Libya and Middle East unrest

Gaddafi forces push towards Benghazi
• Britain and France back no-fly zone at UN
• Bahrain security crushes protest at Pearl square
• Hillary Clinton tours Tahrir sq

Gaddafis effort to defeat rebels before international support pays off A Gaddafi supporter in Tripoli waves a flag after news was broadcast of government forces taking control of the eastern Libyan town of Ajdabiyah. Photograph: CHRIS HELGREN/REUTERS

3.25pm: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has been busy giving exclusive interviews, this one to ITV News, where he claims that the regime has been lenient towards its opponents. There there is rambling

bit about how the media has given too much attention to a disaffected minority.

    We haven't punished even the terrorists who we captured. We captured a big number of them. Did we exclude them? Torture them? Kill them? No... All the time we focus on a small number, the naughty, noisy people. We like them. They are sexy. But the majority, they are not very interesting. We should listen to the millions of people, the voice of millions. All the time we want to listen to 30 people here, 1,000 here, 100 here. I told you we have thousands of atheists who don't believe in God Almighty, even God. They say 'we don't believe in God, let alone Mr Gaddafi.

3.14pm - Bahrain: Another protester is reported to have been killed in the assault on the protesters' camp at Pearl roundabout, Reuters reports. That takes the death toll to six - three policemen and three protesters.

Abdel Jalil Khalil, the head of Wefaq's 18-member parliament bloc said: "This is war of annihilation. This does not happen even in wars and this is not acceptable. I saw them fire live rounds, in front of my own eyes."

3.11pm - Bahrain: @amar456 has tweeted that the atmosphere in tense in Bahrain, where a curfew has been in place in parts of the capital for two hours now.

    Tweet

    Thought I would be a bit of a Rambo & go out. Not a good idea. I suggest everyone stay home unless really urgent. Army check points around.

3.08pm - Bahrain: A Gulf Cooperation Council soldier walks through Pearl square after securing the area from anti-government protesters, in Manama, Bahrain.
A GCC soldier walks through Pearl Square, Bahrain, after securing the area from protesters Photograph: Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters

3.05pm: Alain Juppé, the French foreign minister, makes the case for targeted strikes against Gaddafi's aircraft on his blog (French), subject to UN security council support.

    It's not enough to proclaim that Gaddafi must go. We must give ourselves the means to effectively help those who have taken up arms against his dictatorship.

Bernard Kouchner, a former French foreign minister, has berated the international community for its inaction. "A no-fly zone is a minimum. It's certainly already too late," he told World Radio Switzerland. "We've known since three weeks that the poor civil society, the poor people, are dying. And we are doing nothing."

2.28pm: Police in Algiers used tear gas to disperse a crowd of about 60 young men who were throwing petrol bombs and stones, Reuters reports. The protesters, who had blocked a road in the east of the capital, said they had no political demands but wanted the authorities to give them better housing.

2.22pm: if you have questions about today's developments, especially Bahrain, please post them in the comments below. Brian Whitaker, a Guardian Middle East expert whose pick of the best blogs and analysis appears alongside, will respond. You might want to ask him, for example, whether the so-called Arab spring has run its course after the crackdown in Bahrain and with Gaddafi on the brink of military victory. You can start posting now.

2.07pm - Syria: The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (link in Arabic) says at least 25 people were arrested at the protest outside the interior ministry in Damascus

It has also posted video footage it says is of today's demonstration.
Moqtada al-Sadr Photograph: Wissam al-Okaili/AFP/Getty Images
2.00pm - Iraq/Bahrain:
Followers of the Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have been demonstrating in Baghdad and Basra ins support of the mainly-Shia demonstrators in Bahrain, denouncing intervention by Saudi troops, Reuters reports:

    "Moqtada al-Sadr is calling for demonstrations today in Baghdad and Basra to support the Bahraini people and to denounce and condemn the murdering of innocent revolutionaries," senior Sadr aide Hazem al-Araji told Reuters.

    In Baghdad, several thousand protesters gathered in Sadr's stronghold of Sadr City, waving Bahraini and Iraqi flags and chanting "Yes, yes to Bahrain!". One banner read: "The rulers of Saudi Arabia are killers!"

    In Basra, the crowd numbered in the hundreds. Sadoun al-Lami, head of Sadr's office in the city said: "We denounce Saudi military intervention in Bahrain and call on the international community to put an end to the bloodshed."

    One of four senior Shia clerics in Iraq's holy city of Najaf, Basheer al-Najafi, also condemned the "irresponsible" crackdown in Bahrain. "The government surprised us by the arrival of armed forces from neighbouring countries... who assaulted villages and attacked and shed the blood of unarmed citizens who raised slogans of peace..." Najafi said in a statement.

