Rebels reinforce Nawfaliyah with Grad rocket launchers

A Libyan rebel fighter sits in a bedroom of Gaddafi's private plane. A half dozen explosions were heard in the distance early Monday in Tripoli just after a NATO warplane flew over the Libyan capital. The blasts were heard just before 1:00 am (2300 GMT Sunday) as rebels

across the city celebrated their victory against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, firing automatic weapons into the air, an AFP correspondent reported. After the explosions, the joyful shooting by the rebels came to an abrupt halt for several minutes, bringing an unusual calm to Tripoli, before resuming more cautiously.
As Libyan fighters are advancing towards Muammar Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte, a United Nations plan for post-Gaddafi Libya waas leaked, which calls for the deployment of 200 unarmed military observers and 190 UN police officers to start a transition leading to elections in six to nine months. The ten page document, published by Inner City Press, the UN watchdog site, was written by a special UN team led by Ian Martin, the former British head of Amnesty International.
The full document can be read here: http://www.innercitypress.com/martin1unlibya1icp.pdf. Rebels have come under fire from forces still loyal to the embattled Libyan leader, Al Jazeera's correspondents reported. "The main military push right now is the push towards Sirte... Sirte is certainly the focus for now," Al Jazeera's James Bays said, reporting from the capital, Tripoli, on Sunday. Jamal Tunally, a rebel military commander in Misrata, told Reuters: "The front line is 30 km from Sirte. We think the Sirte situation will be resolved peacefully, God willing." "Now we just need to find Gaddafi. I think he is still hiding underneath Bab al-Aziziyah like a rat," he said, referring to Gaddafi's Tripoli compound that rebels overran on Tuesday. From the east, rebel fighters pushed 7 km past the village of Bin Jawad and secured the Nawfaliyah junction, a rebel spokesman said. "We're going slowly," spokesman Mohammad Zawawi told Reuters. "We want to give more time for negotiations, to give a chance for those people trying to persuade the people inside Sirte to surrender and open their city." Meanwhile, rebels are bringing in multi-Grad rocket launchers to reinforce the area around Nawfaliyah. Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel Hamid reported from Nawfaliya:
'We have been standing here at Nawfaliya junction for the past few hours.. from what we understand, now Nawfaliya is totally under control of the Libyan fighters. They say the Gaddafi fighters are not there anymore..
'The fighters are gathering here, this is the main road that leads to Sirte, about 130km from here. They are trying to stay a bit back because we have heard a lot of NATO activity over the last few hours. We have heard some jets as well as some strikes. NATO has been intensifying its heat in and around Sirte over the last 48 hours..
"Here in the east there is a huge difference than a few months ago. they used to go up and down this highway that leads all the way from really the Egyptian border to the Tunisian border. and all they were doing was pushing forward and retreating. Now you see a different pattern, they are more organised, they have slightly more experience with their weapons and they are also listening to orders it seems. In the past, military commanders in Benghazi were saying they could not control them, that they were over-enthusiastic. I have to say that the fighters here, especially on the eastern front, have taken twice a good beating and it's each time was around this area of Bin Jawad, Nawfaliya. Now they will have to advance very crucially, they do need to get past this hurdle, some sort of a psychological hurdle as well. Becuase they do understand that compared to the rest of the country, they now need to show what they are capable of."
Sirte is considered the last remaining bastion of support for the man whose decades-long rule of Libya is effectively over, with the National Transitional Council (NTC) now widely recognised as the country's legitimate government. As fighters advanced west, there were pockets of dissent within the country accusing the NTC of not being transparent enough in nominating members for a new administration. Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons, reporting from a protest in Misrata, said: "They [the protesters] say the old guard of the Gaddafi regime are far too prominent in the list of people issued so far.
"They are also insisting there should be new faces for a new Libya.
"A lot of this is due to communications and the way the National Transitional Council has been concentrating so much on diplomacy and the economy, and maybe not looking inwards enough."
