Libya war: strike against Gaddafi

Channel 4 News has obtained photographs showing the devastation around a site near the Libyan city of Misrata where at least 12 rebels were killed in an explosions, blamed by locals on NATO.

Libya would have seen mass slaughter if the west had not gone in, writes Col Richard Kemp. But holding back from full-scale action means the allies are fighting with one hand tied behind their back.

NATO airstrikes force Gaddafi troops to withdraw from central areas of the besieged city of Misrata but shelling continues.

Alex Thomson blogs from four miles off the coast of Misrata, on board a ship bringing relief supplies to the besieged city.

Well connected in the west, Saif al-Islam had been tipped to succeed his father, Muammar Gaddafi, as leader of Libya – until his appearance on Libyan state TV.

The besieged port city of Misrata has been bombarded by pro-Gaddafi forces, killing at least three people as the Foreign Secretary warns Britain should prepare to be involved for the “long haul”.

An air strike by Nato forces flattens a building inside Colonel Gaddafi’s Bab al-Azizia compound in Tripoli. Meanwhile, government troops are reported to have resumed bombardment of Misrata.

“Getting past the phalanx of armed guards at the gates of the Rixos sans government minder is hard, but we’d obtained a contact who claimed to be a rebel fighter in the heart of the capital and we were determined to meet him. If he was prepared to take the risk, so were we…”

Channel 4 News Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jonathan Miller reports on the challenges of broadcasting stories from the parts of Libya still under Gaddafi’s control.

A 16-year-old boy tells reporter Ruth Sherlock how Gaddafi loyalists forced him and other youths to fight the rebels on the front line of Misrata’s bitter siege.

As the US approves armed drone attacks on President Gaddafi’s forces in Libya, Channel 4 News looks at America’s record of drone strikes in Pakistan, believed to be led by the CIA.

The use of the armed drones has been approved by President Obama, and they are already in operation. Predator drones have been used extensively in Pakistan and other areas without US ground troops.

Members of Colonel Gaddafi’s forces have reportedly handed themselves in to the Tunisian army after rebels seized a border crossing between Libya and Tunisia.

There was a split between the UN Security Council’s permanent members when they came to vote on a Libyan no-fly zone resolution. So who voted for what – and why?

Tributes are pouring in for Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, the two photojournalists killed in Misrata, including from Channel 4 News Foreign Correspondent Jonathan Miller in Tripoli.