Live blog: Twitter

1.49pm - Syria: @razaniyat was tweeting from the demonstration outside the interior ministry in Damascus today. Her tweets make grim reading, suggesting yet another authoritarian regime cracking down on peaceful protest:

    We can see security forces in disguise carrying mobile phones as we walk many of them #syria

    i was taking a video of security forces hitting protersters and that's when five of them captured me and took my mobile #Syria

    they took a man and his child. hit a 80 year old woman and were hittign elderly #Syria

    the sit-in did not last more than 3 minutes and 2000 not exaggerating were surrounding the protersters and started arrested ppl #Syria

1.43pm - Bahrain: Bahrain's largest Shia Muslim opposition group Wefaq has urged its followers to avoid any confrontation with security forces. It also said it is not behind reported plans for a fresh protest today. An official said:

    Wefaq has advised people since this morning to avoid confrontation with security forces and to remain peaceful.

1.40pm - Bahrain: This video posted today, purportedly from Bahrain, shows disturbing footage of troops surrounding an individual. He disappears from view, then gunshots are heard and he can next be seen being dragged along the ground. At the conclusion of the video he appears to be alive but unable, or too scared, to ge

Another video appears shows smoke rising from the protesters' camp at Pearl roundabout.

1.33pm - Libya: Libyan state TV has broadcast a call to arms, urging people to join a government advance, towards the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, Reuters reports. The message said:


    All the armed forces in the eastern area who have not joined the traitors are called upon to join the forces as they advance towards Benghazi.

1.31pm - Libya: A doctor at Misrata hospital told Reuters the bodies of five people killed in shelling today had been brought in, but that he had been told more had been killed. He said the wounded were being brought to hospital in private cars because ambulance drivers were afraid of being hit by shells. "We have enough medicine but we are short on staff," said the doctor, who gave his name as Muftah.

Gaddafi's troop have used tanks and artillery in the city, 200km east of Tripoli, but opposition fighters claim they have stalled a ground attack on the city and seized some tanks:

    "The fighters have defeated Gaddafi's forces from the southern and western side (of the city)," a resident, who gave his name only as Mohammed, told Reuters by telephone.
    "The shelling on the city stopped and the rebels have captured some tanks. The battle is continuing on the eastern side, but it is not a heavy one."

    A rebel fighter in Misrata, who did not give his name, said the city would make a stand.
    "They are trying to enter the city. I do not think they will be able to do it, at least not today," he said.

Here's a lunchtime summary.
Live blog: recap

• Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has told French TV that the fighting will be over in 48 hours, while pledging that the regime will not take revenge against the rebels. He also claimed that Libya helped finance Nicolas Sarkozy's successful re-election campaign in 2007 and wants the French president to give the money back.

• Britain and France push for a no-fly resolution at the UN. But Russia and China are expected to resist such a move.

• Military troops have opened a large-scale assault against hundreds of anti-government protesters occupying a landmark square in Bahrain's capital. At least two protesters and three policemen were reported to have been killed, and hundreds injured when riot police overran Pearl roundabout, the focal point for a two-month anti-government uprising.

• At least 150 people were wounded when Yemeni security forces tried to break up an anti-government rally in the Red Sea city of Hudaida. A doctor treating protesters at a sit-in in Hudaida said hundreds of security forces and plainclothes police, all armed, attacked the demonstrators.

1.05pm- Bahrain: Nick Kristof of the New York Times, who covered the protests in Bahrain, laments about the turn of events in the kingdom.
Kristof Bahrain Twitter Twitter screengrab

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12.59pm: Ian Black, the Guardian's Middle East correspondent who is in Tripoli, tells me there is a mood of increasing confidence within Gaddafi circles after the fall of Ajdabiya.

    The mood music is one of increasing confidence. There were fireworks in the streets last night and lots of shooting in the air in praise of Gaddafi. There is a sense that the military side of this story is drawing to a close.

Listen!

12.18pm: Bahrain state TV has announced a curfew for parts of the capital Manama. The area includes the Pearl roundabout, which has been the heart of the protest movement. But there are reports that the protesters are planning to defy the curfew with renewed demonstrations. @oxfordgirl, a reliable chronicler of the opposition green movement's protests after the 2009 Iran elections, tweets:

    #Bahrain Armed Forced announce that today they cleaned up the centre of Capitol, curfew in force, demo planned for 1 hours time

12.07pm: Patrick Wintour, the Guardian's political editor, has emailed on what appears to have been an unsuccessful plea by the Britain to persuade the Bahrain authorities to show restraint with protesters.

