Syria, Yemen, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: An Attack with Helicopters

1745 GMT: Regime forces and insurgents have been fighting in Zawiyah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Tripoli, shutting the coastal highway to Tunisia.

Activists on social media are claiming at least 30 people have been killed.

"The situation is very bad in Zawiyah. There's been fierce fighting since the morning between the Gaddafi forces and the rebels," said a resident.

The opposition held Zawiyah for a few weeks this spring before the town fell to the regime.

1735 GMT: Yemeni authorities say the army has killed 21 Al Qa'eda members in Abyan Province in the south.

Nine Yemeni soldiers were reportedly slain.

The provincial capital Zinjibar was occupied by insurgents last month.

1730 GMT: Residents and refugees from the besieged Syrian town of Jisr al-Shughour report ongoing fighting. One said, “Helicopters and tanks are bombing Jisr from all the sides and the situation is extremely miserable --- they are even targeting cars carrying civilians and the wounded.”

Claimed footage of attack helicopters above the town:

1725 GMT: Claimed footage of protest in Damascus on Friday:

1645 GMT: More than 10,000 demonstrators have marched in a section of Bahrain's capital Manama in the first "official" public rally in months.

The monarchy allowed the rally in a bid to ease tensions with the opposition, just over a week after the lifting of emergency rule.

“With our blood and soul, we sacrifice for Bahrain" and”we are the winners”, the crowd chanted. Security forces stayed back while police helicopters passed overhead. No clashes were reported.

Calling for continuing protests, Sheik Ali Salman, head of the opposition party Wefaq, told the demonstration, “We salute every mother who lived through the fear of having the door of her home kicked in by security forces or her children taken away. We salute every father who participated in the peaceful rallies."

1530 GMT: In Kuwait, Nasser Abul has been arrested for publishing criticism of the ruling families in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia on Twitter.

1520 GMT: An activist in Maarat al-Numan in north-west Syria says residents have formed committees to protect public property after fears that regime forces will destroy buildings as a pretext to escalating a military assault on the area.

The activist said he witnessed an attack on Saturday on the head office of the local State Security branch by some of the five helicopter gunships deployed in the area: "I think this is going to be used to accuse protestors of burning down state security. But they are peaceful protestors not using violence. It’s the regime using violence against the protestors."

Activists said at least 23 people have been killed by shelling of the town.

1445 GMT: Dramatic footage of fighting near Zliten, west of Misurata in western Libya --- despite being wounded early in the clip, the cameraman continues to film:

1435 GMT: Protest on Friday in Hama in Syria:

1130 GMT: The family of detained poet Ayat al-Gormezi has claimed that Bahraini security forces beat her across the face with electric cable and forced her to clean dirty lavatories with her bare hands.

The 20-year-old trainee teacher, who spent nine days in a tiny cell with the air conditioning turned to freezing, is due back in court this weekend on charges of inciting hatred, insulting the king, and illegal assembly.

Masked police arrested Ayat at her home on 30 March for reciting a poem criticising the monarchy during a pro-democracy rally in the capital Manama in February.

1125 GMT: Bahrain’s leading Shiite cleric, Sheik Isa Qassim, said Friday there is no chance for talks with the Gulf nation’s Sunni regime while security forces maintain their clampdown on pro-reform protesters.

Sheik Qassim, joined by other Shiite clerics, denounced “daily security harassment” with checkpoints, arrest sweeps and other measures that were “building hatred among the people".

1105 GMT: Al Jazeera English reports on the Friday bombardment of Misurata by Libyan regime forces, killing at least 31 people:

1045 GMT: Footage which appears to show the complicated political situation in Yemen....

A pro-reform protest on Wednesday outside the home of the Acting President, Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, is broken up --- not by the regime's troops but by the forces of dissident General Ali Mohsen Al-Ahmar.

0530 GMT: The people came out again yesterday across Syria. Thousands, despite the escalation of the Assad regime's attempts to suppress them, demonstrated on the "Day of Clans". 

A simple repetition of the weekly pattern? Not quite. Beyond the continuing mystery of Jisr al-Shughour in the northwest --- where dozens of people have died, thousands have fled across the border into Turkey, and there may have been a mutiny within the military --- two twists in the tale....

First, the Syrian military reportedly turned to attack helicopters yesterday. In the western town of Ma'arat al-Nu'man, at least five people were allegedly slain by firing from the air.

Second, the regime was unable to firewall its largest cities. The protesters not only came out in Homs, the country's third-largest city which has been a centre of the calls for reforms, video testified to their presence in the capital Damascus and Syria's second city Aleppo.

In Yemen, the reports of direct clashes eased after weeks of escalation. Instead, there was a return to the protests of the earliest phase of the uprising against President Saleh, with demonstrators on both sides turning out in many thousands in the capital Sana'a.

In Libya, there was also a return to an earlier phase, this one the deadly regime bombardment of opposition-held Misurata. More than 30 people were reportedly killed and 110 wounded in an assault by Qaddafi forces.

Misurata, Libya's third-largest city, has held out against a siege of more than two months by the regime troops.