Egypt, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: A Turn in the Protests

1955 GMT: C.J. Chivers of The New York Times summarises the day's fighting near the opposition-held Ajdabiya in east Libya:

Colonel Qaddafi’s forces began the attack late on Saturday morning with barrages of rocket or artillery fire onto the city’s center. Then, as the smoke rose and confusion reigned, they sent a contingent of ground troops into the city , where a gun battle broke out.

The loyalists’ assault was more determined and organized than the ambushes and exchanges of rocket and artillery fire of recent days. Barrage after barrage of incoming fire thudded and exploded in the city, and loyalist troops advanced behind it. Thick smoke rose and drifted from central parts of Ajdabiya, and by noon, doctors were evacuating the city’s hospital as explosions shook the streets.

Many of the rebels fled once again, streaming north up the highway toward Benghazi, horns honking. One rebel shouted at vehicles as they passed: “Qaddafi’s forces are coming! Go! Go! Go!”

But at least a small cadre of lightly armed local residents remained to fight, stopping the advancing loyalists on the central Istanbul Street.

“We killed 10 of them,” said Said Halum, who stood in the morgue in the late afternoon over the body of his brother, Abdul Ghadir, who had been shot between the eyes. “Our group split into two groups on Istanbul Street and fought them. The firing was very heavy.”

As the gun battle within the city raged, the main rebel force rallied about 10 miles north and by evening was flowing back into the city, where they briefly re-established a degree of control of Ajdabiya’s eastern and central areas.

Gunfire started to ebb in these areas in the evening, but skirmishes could be heard at the city’s southern and western side, and then the barrages started again, prompting many rebels to flee again.

NATO airstrikes came into play in the battle --- at least one large mushroom cloud rose from the city’s western side at about 1:25 p.m. as pro-Qaddafi forces were barraging the city. But again the allied air campaign was unable to keep the colonel’s military from pressing the rebels, as has been the case throughout a week of fighting that saw the ragged opposition forces losing key footholds on the main coastal road, including the city of Brega.

1945 GMT: NATO warplanes have intercepted a MiG-23 fighter jet, flown by an insurgent, and forced it to land near Benghazi.

1940 GMT: Claimed footage of a group of activists, part of the February 17 youth movement, in a small protest at dawn in Tripoli. In a statement, translated by Al Jazeera English, the activists declared there main objectives to be support of efforts to oust Gaddafi, lifting of morale in the silenced capital, resistance to attempts to silence dissent, and solidarity with pro-democracy fighters across Libya.

1905 GMT: An image, from Libyan State TV, claiming to be of leader Muammar Qaddafi visiting a school in Tripoli on Saturday morning.

Image: AFP/Libya TV

1900 GMT: The Associated Press is reporting that about 100,000 people marched in Taiz in southern Yemen today.

There were clashes in the capital Sanaa, with the streets littered with rocks and gas canisters, as riot police with batons were out in force.

Demonstrations were earlier reported in Aden (see 1700 GMT).

1700 GMT: Tens of thousands of anti-regime protesters have rallied again in the cities of Aden and Taiz in Yemen, angered by President Ali Abdullah Saleh's refusal to step down.

Saleh, in a speech to supporters on Friday, rejected a Gulf Cooperation Council initiative in which he would leave office in exchange for immunity from prosecution for him and his family.

1650 GMT: The Associated Press summarises the live fire by Syrian security forces on protesters in the cities of Latakia and Darra today. A resident in Latakia says the shooting lasted for almost two hours.

1635 GMT: An interesting note around the raids by security forces on Tahrir Square in Cairo --- the Egyptian military said this afternoon that any journalist who filmed its press conference for live broadcast would be arrested.

1625 GMT: In Libya, regime forces have pushed back in the battle in the north, moving to the western end of Ajdabiya and shelling the city from the north, south, and west. Al Jazeera reports seven deaths in the fighting and says there have been hand-to-hand battles inside the city.

Better fortune for the opposition in Misurata in the west --- insurgents report four NATO airstrikes today on regime positions.

1615 GMT: Thanks to EA staff for taking you through the afternoon on the LiveBlog.

The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights says that prominent activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja has been arrested, along with two sons-in-law.

The group claimed, “[Security forces] broke the front door to the house and then beat them severely” along with another man. It added, “Al-Khawaja was beaten so severely that the blood stain is still visible on the staircase. And when his oldest daughter, Zainab, tried to intervene she was beaten as well.”

Al-Khawaja lived in exile for 12 years before he was allowed to return under a general amnesty. He was imprisoned for political dissent in 2004 and later pardoned by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

1610 GMT: A picture from Tahrir Square.

1600 GMT: The Egyptian army has told TV crews that anyone live broadcasting their press conference today will be arrested.

1530 GMT: Another group of protestors in Deraa, Syria.

1520 GMT: While protestors are trying to help another one shot by security forces.

1500 GMT: Syrian forces fire at thousands of mourners after mass funeral for dead pro-democracy protesters in Deraa.

1130 GMT: According to Reuters, Syrian forces used live ammunition overnight to disperse protest in Latakia and dozens are reported injured.