    Patrick Wintour

    The prime minister's spokesman said David Cameron had rung the King of Bahrain to express his concerns at the deteriorating situation and called for restraint on all sides. He said the way ahead lay through reform not oppression and urged all politicians to pursue dialogue.

    It is not clear if Cameron had rung in the knowledge that the crackdown was about to take place. Britain has close political, defence and economic contacts with Bahrain. He also said Cameron is waiting to hear back from his diplomats in New York this afternoon on how the members of the UN security council will respond to an Anglo-French draft resolution calling for the immediate imposition of a no-fly zone in Libya.

12.01pm: Al Jazeera has footage of Libyans in Benghazi throwing their shoes at the screen as Gaddafi spoke on TV last night. The shoe-throwing occurs about two minutes into the video.

11.54am - Yemen: At least 150 people were wounded when Yemeni security forces tried to break up an anti-government rally in the Red Sea city of Hudaida, doctors and witnesses told Reuters. A doctor treating protesters at a sit-in in Hudaida said hundreds of security forces and plainclothes police, all armed, attacked the demonstrators.

"They attacked the protesters and wounded around 120 people," he told Reuters by telephone. "They were using tear gas, rubber bullets, live fire and bats."

Demonstrators contacted by Reuters said they were calling on private hospitals to send ambulances and asked Yemenis to donate blood to help treat the wounded. One protester said mostly plainclothes police had attacked the sit-in and were still clashing with protesters.

"Special forces, central security forces and police, most of them in civilian clothing, are surrounding the protesters," said Mohammed Muajem. "The main hospital is now at full capacity."

11.47am: Black smoke billows from burning tents in Pearl square in the Bahrain capital, Manama. Opposition sources say at least five people have been killed and three policemen were reportedly among the fatalities.

"There are shots near and far. It's not only shooting in the air, it's urban warfare," a resident who lives near the Budaya highway in the northwest of Bahrain, told Reuters, adding that forces had cut off three bridges linking Bahrain's airport, on Muharraq island, to the main island.

Riot police blocked access to Manama's Salmaniya hospital, where many civilian casualties had previously been treated, and witnesses said access to other health centres was also blocked.

Iran and Iraq, which have Shia majorities, have both weighed in, condemning the crackdown as "unjustifiable". Iran, meted out brutal treatment to protesters advocating reform.
Black smoke billows from burning tents in Pearl Square, Bahrain Photograph: Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images
11.33am: I've been on the phone to Martin Chulov, who covered the protests in Bahrain before moving on to Libya. The showdown that he had predicted in Bahrain has come to pass and he tells me that the US has reverted to its old ways of putting stability before reform. US backing for Bahrain, he says, followed a stark warning from the gulf states: if we fall your strategic interests are jeopardised. That clearly resonated with the Americans.

    It was hard to see how it was going to turn out in any other way. We've had these protesters out in the street for two months drawing support from Iran and other Shia states in the region. It has taken a very sectarian tone to it. It's a dispute that's spread beyond Bahrain's boundaries.

Listen!

10.47am: Gaddafi supporters celebrate in Green square in Tripoli following the announcement that government forces took the city of Ajdabiya.

Gaddafi supporters celebrate in Green Square in Tripoli Gaddafi supporters celebrate in Green Square in Tripoli following the announcement that Gaddafi's forces took the city of Ajdabiya. Photograph: Jerome Delay/AP

10.33am: Saif al-Islam, the "reformist" Gaddafi son who went to LSE, has predicted that the Libyan uprising will be over in a couple of days, as the regime steps up its war of nerves against the opposition.

"Everything will be over in 48 hours", he told Euronews TV, based in France. Asked about discussions among world powers to impose a no-fly zone over Libya, he replied: "The military operations are finished. In 48 hours everything will be over. Our forces are close to Benghazi. Whatever decision is taken, it will be too late."

Benghazi is a city of about a million people and, as the BBC Jon Leyne has been reporting, the regime lacks enough troops to take the city, so Saif's remarks appear to be more propagandistic than realistic.

He also had a cheeky message for Nicolas Sarkozy: give us back our money.

"Sarkozy must first give back the money he took from Libya to finance his electoral campaign. We funded it and we have all the details and are ready to reveal everything."

Gaddafi's regime has been taking potshots at France as Sarkozy has recognised the opposition in Benghazi as Libya's legitimate government.

10.26am - Syria: Reuters is reporting on a rare demonstration in Damascus. It says security forces dispersed about 150 people who had been demanding the release of political prisoners in front of the interior ministry in central Damascus. Scores of security forces charged the gathering with batons and at least one demonstrator suffered a gash on his head, a witness said. He saw at least five protesters detained by security forces. There was an attempt to mount a "day of rage" in Damascus some weeks ago, which fizzled because of Syria's pervasive security.

