As the uprising in Libya continues, we update you with the latest developments from our correspondents, news agencies and citizens across the globe. Al Jazeera is not responsible for content derived from external sites.
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AJE Live Stream - Special Coverage: Libya Uprising - Operation Odyssey Dawn - Twitter Audio
(All times are local in Libya GMT+2)
Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons, aboard the USS Kearsarge, says the aim of the Harrier jets aboard the ship is to help push Gaddafi's troops back from their lines - not enforce a no-fly zone. He tells us:
The rebels aren't making much headway, so we're seeing an escalation here.
A spokesman for the newly formed "interim government", declared by the transitional national council, tells Al Jazeera's James Bays:
The provisional national council is a legislative body, but we need an executive body to take control and provide an administration.
Our position has been very clear, that Libya is one unit - our capital is Tripoli and will forever be Tripoli ... We are striving to liberate the western parts of the country, and Tripoli, and keep the country united. We would like to emphasise this over and over again."The allied planes bombed twice so far. At 12:45 this morning and then again less than two hours ago," a resident named Saadoun told Reuters by telephone from Misurata.
They (pro-Gaddafi forces) haven't fired a single artillery round since the air strike.
Further coalition airstrikes target Gaddafi forces in Misurata, a resident tells Reuters.
Artillery and tanks stopped shooting in the city moments later, the agency says.
International coalition warplanes just conducted an air strike against Gaddafi forces stationed at the eastern entrance of Ajdabiya, reports Al Jazeera Arabic.
Protesters in London demonstrate against the UN-mandated military action in Libya.
[Picture: GALLO/GETTY]
General David Petraeus, the US general in charge of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, says he is not concerned that military action in Libya would divert resources from the war in Afghanistan. He told the Royal United Services Institute defence thinktank in London:
There was an examination of whether certain intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets of an actually quite limited nature might be needed to help out with the operation in Libya, but in the end there have been no assets taken from the effort in Afghanistan and I don't foresee that happening at this point in time.
Al Jazeera's James Bays, reporting from Benghazi, says two developments have happened there. Firstly, there was a large death toll in Misurata overnight, with 14 killed and 23 injured - according to anti-Gaddafi fighters. He says they told him that:
Gaddafi's forces now taken over hospital in the town, and have positioned snipers on the roof and tanks outside. The rebels are calling for a hospital ship to be sent in, as they still control the port, and say that would save many lives, as they now have nowhere to take their injured.
More civilian deaths have been reported in Ajdabiya and elsewhere, and they calling on international powers to interpret the UN resolution more widely to support them.
Secondly, the Libyan transitional council has taken the step of calling themselves an "interim government". They had been wary of using the words before, as it would seem to signify a split in the country. "But they remain committed to one Libya," James says. "They want the people of Libya to remain united, just without Gaddafi."
Heading up the new government is Mahmoud Jibril, who had been working as a representative to foreign powers, including meeting France's Nicolas Sarkozy - which led to France diplomatically recognising the transitional council as the sole representative of the Libyan people.
More on those operation names. US African Command says "Operation: Odyssey Dawn" has no meaning whatsoever.
Wired magazine reports that the people in charge of naming operations were given a limited option of words to choose from:
“These words begin between the letters JF-JZ, NS-NZ and OA-OF, and those three groups give about 60 some odd words,” explains Africom spokesman Eric Elliott. “So, the folks who were responsible for naming this went through and they had done recent activities with NS and they went to O.”
Using the O series of letters, Africom officials picked out “Odyssey” for the first word. The second word is picked “as random as possible because that’s the goal of these operational names,” says Elliot. Africom pulled out “Dawn” for its second word and the resulting combination, “Odyssey Dawn,” is devoid of any intended meaning, Elliott insists.
Read the whole report here.
Meanwhile, the Army Rumour Service - an unofficial UK military online forum, among others, have been debating the term Operation Ellamy, the British operational name. And the reasoning behind the naming of Canadian Operation MOBILE is also unclear.
The French operation is named Operation Harmattan. The Harmattan, according to Wikipedia, "is a dry and dusty West African trade wind. It blows south from the Sahara into the Gulf of Guinea".
So now you know.
NATO warships - commanded from Naples, Italy, will begin patrolling Libya's coast to enforce the UN arms embargo later today.
The two flotilla will initially comprise two frigates, six minesweepers and a supply ship, a NATO official - unidentified under standing rules - told the Associated Press news agency.
As objections mount against the bombing of Libyan sites, allegations of "mission creep" in the operation are rising.
