “large” amount of gas and petrol for free to the Libyans, Berlusconi said at the press conference with Jibril, who is touring Europe trying to get allies to unlock frozen Libyan funds. The NTC says it needs at least $5bn (£3bn) of what may be as much as $110bn frozen worldwide to pay salaries, maintain services and repair oil facilities. The UN security council is set to vote tonight on freeing up $1.5bn for them. South Africa has been blocking this but a vote of the full council does not need to be unanimous. Jibril said the “biggest destabilising element” threatening Libya right now was if the NTC could not deliver services and pay salaries ( see 12.27pm ). The Arab League recognised the NTC as the government of Libya ( see 10.55am ). Senior diplomats from more than 30 countries are meeting in Istanbul today to discuss ways of assisting the new Libyan government. • Fox said there were no plans to put British “boots on the ground” as part of any post-conflict peacekeeping force in Libya ( see 11.58am ). Any such force should be made up of African and Arab troops, he said. • Four Italian journalists held by Gaddafi loyalists have been freed ( see 11.17am ), as has American journalist Matthew VanDyke, who was missing for six months ( see 10.59am ). Syria Syrian security forces attacked a renowned anti-regime cartoonist early today in Damascus and left him bleeding along the side of a road ( see 11.23am ) 12.41pm: Footage purporting to show Ayesha Gaddafi’s opulent bathroom compete with jacuzzi, sauna and flatscreen TV, has been uploaded to YouTube (see above). 12.32pm: Jibril says he should be in Libya right now but it’s so important to get this money that he has had to visit different countries to sort it out. Al-Jazeera points out that a third of all Italy’s petrol needs come from Libya, which Italy used to rule as colonial power. Jibril also said at least part of the NTC had moved to Tripoli. It is unclear what this means in practical terms: who has moved there and what exactly they are doing. 12.28pm: Mahmoud Jibril says they are now trying to rebuild infrastructure in Libya, and lists other steps the NTC has to carry out – but they need money to do so. 12.27pm: Mahmoud Jibril is speaking now. He expresses his thanks to Berlusconi and Italy, and says he is urgently trying to get all this money unfrozen to pay salaries, which people have not received for months. 12.25pm: Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and the Libyan rebel NTC’s Mahmoud Jibril are holding a joint press conference in Milan right now. Berlusconi has said an agreement will be signed in Benghazi on Monday regarding gas and oil. He said he wanted to unfreeze $350m (£214m) for the rebels. 12.23pm: Muad Pensasi, a volunteer doctor in Tripoli, said medics are running desperately short of supplies as they work round the clock to treat the wounded. In a telephone interview from a field hospital near the Bab al-Aziziya compound, Pensasi said: We have a lot volunteers and they did their best but they don’t have medical experience. It is too hard to work for 24 hours a day without rest but we try to do our best. Pensasi said the hospital had run out of oxygen cylinders and urgently needed medication, surgical instruments, vaccines and trained staff. “We don’t have operation theatre nurses and emergency nurses, paramedics, ambulances,” he said. He recounted the “horrible” experience of seeing the bodies of 26 rebel fighters bought to the hospital. He said the men had been executed in an underground prison. “They had gunshot injuries all over their bodies,” he said. The stench of the bodies suggested the incident had occurred a few days ago, he said. Two of those shot at had escaped the execution by hiding under blankets, he said. It was quieter today, he said. 12.15pm: Muammar Gaddafi was almost captured yesterday , the French magazine Paris Match is reporting. Libyan commandos came close to finding him when they raided a private home where he appeared to have been hiding, the magazine reported today. Gaddafi was gone when the commandos got to the safe house in central Tripoli when the agents arrived at about 10am local time (9am BST – as the helpful Twitter stream ” Time in Libya ” can tell you) following a tip-off from a credible source. The magazine said the rebels found evidence Gaddafi had spent at least one night there – although it was not clear how recently. Libyan and Arab intelligence sources still believe Gaddafi is in Tripoli, Paris Match said. 11.58am: In this morning’s BBC interview, Liam Fox , the British defence secretary, confirmed that Nato “intelligence and reconnaissance assets” were helping in the search for Muammar Gaddafi and had been heavily active in carrying out airstrikes against the Libyan leader’s forces. He also seemed to go further than William Hague, the foreign secretary, did in insisting that British troops would not be involved in enforcing law and order in the new Libya. Any international security force should be drawn from African and Arab countries. We have absolutely no plans to have any British boots on the ground. 