However, as they move towards Gaddafi's final stronghold in Sirte, Libya is coming to terms with the aftermath of the war. Reporting from the road between Tripoli and Zawiya, the BBC's Wyre Davies uncovered fears that the country could be on the verge of more crises as water and public health systems falter and a power vacuum threatens. Robin Wardo, of the International Committee of the Red Cross, told him "a humanitarian problem" could be developing. "It is a very steep learning curve here… we have to act quickly." The problems are especially acute for the migrant workers in the region, who have reported violence at the hands of Libyans after being accused of fighting for both sides. "This place is not safe for us," Nicholas, a worker from Nigeria, told him. "I want to go to Europe. We don't want to stay in this place." In related news, at a chief of staff meeting for countries involved in military operations in Libya, NATO representatives said their "mission is incomplete". Liam Fox, the British Defense Minister, told Al Jazeera that NATO airstrikes will continue until the threat to civilians is over. "As soon as they [civilians] are no longer threatened by remnants of the Gaddafi regime the NATO mission will be over," Fox said. "The easiest way for it to end is for Gaddafi's men to lay down arms. The regime needs to recognise that they need to work with the NTC."  While a senior Egyptian diplomat will lead a delegation to Libya this week to offer help to its new rulers, Egyptian state news agency MENA reported on Sunday. Deputy Foreign Minister Ayman al-Mashrafa said Egypt was ready to help its neighbour rebuild after six months of civil war and would assist it in areas such as health, education and mine clearence, the ministry said in a statement on MENA.
Furthermore, they are waiting for reinforcement from the capital. Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting live from Tripoli, said:
"There are no lack of men who actually lack weapons, but what you lack are trained fighters. We drove around the capital today to see what kind of security plan is being put in place. We went to a base where the fighters from Misrata have set up their position and they told me they cannot leave until they are sure that the capital is secure.
"Until Tripoli is secure we are not going to see these fighters head back home and you are going to need them if you are going to open new battles like in Sirte or in Sabha, further south another stronghold of the Libyan leader."
Iran "discreetly" provided humanitarian aid to Libyan rebels before the fall of Tripoli, Jam-e-Jam newspaper quoted foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Sunday as saying. "We were in touch with many of the rebel groups in Libya before the fall of (Muammar) Gaddafi, and discreetly dispatched three or four food and medical consignments to Benghazi," Salehi told the daily.
"The head of the National Transitional Council (NTC), Mustafa Abdel Jalil,  sent a letter of thanks to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for having been on  their side and helping," he added. Since the Libyan uprising erupted in mid-February, Iran has adopted a dual  approach - criticising the Gaddafi  regime for its violent assaults on the rebels while at the same time condemning NATO's military intervention. On Tuesday, Iran "congratulated the Muslim people of Libya" after rebels overran the capital Tripoli, but it has so far distanced itself from officially recognising the NTC.
Reuters reported that Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the chairman of the National Transitional Council (NTC) said Muammar Gaddafi, who has not been seen since rebels took over the Libyan capital of Tripoli a week ago, is still a threat to the country and the world. Speaking at a meeting in Doha, Qatar, of defence ministers from countries supporting the insurgency against Gaddafi's rule,NTC Chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil called on NATO to keep supporting the movement.
"I call for continued protection from NATO and its allies from this tyrant," Abdel Jalil said.
Although on Sunday, sources told Al Jazeera that Gaddafi was ready to discuss a transition of power to be negotiated by his son, al-Saadi. Moussa Ibrahim, Gaddafi's spokesman, earlier told the Associated Press news agency in a phone call that Gaddafi was still in Libya and prepared to discuss the formation of a transitional government. The phone call appears to represent a change of policy by Gaddafi, who last week referred to the rebels as "thugs" and "rats" and urged loyalists to continue fighting even as his opponents seized control of Tripoli. But a top official in the NTC told Reuters that Libya's rebel government would not negotiate with Gaddafi unless he surrendered. "No negotiation is taking place with Gaddafi," Ali Tarhouni, the NTC official in charge of oil and financial matters said. Gaddafi's whereabouts remains unknown and fighters have offered a reward for his capture or killing.