Former US fighter jet pilot Jay Stout tells Al Jazeera that the military involvement in Libya has reached beyond what is usually expected in enforcing a no-fly zone.Gerald Howarth, the British minister for international security strategy, denied that pilots had no concern about the killing of civilians. He told reporters:
Any idea that there is some sort of cavalier approach is absolute rubbish ... I repeat the purpose of this is to protect the civilian population.
Why therefore would we be engaging in anything which threatens the civilian
population?He noted that two British Tornado jets had pulled back from attacking Libyan air defence systems because "they saw civilians near the target."
Al Jazeera's, Andrew Simmons, reporting from the USS Kearsarge - just off the Libyan coast, tells us:
We're hearing the US president is concerned that Gaddafi could hunker down and wait this out. He's talked about saving civilian lives - and that's what we're hearing on board this ship. The six Harrier jets onboard this ship have been bombing targets overnight.
Commanders here are saying that [UN Security Council] resolution 1973 allows for attacks on pro-Gaddafi forces, in order to save lives. There is concern about "mission creep", there is the assurance that the US will hand over command in the coming days, despite indecision in Europe about who will take over - but here, they are still in full-blown mode in terms of operations and attacks.
Sweden is the latest country to freeze assets belonging to Muammar Gaddafi's administration.
The Scandanavian country has seized 10 billion kronor (US$1.6 billion), it says, but officials say "it's not impossible'' there could be more hidden.
Scholars at Al Azhar university in Cairo have condemned the heretofore US-led bombing and aerial operation in Libya, but have said the institution - seen as Egypt's highest Islamic authority - supports "the legitimate demands of the Libyan people's revolution".
Founded in 970, Azhar warned the United States and Britain against "dividing Libya and destroying its natural and human wealth, as happened in Iraq," said the Al Ahram newspaper, which is majority-owned by the government.
But it also condemned Arab governments who oppressed citizens for decades, saying their leaders should not stay in office if that would lead to more bloodshed.
They should leave their posts. That is the least they can do to respond to their people, who have endured them and been patient for so long.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario has faced a struggle to convince Filipino workers to leave Libya - with most preferring to stay than to return to their home country.
Del Rosario escorted 31 Filipinos from Tripoli to the border with Tunisia earlier today, said the Phillipine department for foreign affairs.
But some 1,600 of 2,000 Filipino nurses have decided to stay in Libya - along with about 100 Filipino professors - where the workers have been promised higher wages amid the violence.
They say they face unemployment at home.
Del Rosario led 400 Filipinos from Tripoli last month, says the Associated Press news agency.
The price tag for US involvement could easily run into hundreds of millions of dollars, says the AP news agency.
It says that the cruise missiles - of which at least 162 have already been launched - have a price tag of between US$1million and US$1.5million each.
The B2 bombers, which have been flying 25-hour round trips to Libya from Missouri, reportedly cost US$10,000 an hour, says the agency.
One of the US airmen who ejected from his fighter jet that crashed in eastern Libya apparently found himself "surrounded by curious locals" who served him juice and thanked his country for bombing Gaddafi's forces, says US military authorities - themselves keen to stave off insinuations about their involvement in the conflict.
Anti-Gaddafi fighters have found themselves outgunned on the road from Benghazi to Ajdabiya. With no communication facilities and little structure to their forces, they are left to run sporadic raids against Gaddafi's troops, before coming under fire and returning.
Al Jazeera's James Bays reports from the front line and comes under fire himself to describe the scene on the road to Ajdabiya.Chinese state media has attacked the bombing of sites in Libya as a quest for "world dominance". An editorial in the Global Times said:
[The air assault] is primarily a political decision taken by a few Western powers, and the very first message it delivers is that these Western powers are still the judge and executioner on a global level.
The West has dominated the world for centuries, and clinging to world dominance still remains its major strategy.
The US will hand over operations to NATO in the next few days, the Associated Press says. The US has been leading the military efforts so far, but has been keen to hand over the role to avoid further accusations of carrying out imperialist adventures in an oil-rich state.
The diplomatic and military deal depends on agreement from all 28 NATO members - including Turkey, which has been insisting on a narrow military mandate - and guarantees that no foreign occupation of the country will follow. US President Obama said:
When this transition takes place it is not going to be our planes that are maintaining the no-fly zone. It is not going to be our ships that are necessarily enforcing the arms embargo. That's precisely what the other nations are going to do.
Anti-aircraft fire has again been reported in Tripoli, just before dawn, following another tense night in the Libyan capital.
AFP reporter Dave Clark (left), photographer Roberto Schmidt (right) and Getty Images photographer Joe Raedle(centre) arrive at the Rixos hotel in Tripoli, after they were released by the Libyan authorities earlier today. Four Al Jazeera journalists and crew are still being held in Libya.