11.44am: Extraordinary footage has emerged purporting to show the liberation of Tripoli’s notorious Abu Salim prison. The doors to individual cells were smashed open using sledgehammers and bars, to screams of delight from inmates. There is no sign in the footage of Matthew VanDyke, the American journalist, who was one of those released from the jail according to his mother ( see 10.59am ). The Dutch broadcaster NOS has footage of hangers full of dozens of Gaddafi’s tanks. The tanks, at a military airbase, were largely undamaged, it reports. 11.23am: Activist group Avaaz links to Facebook pictures of injured Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat in hospital. My colleague Nour Ali (a pseudonym) has the full story here . Avaaz says Ferzat was driving back from his office at 4am this morning when masked gunmen driving a van set upon him in Omayyad Square in central Damascus. Avaaz’s Henrietta McMicking said: He tried to resist arrest but was badly beaten, and his hands in particular were targeted. He was forced into the van and taken away. Ali Ferzat was held for a few hours before his body was dumped on the Airport Road where he was found by some passers-by. The cartoonist was resuscitated and then taken to al Razi Hospital where he is now. Following a medical examination it now appears that his left hand is broken, he has cuts to the head and face as well severe bruises to the chest. 11.17am: Four Italian journalists held by Gaddafi loyalists have been freed, according to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera . The four are: La Stampa’s Domenico Quirico; Elisabetta Rosaspina and Giuseppe Sarcina of Corriere della Sera; and Claudio Monici of Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference. 11.14am: CNN is reporting that emails from Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saadi (left) show him proposing some sort of truce to save Tripoli from “a sea of blood”. Saadi told CNN in the emails that he had the authority to negotiate and discuss a ceasefire with US and Nato officials. He wrote: I will try to save my city Tripoli and 2 millions of people living there … otherwise Tripoli will be lost forever like Somalia … [Without a ceasefire] soon it will be a sea of blood. The rebels had reported that Saadi had been captured, although the CNN story suggests he no longer is. Two of Gaddafi’s other sons, Saif and Mohammed, also slipped out of rebel hands somehow – or were never in them in the first place. 11.06am: Al-Jazeera has new footage inside the network of Muammar Gaddafi’s tunnels underneath his compound (above). Rebels are combing the network for clues to the whereabouts of the Libyan leader, according to the report by Andrew Simmons. 10.59am: Matthew VanDyke, an American journalist missing in Libya for the last six months, has been freed from Tripoli’s notorious Abu Salim prison, according to his mother, the Washington Post reports . “He sounds good,” said Sherry VanDyke, a retired Baltimore school principal, who had spent months lobbying lawmakers and human rights organisations to find information about her only child. “He sounds just like himself,” she said. On Wednesday, several Libyans arrived at his cell and released him, his mother said. “At first he thought they were coming to kill him,” she added. The prison had been liberated by rebel fighters, and he was led to a compound that he told his mother was safe. 10.55am: The Arab League has now recognised the rebel National Transitional Council as the legitimate government of Libya . The BBC is reporting that pro-Gaddafi troops have not retreated back to Sirte, Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown, as expected, but are still attacking. One rebel with an American accent said, “I don’t know what they’re fighting for. They must believe in this guy [Gaddafi], I don’t know. But we’ve got them in a corner now.” Senior diplomats from more than 30 countries are meeting in Istanbul today to discuss ways of assisting Libya’s opposition. Turkish officials say Mahmoud Jibril, prime minister in the Libyan rebel National Transitional Council, will attend, although he is also apparently due in Italy today to talk to Silvio Berlusconi about securing the release of billions of dollars of frozen Libyan assets. The Libyan opposition say they urgently need at least $5bn (£3bn) in frozen assets to pay state salaries, maintain vital services and repair critical oil facilities. Analysts estimate that as much as $110bn is frozen in banks worldwide. South Africa has been preventing the release of $1.5bn of the funds in the UN security council committee that monitors the sanctions against Libya. All 15 nations on the committee must agree, so the US is tonight putting the matter to the full security council, which does not need a unanimous vote. This morning, Liam Fox, the British defence secretary, told the BBC: I think there will be huge moral pressure on South Africa. They wanted the world at one point to stand with them against apartheid. I think they now need to stand with the Libyan people, help unfreeze their assets and allow their authorities to get access to the capital they need to rebuild the country and it’s disappointing the stance they have taken so far, I hope that even now they will change their minds. Meanwhile the director of Unesco, the UN’s cultural agency, is warning Libyans to guard against the looting of the country’s cultural heritage during the current turmoil. 