In other news, the NTC has been nominating members for a new government, but there is  public resistance to the appointments. Libyans have held protests within the country accusing the NTC of not being transparent enough. Andrew Simmons, reporting from a protest in Misrata, said: "They [the protesters] say the old guard of the Gaddafi regime are far too prominent in the list of people issued so far. "They are also insisting there should be new faces for a new Libya. "A lot of this is due to communications and the way the National Transitional Council has been concentrating so much on diplomacy and the economy, and maybe not looking inwards enough." On Monday, a leaked United Nations plan for post-Gaddafi Libya calls for the deployment of 200 unarmed military observers and 190 UN police officers to start a transition leading to elections in six to nine months. The ten page document, published by Inner City Press, the UN watchdog site, was written by a special UN team led by Ian Martin, the former British head of Amnesty International.
The full document can be read here: http://www.innercitypress.com/martin1unlibya1icp.pdf
More than 50 bodies have been found at a warehouse in Yarmouk near Tripoli, behind the headquarters of a feared army unit, the Khamis Brigade, a powerful Gaddafi military force run by Muammar Gaddafi’s son Khamis. Survivors say they were civilians, massacred by Gaddafi's forces earlier this week. Zeina Khoudor reporting from Yarmouk said approximately 150 dead bodies were found inside a makeshift jail when "Gaddafi's forces opened fire and threw grenades" at the detainees. Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) estimates that between 57,000 and 60,000 men were arrested by Col Gadaffi's regime in the past six months. Around 10,000 have been freed. The rebels believe they may be being held in underground bunkers, which have since been abandoned. Rights groups have seen evidence that dozens of people have been massacred near prisons, but Col Bani did not accuse anyone of killing the prisoners. "The number of people arrested over the past months is estimated at between 57,000 and 60,000," he said in a news conference in Benghazi. "Between 10,000 and 11,000 prisoners have been freed up until now... so where are the others?" The colonel appealed for anyone with information to come forward, and said it would be "catastrophic" if they had been killed. Mahmoud Jibril, a leading figure in the NTC, meanwhile, appealed for restraint and urged Libyans not to take revenge. "Don't get taken aback while you are at the height of your celebrations... It's the right of all of us, to understand why we've been treated badly for the last 42 years. There will be a true opportunity for every prisoner to have a fair trial, and to see their way to the light. "All Libyans have a responsibility today to protect their safety, what they own, and they must even protect those who have hurt us." Additionally, Prisoners detained by Libyan rebels in the battle for Tripoli include foreigners from several African countries, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Monday. "Yes, there are foreign nationals and of course we are concerned about any foreign nationals who were detained," Robin Waudo, the ICRC spokesman in Tripoli, told Reuters by phone.
"They're from Sub-Saharan Africa and the Maghreb as well." He did not specify their nationalities. In other news, the AP news agency reported that Mourad Medelic, the Algerian foreign minister, has met Mahmoud Jibril, the deputy head of the National Transitional Council. "Mr Medelci met with Mahmud Jibril on the sidelines of the Arab League meeting in Cairo which has just taken place,"  Amar Belani, foreign ministry spokesman, said in a statement. Algeria is the only one of Libya's North African neighbours which has yet to recognise the National Transitional Council, Libya's de facto government after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi . Medelci met Mahmoud Jibril, the head of the NTC's rebel executive committee, on the sidelines of an Arab League meeting in Cairo, Algeria's state APS agency said on Monday. It quoted Algerian Foreign Ministry spokesman Amar Belani as saying the meeting had been initiated by Jibril. Libyan rebel officials have previously accused Algeria of backing Gaddafi, an allegation Algeria has denied. 
In other news, AFP reported that France reopened its embassy in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Monday after it had been closed for the last six months, a foreign ministry spokesman said. "Our embassy in Tripoli has reopened today," Bernard Valero said in a press briefing.