[Photo: Reuters]
A group of around 20 activists have held a protest in central Seoul, in opposition to the airstrikes in Libya. Protest leader Choi Chang-joon said:
The US intervention in Libya is an act of interference in the domestic affairs of Libya, starting with the US ambitions. They set up a no-fly zone to protect their air strikes. Civilians have been killed, so they should stop the bombing as quickly as possible.
Al Jazeera's James Bays, reporting from Benghazi, tells us:
Morale here is good. The city was under attack just a few days ago, and now the problems are 150km away.
But morale on the front line is less high. They need to be able to pass Ajdabiya, but don't seem to be able to make much progress at the moment.
Gaddafi has the heavy weapons, while the rebels have only light arms and rocket launchers and there is little military structure to them.A reminder of the locations of the main cities of north Libya.
[Map: Al Jazeera]
Gaddafi, in his speech earlier tonight:
This assault ... is by a bunch of fascists who will end up in the dustbin of history.
More on those released journalists. The AFP agency says:
Three journalists who went missing in eastern Libya last week were released in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Photographer Joe Raedle of Getty Images, along with David Clark and Roberto Schmidt of Agence France-Presse, were held for several days by pro-regime forces fighting rebels in near Benghazi.
They had been travelling to Tobruk when they were stopped and taken into custody.
Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim greeted the three journalists when they arrived at the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli, where most of the foreign media covering the uprising in the country are staying.
He invited them to stay and cover what he said would be an advance by Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi's forces towards the east of the country in the coming days.
"If you'd like to stay and work professionally and legally and present the truth, the reality, we will give you the visas," he said.
However, all three journalists are expected to depart the country via the Tunisian-Libyan border crossing later on Wednesday.At least two large explosions were heard in Tripoli, Libya's capital, before dawn, witnesses tell Reuters. No anti-aircraft fire was heard.
President Obama, during a visit to El Salvador on Tuesday, praised the US military's involvement in Libya, calling it effective.
We have already saved lives in Benghazi, a city of 700,000 people. You had the prospect of Gaddafi's forces carrying out his orders to show no mercy. That could have resulted in catastrophe."
Al Jazeera's Kristen Saloomey, reporting from New York, says agreeing to protect civilians in Libya was the easy part for members of the UN security council. Deciding how to do so is proving much more difficult.
Three journalists - two AFP employees and a Getty Images photographer - had been held by Gaddafi's forces since the weekend have been released in Tripoli, an AFP journalist says.
For a couple of days, rumours have floated around that one, maybe two, of Gaddafi's seven sons have been killed.
When US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked by ABC News if she could confirm the reports, she said: "I can’t confirm it, but we’ve heard it, and we’ve heard a lot.
We hear it from many different sources, and I – that’s why I can’t confirm it. I can’t give any confirmation because the evidence is not sufficient.
The future command structure for the coalition's military action is Libya is uncertain. The US wants to hand over its leading role and NATO's role is being debated. Watch Caroline Malone's report:
Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught in Tripoli says Gaddafi's televised address may not have been broadcast live as state TV runs a lot of recycled material, and no busloads of foreign journalists were brought to his palace to witness the event.
The UN is preparing to bring more aid into Libya. UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards says the agency will send truckloads of goods to Benghazi on Wednesday, including 5,000 blankets and 5,000 sleeping mats.
"Providing humanitarian assistance under current circumstances is very challenging," he said."There are reported shortages of medical supplies and basic commodities in the eastern part of the country, with prices having increased dramatically."
The UN World Food Programme plans to move 19 tons of lentils and 11 tons of vegetable oil in the next two days from Egypt into eastern Libya.
Libyan state TV has broadcast what it said was live coverage of a brief address Gaddafi made to enthusiastic supporters at his residential compound in Tripoli.
Standing on a balcony, he denounced the coalition bombing attacks on his forces, and told the crowd, "in the short term, we'll beat them, in the long term, we'll beat them."
State TV said Gaddafi was speaking from his Bab Al-Aziziya residential compound, the same one hit by a cruise missile on Sunday night.
"O great Libyan people, you have to live now, this time of glory, this is a time of glory that we are living".
Gaddafi's associates have been reaching out to their contacts worldwide to see how they can "get out of this," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told ABC News on Tuesday.
"We've heard about... people close to him reaching out to people that they know around the world - Africa, the Middle East, Europe, North America, beyond - saying what do we do? How do we get out of this?" Clinton said.
It's midnight in Libya and our live blog continues for another day. To keep track of all that's happened, be sure to check out our blog from yesterday, March 22, here.
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