LIVE Libyan Unrest: July 18, 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)
10:00pm: Gaddafi urged his supporters to “die protecting their oil, so that it doesn’t fall into the hands of the NATO-controlled gang of traitors.” His spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, spoke in much the same vein: “We are ready to kill and to die for our oil.” The rebels can rest easy knowing that the bulk of oil resources are located in the east, which they largely control.
9: 45pm: Russia criticised the United States and other countries that have recognised the rebel National Transitional Council as Libya’s legitimate government, saying they were taking sides in the civil war. Also nations that recognised the rebel National Transition Council were pursuing a “policy of isolation” he suggested could undermine efforts to end the five-month war.
9:25pm: Britain blocked a proposal to establish a permanent headquarters for EU defence and security operations, saying it would duplicate NATO structures and be an unnecessary expense. The proposal for a permanent Operations Headquarters (OHQ), put forward by Catherine Ashton, the British EU high representative for foreign affairs and security, and backed by France and other EU states, was discussed at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday but was rejected.
8:50pm: Members of the existing regime in Libya could play a role in any interim government that follows Moammar Gadhafi’s departure, London said. “This is a national council that intends to hold elections, to assemble an interim government once Gadhafi has gone, including the technocratic members of the existing regime, and to make sure that there is in every sense, in our sense, a legitimate governing authority,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague said.
8:30pm: Libyan rebels have claimed victory against troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, the country’s leader, inside the eastern port town of Brega. The rebels said Gaddafi’s troops were retreating west towards the town of Ras Lanuf. Brega, which is 750km east of Tripoli, the capital, has changed hands several times since the uprising against Gaddafi began in February.
8:10pm: NATO warplanes destroyed the radar antenna at Tripoli International Airport on Monday, the alliance said, claiming the system was being used for military purposes by Moammar Gadhafi’s regime. A statement said the air traffic control radar at the civilian airport was tracking NATO jets and the providing information to Libyan air defences.
3:oopm: Libya’s rebels claimed control of Brega on Monday, as most pro-Kadhafi troops retreated westward leaving around 150-200 loyalist fighters pinned down inside the oil town, a spokesman said.
2:00pm: The leaders of South Africa and Britain disagreed on Monday over how to proceed in Libya, South African President Jacob Zuma saying he wanted to see negotiations aimed at ending the five-month-old rebellion there.
“We both want to see a future for Libya that doesn’t include Colonel Gaddafi,” Cameron said.
“The difference is that the president sees that as the outcome of a political process, whereas I believe for a political process to work it has to be the starting point. That is the difference between us. That’s the gap.”
1:30pm: Russia will not host Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi should he choose to step down, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday.
“This last question has been answered on more than one occasion -the answer is negative,” Lavrov said when asked by reporters whether Gaddafi could come to Russia.
1:00pm: Tunisian food exports to Libya, since the outbreak, on February 17, 2011, of the armed conflict opposing the Gaddafi regime to the rebels, went up fourfold, rising from 53.1 million dinars (MTD), during the first four months of the current year, to 192.2 MTD, in the first half of 2011.
Farm and food industries are the sectors that got the lion’s share of these exports, with 85% in June, against 74% in May.
According to analysts, the flow of Libyan refugees to Tunisia generated a trade dynamics on the border regions between the two countries. Thus, a rising demand for farm and food products has been registered with 24% out of the total Tunisian exports till late June.
12:15pm: Libya is responsible for a deadly 1989 attack on a French airliner, Libyan former foreign minister Abdel Rahman Shalgam told al-Hayat newspaper in an interview published on Monday.
“The Libyan security services blew up the plane. They believed that opposition leader Mohammed al-Megrief was on board, but after the plane was blown up, it was found that he was not on the plane,” said Mr. Shalgam, who defected from Muammar Qaddafi’s embattled regime earlier this year.
On September 19, 1989, a UTA DC-10 travelling from Brazzaville to Paris via N’Djamena crashed in Niger after explosives on board detonated, killing 170 passengers and crew, including 54 French citizens.
A French court in 2009 sentenced six Libyan agents in absentia to life in prison for the attack, but Libya has never admitted it was responsible.
11:45am: Russia on Monday criticised the United States and other countries that have recognised the Libyan rebels’ National Transitional Council as a legitimate government, saying they were taking sides in the civil war.
“Those who declare recognition stand fully on the side of one political force in a civil war,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters.
11:30am: Rebel forces re-entered Brega – putting them within sight of a major strategic victory – but said they had not yet managed to wrest control of the town from Qadhafi’s troops, who have held it since April.
“Some small groups have made it inside, but we do not control the whole (town) yet,” said Mohammed Zawi, a spokesman for the rebel forces, late Sunday.
He also dismissed rumours that Qadhafi troops had abandoned the town altogether. “It is now close fighting,” he said, indicating a new phase in the four-day rebel campaign.
There was no way to verify his comments as reporters are being prevented from reaching the front line.
Until now heavy artillery had set the tenor of the battle, but mortars and rockets appear to have given way to heavy machine guns – a more useful weapon for fighting at closer quarters. But that did little to stem the bloodshed.
Three rebel fighters were killed and 96 wounded on Sunday according to medical staff.
That toll brought to 15 the total number of fighters killed and 274 the number of wounded since the battle for Brega began on Thursday.
9:30am: Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, at the meeting of the International Contact Group for Libya, Istanbul, Turkey on Friday presented a Polish aid package for Libya embracing medicare and training schemes for Libyan officials and uniformed services.
Sikorski said the aid program would consist of a medical mission based in the metropolis Benghazi, and a system of training programs for Libyan office staff, police and border guards.
Training for Libyan public officials as well as scholarships for Libyan students will also be offered in Poland.
Foreign ministers and representatives of international organizations arrived in Turkey last Friday for the fourth meeting of the Libya Contact Group since the armed conflict began.
The diplomats discussed ways to end the five-month conflict between forces loyal to leader Muammar Gaddafi and the rebels seeking his ouster.
9:00am: The Maltese government is considering offering a credit line to the Libyan Transitional National Council and allowing it to repay borrowed money through assets belonging to the government led by Muammar Gaddafi and which have been frozen in Malta.
This was announced by Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg on his return to Malta yesterday after a day of meetings in Benghazi, where the council is based.
He said Malta committed itself to help out the war-torn country by offering humanitarian aid in the form of health care and scholarships to Libyan students.
6:03am: Nato jets destroyed a military storage facility and other targets in Tripoli’s eastern outskirts early yesterday, days after key international players recognised Libya’s rebel leadership as the country’s legitimate representative.
Rebel attacks on the eastern oil city of Brega, meanwhile, stretched into their fourth day, with reports of pitched battles in the residential areas.
From the capital, bright flashes could be seen on the eastern horizon just after midnight, followed by a steady rumbling that went on for an hour. Planes could be heard crisscrossing a night sky lit up by a near full moon, and into yesterday afternoon as well.
Nato said its forces had hit a military storage facility, along with three radar sites and an anti-aircraft missile launcher east of the capital. The alliance reported it flew a total of 110 sorties and carried out 45 strikes on Saturday.
4:16am: Libyan national security officers direct traffic in the rebel-held city of Misrata