…some fighters were shouting ‘Down with NATO’ on the road from Brega to Ajdabiya

Libyan opposition needs better weapons

and other news from the Arab uprisings:
Libya
After a Grumble, NATO Apologizes for Airstrike
That first mistake was brushed off by the rebels, but this one set off outrage among the troops, with some fighters shouting “Down With NATO” along the road from Brega to Ajdabiya, The Associated Press reported.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/world/africa/09libya.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2&ref=world

Prospects fade for military overthrow of Gaddafi
TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libyan government forces tried to storm into the besieged city of Misrata on Friday as NATO generals acknowledged their air power was not enough to help insurgents remove Muammar Gaddafi by force alone. Misrata, a lone rebel outpost in the west of the country, has been under siege by Gaddafi’s forces for weeks. On Friday insurgents said government troops were advancing into eastern districts and fighting street battles with rebels.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/08/prospects-fade-for-military-overthrow-of-gaddafi/

Gaddafi troops attack Misrata’s eastern flank
BEIRUT, April 8 (Reuters) – Libyan government troops advanced on Misrata’s eastern districts on Friday, triggering street-battles with rebels in the coastal city that forced residents to flee the area, a rebel spokesman said. “They tried to advance and enter the city from the eastern side, from an area called Eqseer which is a populated area. The rebels confronted them and clashes are continuing,” insurgent spokesman Hassan al-Misrati told Reuters.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/gaddafi-troops-attack-misratas-eastern-flank

Libyan rebels fight govt snipers in Misrata
TUNIS, April 7 (Reuters) – Libyan rebels fought with government snipers in the besieged city of Misrata on Thursday and managed to push some back from their positions near the centre, a political activist said. Mohamad Jaber said fighting had been on and off and that NATO planes had appeared over the city.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/libyan-rebels-fight-govt-snipers-in-misrata

Misrata residents shelter from mortars
ALGIERS/BEIRUT: People in the Libyan city of Misrata are crammed five families to a house in the few safe districts to try to escape mortars raining down from government forces, a rebel spokesman said Thursday. Troops loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi have mounted mortars on rooftops, allowing them to extend their range into almost every part of the city, said the rebels.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=126914

Gaddafi’s weapons bunker in eastern Libyan desert
Libya’s rebel movement believes Muammar Gaddafi has stashed weapons in bunkers in the desert, allowing him to pose a threat to coastal cities in eastern Libya. Al Jazeera’s Sue Turton has been looking at an abandoned Libyan forces’ ammunition dump near the eastern port city of Tobruk. (07 April 2011)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KlXLcdQYW4&feature=youtube_gdata

Nato refuses Libya strike apology
Nato refuses to apologise for an air strike that hit anti-Gaddafi forces in Libya, saying it had not been aware rebels had tanks.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-13010170

Nato ‘in Libya rebel hit apology’
Libya’s rebel commander says Nato has apologised for mistakenly carrying out a deadly air strike on a column of rebel tanks in the east of the country.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-13008244

Libya stalemate appears to be emerging -US general
WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) – A stalemate appears to be emerging in Libya between rebels and forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, a top U.S. general told Congress on Thursday. “I would agree with that at present on the ground,” said General Carter Ham, the commander of U.S. Africa Command, when asked at Senate hearing whether he believed there was a stalemate or an emerging stalemate in Libya.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/libya-stalemate-appears-to-be-emerging–us-general

Turkey working on ‘roadmap’ to end Libya war
Prime minister says talks being held for ceasefire which would include withdrawal of Gaddafi’s forces from some cities.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/04/201147171752722396.html

Libyan rebel rejects any talks with Gaddafi
BENGHAZI, Libya, April 7 (Reuters) – A Libyan rebel spokesman, responding to a Turkish effort to negotiate a ceasefire, said on Thursday the rebels rejected talks with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and demanded he leave power. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said earlier that Turkey was working on a “road map” to end the war in Libya which would include a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Gaddafi’s forces from some cities. Turkey has held talks with envoys from Gaddafi’s government and representatives of the opposition.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/libyan-rebel-rejects-any-talks-with-gaddafi

Media watchdog slams Libya’s deportation of foreign reporters
PARIS: Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders condemned Thursday the Libyan government’s expulsion of 26 foreign journalists. The Paris-based group said the journalists had been invited to the Libyan capital by embattled leader Moammar Gadhafi but were thrown out Thursday “on the grounds that their visas had expired.”
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=126915

