LIVE Libyan Unrest: Gaddafi has ‘suicide plan’ for Tripoli if rebels take control

We are tracking the latest developments to keep you updated on the situation on the ground. There are interactive maps located in the Protest map page to keep up with the latest movements. Also check out the featured twitters on the sidebar. On the Go? Follow us on Twitter @Feb17Libya for the Live updates and discussion. All updates are in Libyan local time (GMT+2)
6:15pm: In spite of four months of NATO bombardment, Libyan rebels are still waging a bitter war on several fronts. AFPTV takes to the air with a NATO reconnaissance aircraft as it feeds data from Libya back to base in Italy

6:08pm: Marina Ottaway a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Middle East program says:

“The only way in which anybody might have a hope of getting Qadhafi to step down is if he’s given some guarantees that he’s not going to be turned over to the International Criminal Court. The compromise that is possible, then, hinges on whether he’s extradited or not extradited. There’s various ways that he can be provided with a guarantee.”

5:41pm:Rebel fighters in Libya say they have come a step closer to fulfilling their plan to march on Tripoli.

5:30pm: While Libya barred Italy from its oil sector because of Rome’s role in the NATO air strikes Prime minister Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi has left the door open for other alliance nations to re-evaluate their roles in the strikes or risk facing the same fate, in a possible attempt to fracture the wavering commitment by some to the campaign.
5:22pm: Libyan rebels ran into a minefield when they recaptured a frontline village from Gaddafi’s forces, they said on Thursday, providing fresh evidence government troops are using mines in the uprising. Rebel mine-clearers showed Reuters a pickup truck with a mounted anti-aircraft gun they said had been destroyed by an anti-vehicle mine during a rebel assault to recapture the village of al-Qawalish. Several dozen anti-personnel mines and anti-vehicle mines were lined up nearby. The rebels said they had piled them after digging them out earlier on Thursday
5:14pm:Gaddafi has ordered his troops to blow up refineries and other facilities if they have to retreat, the Canadian head of the NATO mission over Libya said on Thursday
4:00pm: Western powers try to make it extremely difficult for ships to dock in Libyan ports with cargoes of gasoline, they cannot staunch the flow of smuggled fuel. For that, they need to rely on Tunisia and Algeria, its oil-producing neighbor to the west and source of much of the gasoline smuggled into Libya. Governments in Tunisia and Algeria say they are not supplying fuel to Libya, and that they are implementing United Nations sanctions.
There is evidence that Algeria is taking a firm line on supplies to Libya. Last week, Algeria’s government turned away a Libyan-flagged ship which tried to unload a cargo of gasoline in an Algerian port, probably for trucking overland to Libya, according to a western diplomat.
3:45pm: NATO commander Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, speaking to reporters from his headquarters in Naples, Italy, said he had no information to back up reports of a Gadhafi “suicide plan” to raze the capital, Tripoli, before he is forced from power. “I can report that the Gadhafi regime has given direction to its forces to destroy certain facilities as they withdraw, such as fuel refineries,” he said. Libya’s oil reserves are the ninth largest in the world and a key export to southern Europe, providing much of the country’s wealth.
3:35pm: The government of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has halted all cooperation with Italian energy firm ENI, Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi said on Thursday. ENI is the biggest foreign oil company in Libya and has had a presence in the North African country since the 1950s, but it angered Tripoli by suspending operations and establishing ties with rebels trying to overthrow Gaddafi. The Prime Minister said the Gaddafi government was prepared to let U.S. firms invest because Washington is not taking a direct role in the NATO bombing of Libya.
“We have now ended all cooperation with ENI,” Al-Mahmoudi told a news conference in Tripoli.
3:25pm: Libyan rebels pulled most of their fighters back from an assault on a gateway to Tripoli on Thursday to regroup. ”Yesterday, we got to within six kilometres (four miles) of Asabah, but most of our forces have returned” to Gualish, where rebels repulsed a bid by Gadhafi forces on Wednesday to recapture the desert hamlet, said local commander Abdel Majid Salem.
Asabah is strategically located 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the capital, serving as the last barrier between the rebels and the garrison town of Gharyan. Salem said the bulk of the rebels had returned to “secure the area” around Gualish, some 17 kilometres (11 miles) further south, but that some remained outside Asabah and that they now held a checkpoint six kilometres north of Gualish.
3:15pm: Turkey initially opposed military action in Libya and for weeks continued a dialogue with the Gadhafi regime to secure Turkish interests. But in a major policy shift Ankara has cut ties with Tripoli. The Turkish government is now actively pursuing a policy that lends full support to Benghazi, as Turkey seeks a larger say in shaping the future of Libya.
3:00pm: Britain is running short of military targets in Libya as the forces of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi are increasingly using civilian infrastructure and vehicles, a defence ministry source said on Thursday. ”We’ve had credible intelligence that Gaddafi is using civilian warehouses. He’s definitely changing his tactics,” said the source, who also echoed NATO claims that Gaddafi’s forces were using civilian vehicles to deter air strikes.
2:40pm: Opposition fighters in rebel-held eastern Libya say they are preparing to launch another major offensive against Muammar Gadaffi’s regime. They plan to push along the coastal front within days, perhaps even hours, with the aim of recapturing Brega, a strategic oil town.
2:30pm: Four months after intervening on the side of anti-government rebels, Western governments are expressing optimism that the regime of Moammar Gaddafi may be close to crumbling. But the dictator has not yet surrendered.

