Wars, Libyan War | featured news

The U.N. General Assembly voted Friday to give Libya's seat in the world body to the former rebels' National Transitional Council which led the rebellion that ousted Muammar Qaddafi. The vote means that a senior council official will be able to join world leaders and speak for Libya at next week's ministerial session of the General Assembly and also participate in meetings.

In addition to the assault on Sirte, opposition forces continue their fight in Bani Walid, another Kadafi stronghold. Fighting continued in Moammar Kadafi's hometown of Sirte on Friday, with 13 anti-Kadafi troops reported killed and at least 25 wounded.

Airlines are readying their return to Libya, ports largely shuttered during the fighting are receiving cargos and foreign oil companies that had fled the country's civil war are making tentative steps back....

Forces loyal to the deposed Libyan leader attacked the Mediterranean port of Ras Lanuf on Monday, killing at least 15 anti-Qaddafi fighters, the transitional rebel government reported.

A convoy carrying ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s son al-Saadi has crossed into neighboring Niger, a spokesman for Niger’s government said Sunday, the highest profile former regime figure to flee to the landlocked African nation. Al-Saadi, the fugitive ruler’s 37-year-old son, entered Niger in a convoy with nine other people, said Niger Justice Minister Amadou Morou. The vehicles were traveling south toward the outpost of Agadez, where other fleeing Libyan loyalists are believed to be holed up in a hotel.

As Interpol issued arrest warrants for the fugitive Libyan autocrat Col. Muammar Qaddafi and two others on Friday, reports came from Niger of a new convoy of high-ranking Libyan officials arriving across the desert.

Scores of Libyan army vehicles have crossed the desert frontier into Niger in what may be a dramatic, secretly negotiated bid by Muammar Gaddafi to seek refuge in a friendly African state, military sources from France and Niger told Reuters on Tuesday.

Chinese arms firms offered to sell weapons worth about $200 million to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's beleaguered forces in July, two newspapers reported, compounding pressure on Beijing's brittle ties with the rebels who have ousted him.

"Negotiations are over, and we are waiting for orders" to attack, said Mohammed al-Fassi, a rebel commander at a staging area about 45 miles from Bani Walid.

Libya's provisional government said it was closing in on bastions of support for Muammar Gaddafi on Saturday and planned to resume oil production at key fields within days.