Iman al-Obeidi, Libya Woman Claiming Rape, Gives First On-Camera Interview To CNN (VIDEO)
Libyan Iman al-Obeidi, who says she was raped by Gaddafi forces, says she is grateful for the international sympathy her case has received after footage of her being tackled by government minders after alerting journalists in Tripoli was broadcast almost two weeks ago. “The world has felt for me, especially women, because I was raped and kidnapped,” al-Obeidi tells CNN’s Nic Robertson in her first on-camera interview. “I would like to thank for everyone in the world who stood [by] me and monitored my case, and felt sympathetic to my plight.” Though she appears to be recovering, al-Obeidi also recalled horrific details of her ordeal. “I was brutally tortured, to the point of them entering weapons inside of me,” she said. “After two days, they would also pour alcohol in my eyes.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/07/libya-rape-victim-interview_n_846142.html

Moussa Koussa, Libyan Foreign Minister, Questioned By Scottish Police Over Lockerbie
LONDON (Reuters) – Scottish police interviewed defecting Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa on Thursday over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, Scottish prosecutors said. U.S and Scottish authorities hope Koussa, Libya’s former spy chief, will provide vital military and diplomatic intelligence on the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/08/moussa-koussa-lockerbie-bombing_n_846523.html

Omar Fathi Bin Shatwan, Libya’s Former Energy Minister, Flees To Malta
LONDON — Libya’s former-energy minister said Wednesday that several members of Moammar Gadhafi’s inner circle want to defect, but many are too scared to abandon the dictator fearing the safety of themselves and their families. Omar Fathi bin Shatwan, who also served as industry minister, told the Associated Press that he had fled by fishing boat to Malta on Friday from the western Libyan city of Misrata.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/07/libya-energy-minister-flees_n_846282.html

US mulls humanitarian uses for Libyan assets-official
WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) – Some of the $34 billion in Libyan government assets now frozen by the United States could be used to pay costs for humanitarian needs in the North African country, a senior U.S. Treasury official said on Thursday.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/us-mulls-humanitarian-uses-for-libyan-assets-official

ICRC vessel bound for Libyan city of Misrata
GENEVA, April 8 (Reuters) – A Red Cross-chartered humanitarian vessel is expected to arrive in the rebel-held Libyan city of Misrata within 24 hours, the humanitarian agency said on Friday. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) spokesman Christian Cardon declined to give details on relief items carried by the ship which left the eastern city of Benghazi.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/icrc-vessel-bound-for-libyan-city-of-misrata

Situation remains fluid in Libya fighting
NATO’s latest air strike in the eastern Libyan town of Brega that killed at least five people — the second such incident — has raised doubts in the minds of many, who wonder whether it was really a mistake. At the same time, rebel fighters who criticised NATO’s mission failure to protect civilians in Misurata, do realise that they cannot win the battle against the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, alone. Thousands of civilians have also begun to flee intense fighting particularly in the coastal areas between Brega and Ajdabiya, further east. Al Jazeera’s Gerald Tan reports. (07 April 2011)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-Inkycl_ho&feature=youtube_gdata

Military Analysis: Libyan Rebels Don’t Really Add Up to an Army
Many of the fighters are brave, but by almost all measures by which a military might be assessed, they are a hapless bunch.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/world/africa/07rebels.html

Turkey’s “benevolent” role in Libya sparks some resentment
Turkey has become the latest in a line of countries to offer a plan to bring about a negotiated end to the conflict in Libya. But despite its humanitarian efforts to aid civilians under the guns of the Gaddafi regime, Turkey has angered opposition forces in the east by appearing to put a brake on NATO’s military efforts. Al Jazeera’s Anita McNaught reports from Tripoli.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvocSnZpLrs&feature=youtube_gdata

Intervention lite isn’t working in Libya
Wanted: Accommodation for a soon-to-be-retired dictator. Will live in a tent, but must provide enough room for female bodyguards and occasional pop concerts by international superstars such as Beyonce and Mariah Carey.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=126936

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is his father’s son | Alaa al-Ameri
Any idea that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and his brothers might lead Libya to democracy flies in the face of their brutal record. We will rule you or we will kill you. This was in essence the threat issued by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi in his first public address after the February demonstrations that sparked the Libyan revolution. In past years, I was one of the many who had fallen for the fiction that Saif al-Islam was a genuine reformer, albeit one held back by his father’s old guard. Many Libyans felt that a slow, imperfect yet peaceful transition under him was preferable to bloodshed and chaos. But within the first few minutes of his speech on 21 February, it became clear just how deluded we had been. The mask had come off.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/08/saif-al-islam-gaddafi-libya

Yemen
Defiant Saleh rejects Gulf mediation offer
Embattled president denounces “blatant interference” in Yemeni affairs in speech to supporters amid protests in Sanaa.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/04/20114811731250712.html

Inside story: Power change in Yemen
There is mounting pressure for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to go before the end of year elections. Inside Story with Kamahl Sanatamaria discusses with: Shiraz Maher, a senior fellow at the centre for the study of radicalization at King’s college London; and Hakim Almasmari, Editor in Chief of the Yemen post. This episode of Inside Story aired from Wednesday, April 6, 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZrykQLqnIA&feature=youtube_gdata

Syria