10.21am - Bahrain: This video purportedly comes from outside the Al-Razi health centre, a few blocks south of Pearl roundabout. Loud gunfire can be heard on the video, which shows riot police and a man in army fatigues shooting.

10.07am: The Libyan army has called on the people of Benghazi to lay down their arms and has promised not to take retribution. This from Reuters.

    An armed forces statement read on state television described the offensive as a humanitarian operation to save the people of "beloved Benhgazi" and said troops would not take revenge on them if they surrendered.

    "Advise your duped sons to hand over their weapons to the armed forces or the people's leadership and they will be covered by an amnesty requested by the commander (Gaddafi), which will be valid for any person who hands over his weapon to the armed forces and refrains from resistance and subversion," it said.

    Benghazi residents said they had found leaflets scattered in the streets telling them they would not be punished if they gave up the fight.

    Adel Yahya, former rebel fighter, speaking by telephone from Ajdabiya, said the army was in control.

    "I went out and told them I had a rifle and gave to them. We gave our guns to them, and they said you should come out and celebrate for Gaddafi. We lost, we lost," he said, breaking into tears.

9.50am - Bahrain: At least four people were killed in today's crackdown in Bahrain, AP reports. Here's an extract from AP's account of the "full-scale assault on Pearl square at daybreak".

    Stinging clouds of tear gas filled streets and black smoke rose from the square from the protesters' tents set ablaze. Witnesses said at least two protesters were killed. Bahrain state TV also reported that two policemen died when they were hit by a vehicle after hundreds of anti-government protesters were driven out.

    Hamid Zuher, a 32-year-old protester who slept at the square, said riot police first moved in on foot through a haze of tear gas, firing in the air.

    "They fired tear gas and then opened fire," Zuher said. "We lifted our arms and started saying 'Peaceful, Peaceful.' Then we had to ran away. There was so much tear gas and shooting."

    In Shia villages, people went to mosques to pray in a sign of protest against the crackdown. Others lit fires in anger. Clashes were reported in other mostly Shia areas of the country, where traffic was tightly controlled by military forces in an apparent attempt to prevent protest gatherings or a surge of people toward the capital.

9.40am: Gaddafi forces have been shelling Ajdabiya nonstop, the Associated Press reports, which indicates that the rebels have not been completely driven out of the city, which is only 90 miles from Benghazi. Misrata, the last rebel-held city in western Libya, has also been coming under sustained bombardment.

Meanwhile, European divisions came to the fore once again, when the Italian foreign minister, Franco Frattini, firmly ruled out military intervention.

"We cannot have war, the international community should not, does not want and cannot do it," he told a hearing of a parliamentary commission in the Italian senate.

This seems a bit melodramatic and disingenuous as a no-fly zone stops short of war. Arming the rebels as advocated by some in the west would not constitute war either.

Frattini said he favoured a summit in the coming week of a joint meeting of leaders from the EU, the Arab League and the African Union, "the three parties which can make a difference" in Libya.

Hard to see Gaddafi losing any sleep on that kind of response from the EU. As Simon Tisdall wrote in today's Guardian, Libya has been a debacle for the EU.

9.23am: Protesters have tried to raise a red, black and green flag used before Gaddafi took power on the Libyan embassy in London.

"There are up to five people up there. We are speaking to them to try to ensure a safe resolution," a London police spokesman said. "They removed the flag and attempted to replace it with another."

8.58am: Good morning welcome to our coverage of unrest in Libya and the Middle East. An increasingly confident Muammar Gaddafi mocked the west, particularly France, as his troops attacked Ajdabiya, the last rebel stronghold before Benghazi, where the unrest started. "France now raises its head and says that it will strike Libya," he told supporters at his Bab al-Azizia fortified compound in central Tripoli. "Strike Libya?" he asked. "We'll be the one who strikes you! We struck you in Algeria, in Vietnam. You want to strike us? Come and give it a try."

Thousands in Benghazi, however, denounced him as a tyrant and threw shoes at his image projected upside down on a wall.

At the UN, Britain, France, Lebanon and the Arab League circulated a draft resolution for a no-fly zone, but it all looked too little, too late. The cause of reformers looked bleak as well in Bahrain, where soldiers and riot police used tear gas and armoured vehicles to drive out hundreds of anti-government protesters occupying Pearl square. Demonstrators said at least two people were killed.

As Libya's revolution faced collapse and reformers were routed in Bahrain, it was a different picture in Egypt, where Hillary Clinton toured Tahrir square, the heart of the Egyptian reform movement. The US secretary of state smiled and shook hands with Egyptians who surrounded her during her unscheduled 15-minute walk through the square.

Here is the Guardian's overnight coverage of unrest in the Middle East