1100 GMT: Tunisia has imposed a travel ban on all people involved in corruption cases as well as relatives and advisers of ousted leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

0945 GMT: Al Jazeera English is reporting from medical sources that two protesters were killed and 15 injured in the early-morning clashes in Tahrir Square in Cairo.

0922 GMT: Egypt's armed forces are accusing tycoon Ibrahim Kamel, a senior member of the former ruling National Democratic Party, of organising this morning's clashes in Tahrir Square, demanding his arrest for "incitement and thuggery".

0920 GMT: The Yemeni regime has recalled its ambassador from Qatar for consultations, days after Qatar's Prime Minister said Gulf states had agreed a plan for Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.

Saleh initially accepted an offer by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states of talks with the opposition but on Friday, he told tens of thousands of supporters in the capital Sanaa: "We don't get our legitimacy from Qatar or from anyone else ... we reject this belligerent intervention."

Five protesters were killed in clashes in the southern city of Taiz on Friday.

0915 GMT: Several hundred protesters have regrouped in Cairo's Tahrir Square after it was cleared early this morning by security forces.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera English's Mike Hanna offers this update on some of the 15 to 20 military officers who joined the demonstrators: "Those army officers were taken away, we do not know where they are being detained at the moment."

Hanna assesses, "What added fuel to the flames as far as the military is concerned is the fact that seven of its officers were with the demonstrators in the square. It clearly took this as a direct challenge, having issued orders that no soldier were to take part in the demonstration, this scene was a particulary affront to the military, and clearly this added an edge to whatever actions they did."

0520 GMT: Tahrir Square in Cairo this morning:

0510 GMT: In Libya, clashes continued Friday around Misurata, the third-largest city and only 210 km (130 miles) from Tripoli, where regime forces have been trying for almost six weeks to seize control. The opposition said they had repelled an assault from the east.

Five people were killed and at least 10 injured, a witness told Reuters.

Associated Press, via Al Jazeera English, reports further:

A government-controlled trip to Misurata today instead suggested that the situation of Gaddafi's troops had grown more dire after weeks of laying siege to the enemy's stronghold, says the Associated Press news agency.

Reporters were taken to the same road junction, more than a mile from the centre of town, where government officials took them about 10 days ago. Back then, it was to show the effects of a NATO airstrike. This time, it was simply as far as the tour could go before the sounds of gunfire and shelling forced officials to turn around.

At one point, the journalists took cover amid gunfire. A Libyan soldier, Walid Mohammed Walid, received a head wound in the shooting and was taken to a hospital.

And while Gadhafi's forces at the intersection were seen on open ground on the earlier visit, this time the few soldiers there were hiding out in buildings or on rooftops.

Near opposition-held Zintan in the far northwest of the country, NATO airstrikes hit large weapons depots belonging to regime forces, according to a resident,

0450 GMT: Another Friday of widespread protests, clashes, and deaths in Syria. State TV maintained that 19 security forces were killed and 75 were wounded by "armed groups", while activists says at least 22 protesters had been slain, most of them in the southern town of Daraa, where the anti-regime effort was sparked three weeks ago.

Sources said the army had been deployed in large numbers in Daraa, and an Al Jazeera correspondent reported that the State TV building had been burned down. He also said people were afraid of going to hospitals in case they were kidnapped by secret police

And then there was this significant turn in the regime's declarations:

Over the past Fridays there were a lot of demonstrations in which armed groups used weapons to kill people and security forces --- and though we understand that protesting is a right of the population, we can no longer allow chaos to take place and official buildings to be destroyed. So we will use all the means to stop the chaos from taking place.

0440 GMT: We start this morning in Egypt, where street battles between protesters and security forces moved through central Cairo, hours after hundreds of army soldiers and Central Security personnel stormed Tahrir Square. Protesters and riot police threw rocks at each other, and security forces fired tear gas near the Egyptian Museum to disperse crowds.

Security forces charged the square at around 3 a.m. firing shots into the air, brandishing tasers and batons, and beating people.

Before the crackdown at Tahrir Square, both Cairo and Alexandria saw some of the largest demonstrations since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak on 11 February. The Muslim Brotherhood joined the protests in the square, the symbolic centre of the uprising, and the demands for prosecution of the members of the Mubarak regime.

Islam Lotfy of the Brotherhood and the Youth Coalition explains the shift in the Brotherhood's participation:

There was another significant addition to the ranks of the demonstrators on Friday: defying a ban issued Thursday, fifteen Egyptian soldiers and mid-level army officers joined. Several mounted one of the stages eand called for the Supreme Military Council, which currently leads Egypt, to be dissolved and replaced by a civilian presidential council.

An Army lieutenant colonel and a military police officer tried to get to the center of square late last night, but they were surrounded by demonstrators who chanted "Get out, get out." Crowd members began pushing the officers and knocking off their hats. The officers started running and were pursued out of the square.