10.50am: Syrian security forces attacked a renowned anti-regime cartoonist early today in Damascus and left him bleeding along the side of a road, human rights activists said. Ali Farzat, who is in his 60s, was hospitalised after passers-by found him “heavily beaten and physically abused,” said Omar Idilbi, a spokesman for the Local Co-ordination Committees, an activist group that monitors protests in the country. 10.40am: My colleague Paddy Allen has updated his interactive graphic of the fighting in Libya . 9.27am: Tripoli resident Saeed Ashour, who lives 300m from the Rixos hotel, filmed this video footage of the green flag of the Gaddafi regime being torn down outside the hotel after trapped journalists were freed on Wednesday. YouTube footage outside Tripoli’s Rixos hotel after international journalists and politicians fled the building Ashour also filmed a burnt out supermarket in the area. 9.10am: Welcome to Middle East Live. Here’s a summary of the main developments overnight: • The fighting in Tripoli is reported to have eased on Thursday morning, but residents fear pro-Gaddafi snipers. Muammar Gaddafi’s supporters continue to fight in some areas, including the airport, but it is unclear whether this represents a desperate last stand or the start of a guerilla campaign . A Tripoli resident tells al-Jazeera of her fears of sniper attacks in the city • South Africa is stalling attempts by the US to release $1.5bn (£910m) of frozen Libyan assets for use by the National Transitional Council. South Africa’s UN ambassador Baso Sangqu said the NTC had not yet been recognised by the African Union. • Rebel columns are closing in on the coastal city of Sirte, Gaddafi’s birthplace, where loyalist troops fired Scud missiles at the rebel-held town of Misrata. ” Sirte is now our main challenge,” rebel spokesman Mohammad Zawawi said. “If we can [take Sirte] it’ll mean the whole coast, the north side of Libya, will be clear and we can look to the south,” he said. • Libyan officials continue to switch sides as the rebels gain the upper hand . The latest defections include the deputy director of foreign security in the Libyan intelligence service, General Khalifah Mohammed Ali, and health minister Mohammed Hijazi. The Guardian’s Luke Harding toured Tripoli’s abandoned government offices and rifled through the papers of the former prime minister. • Nato is using intelligence resources and electronic tracking devices to try to track down Gaddafi, as the National Transitional Council offers a £1m reward and amnesty for the capture or killing of the Libyan leader. The SAS is leading the hunt for Gaddafi , according to the Daily Telegraph. Writing in the Independent, Gordon Corera points out that Britain’s secret service is now hunting the man it once did deals with . The NTC is using mini-helicopter drones to track down Gaddafi’s forces , according to the New York Times. • The Times tours Ayesha Gaddafi’s opulent mansion after it was ransacked by rebels . Inside were marbled floors and chandeliers, and sitting in a cavernous round hall beneath a sweeping circular staircase was a huge gold sofa shaped like a mermaid with Ayesha’s head. • Journalists freed from the Rixos hotel after being held at gunpoint by Gaddafi loyalists have been recounting their “nightmare” ordeal. They were freed in cars provided by International Committee of the Red Cross and the Chinese embassy. • Four Italian journalists who were kidnapped in Libya after their driver was killed in an ambush are being held unharmed by Gaddafi loyalists , an Italian foreign ministry force said. The journalists were stopped forcibly while driving near Zawiya, 30 miles west of Tripoli, “by unknown forces” who then handed them over to the loyalists. They were later taken to the capital, Tripoli. La Stampa profiles of all four journalists : its own Domenico Quirico; Elisabetta Rosaspina and Giuseppe Sarcina of Corriere della Sera; and Claudio Monici of Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference. Libya Muammar Gaddafi Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East US foreign policy Nato Syria Bashar Al-Assad Matthew Weaver Paul Owen guardian.co.uk

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