LIVE Libyan Unrest: July 14, 2011

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)
Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi has a “suicidal plan” to blow up the capital Tripoli if it is taken by rebels, the Kremlin’s special envoy to Libya told a Russian newspaper Thursday.
“The Libyan premier told me: if the rebels seize the city, we will cover it with missiles and blow it up,” Kremlin envoy Mikhail Margelov said in an interview with the Izvestia daily.
Margelov met Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmudi last month.
“I imagine that the Kadhafi regime does have such a suicidal plan,” he added, saying that Kadhafi still had plentiful supplies of missiles and ammunition.
But Margelov, who has had rare access to senior Libyan officials, questioned reports that Kadhafi could be running out of arms in the drawn-out conflict.
Kadhafi had still not used a single surface-to-surface missile, he argued.
“Tripoli theoretically could lack ammunition for tanks, cartridges for rifles. But the colonel has got plenty of missiles and explosives.” Read full story here.
9:08am: Clinton departs Washington on Thursday for Turkey, where she will attend a meeting in Istanbul of senior officials from the more than 40 nations supporting NATO’s operation to protect Libyan civilians.
The fourth meeting of foreign ministers from the so-called Contact Group on Libya will be looking not only at stepping up pressure on Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to leave power, but also boosting support to the cash-starved opposition Transitional National Council. Read full story here.

8:07am: The campaign was originally mandated for 90 days but it is now approaching four months with little sign of Col Muammar Gaddafi’s regime collapsing.

Although the Nato mission has been extended to continue until September the Defence Secretary suggested there was no guarantee that the Libyan government would have been toppled by then.

“We can, and have, planned for operations such as those we are undertaking but no one can predict how long a complex intervention will take,” Dr Fox told an assembly of top ranking RAF officers during an Air Power conference at the Royal United Services Institute. Read full story here.

8:04am: A senior minister in the Libyan rebel Transitional National Council opened an airfield on Tuesday linking the rebel capital Benghazi with a remote Western Mountain stronghold south of Tripoli, and promised a military breakthrough within days.
Ali Tarhouni, oil and finance minister in the council opposing Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, arrived and departed by air at the Rhebat air strip, a stretch of mountain highway, where a giant yellow arrow painted on the tarmac marks out the runway, next to a blue and white shack flying the rebel flag.
He told Reuters he was bringing aid to the mountains, a region where the rebels have made significant military gains in the last few weeks against Gaddafi’s forces and are preparing for another major advance.
“I am hoping you will hear very good news in the next 24-48 hours on all fronts, economic, military, all fronts.” Read full story here.
4:00am: Rebel fighters said they had retaken the village of Al-Qawalish in western Libya from forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi on Wednesday.
The village fell to pro-Gaddafi forces earlier on Wednesday, but the rebels said they had staged a successful counter-attack to seize it back, rebel spokesman Abdurahman Alzintani told Reuters.
The village lies about 100 km (60 miles) south of Tripoli and is key to rebel plans to advance on Gaddafi’s stronghold in the capital.
2:02am: A European Union executive offered Libyan rebels help with democratic reforms on Wednesday once their war with Muammar Gaddafi’s government was over and said their Benghazi-based council was gaining credibility.
Speaking after meeting a rebel representative, Mahmoud Jebril, in Brussels, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the EU was ready to assist with organising elections and setting up state institutions in Libya.
“I think this visit is a sign of the growing authority and credibility of the Transitional National Council (TNC) on the international scene,” Barroso told reporters.
“It is also a sign of the EU’s engagement in supporting the TNC as a key political interlocutor.” Read full story here.
1:08am: President Barack Obama told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday he supports Moscow’s efforts to mediate a political solution in Libya and is ready to support talks toward a democratic transition as long as Muammar Gaddafi steps aside, the White House said.
Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, said in a statement that the president made clear his position on the matter in a White House meeting with Lavrov.