2:20pm: The International Contact Group on Libya will ponder the chances of negotiating a political settlement to the conflict with representatives of the regime — excluding Gaddafi and his inner circle — and the rebels, officials said. The UN envoy for Libya, Abdul Ilah al-Khatib, will brief participants on his recent talks with both Tripoli and the rebels at their stronghold of Benghazi, a Turkish diplomat said.
“Ideas are maturing on how to launch a political track through the mediating role of the United Nations,” Italy’s foreign ministry spokesman Maurizio Massari said. ”The fundamental point is that Gaddafi is not part of this political process. A dialogue with members of the regime who are not Gaddafi’s family or officials on the sanctions list could be the basis for this process,” he said.
 2:10pm: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insisted on the eve of the talks that Gaddafi’s days were numbered, with the colonel hanging on in Tripoli despite four months of NATO-led bombings backing up rebels battling his four-decade regime.
12:30pm: Turkey says it will propose a “road map” to help end the Libyan crisis when nations backing NATO’s military mission gather in Istanbul.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and some 40 other members of the so-called Contact Group on Libya will hold their fourth meeting on Friday to support a post-Gadhafi era, boost support to the Libyan main opposition group and plot steps for a political transition.
A Turkish Foreign Ministry official said Thursday participants will take up a plan outlining options to end the Libyan crisis and set the stage for a democratic transition in “line with the just expectations of the Libyan people.”
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with ministry rules, would not provide further details.
12:15pm: China said on Thursday that it would skip a meeting in Turkey this week between Western powers, Arab governments and leaders of Libya’s opposition National Transitional Council, saying that the way the group worked needed “further study”
Istanbul is set to host the contact group meeting on July 15 as part of an international effort to bring stability to a post-Gaddafi Libya.
“China has already received the relevant invitation,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular news briefing.
“But because the function and method of operation of this contact group need further study, China will not be attending this meeting,” he added, without elaborating.
12:00pm: US officials said cite intelligence estimates that fuel shortages could occur within as little as a month. Gaddafi is also facing a cash crisis after Turkey cut off his access, on July 4, to hundreds of millions in Libyan funds held in a Turkish-Libyan bank. While Gaddafi could not access actual cash, he had been issuing letters of credit to pay his debtors, including fuel importers.
11:45am: The Gaddafi regime has accused Nato of killing over 1,000 civilians since the bombings in Libya began. The figures prompted Libya’s Procurator General, Mohamed Zekri Mahjubi, to announce that he will attempt to have Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen charged with “crimes against humanity,” declaring that “Rasmussen is responsible for the actions of this organisation, which has attacked defenceless civilians, leaving 1,108 dead and injuring 4.537.”
11:20am: Libyan rebel fighters were digging in to this village south of Tripoli on Thursday after losing it then taking it back in a see-saw battle that exposed the military frailties of rebel forces.
Rebel fighters took the village, a staging post on the way to the capital about 100 km (60 miles) north, a week ago, then they lost it to government troops on Wednesday morning, and by nightfall they were back in control.
On Thursday morning there were scores of fighters manning defensive positions throughout Al-Qawalish, and they were supported by trucks with heavy machine guns mounted on the back.
11:00am: Gaddafi’s prosecutor general Mohammed Zikri al-Mahjoubi files charges against the secretary general of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen of war crimes against Libyans before a Libyan court in Tripoli July 13