US agencies say Libya attack may awaken al Qaeda

Al Qaeda has not so far taken advantage of the upheavals in the Middle East but the militant Islamic group may do so if the U.S.-led campaign in Libya does not end quickly, U.S. intelligence agencies say.

EDITOR'S NOTE: PICTURE TAKEN ON GUIDED GOVERNMENT TOUR A view of a naval military facility damaged by coalition air strikes in eastern Tripoli, March 22, 2011.

Public comments on the regional uprisings by al Qaeda figures like deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri have had little resonance in the Islamic world, intelligence and national security officials told Reuters.

There is little evidence al Qaeda or sympathizers played a direct or indirect role in protests that erupted in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and Libya, they said.

But before the U.N.-authorized mission began against Libya, U.S. intelligence agencies were advising President Barack Obama that another attack by U.S. forces on a Muslim country could spur militants to meddle in the protests and encourage new plots against the United States.

Missing journalists ordered freed in Libya

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has ordered the release of three journalists missing in Libya, including two working with Agence France-Presse and a Getty Images photographer, Getty said on Tuesday.

"We at Getty Images are delighted to learn that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has ordered the release of our staff photographer, Joe Raedle, along with Roberto Schmidt, staff photographer with Agence France Presse and David Clark, a reporter with Agence France Presse," the agency said in a statement.

AFP photographer Roberto Schmidt arrives at Rixos hotel after he was released by the Libyan government in Tripoli March 23, 2011.

"We are grateful to those involved that helped to secure the group's release and we will continue to support the work our photojournalists undertake to document news events," Getty added.

Syrian forces kill 6 in mosque attack - residents

Syrian forces killed at least six people on Wednesday in an attack on a mosque in the southern city of Deraa, site of unprecedented protests challenging President Bashar al-Assad's Baathist rule, residents said.

Protesters gather near the Omari Mosque in the southern old city of Deraa, March 22, 2011.

Those killed included Ali Ghassab al-Mahamid, a doctor from a prominent Deraa family who went to the Omari mosque in the city's old quarter to help victims of the attack, which occurred just after midnight, said the residents, declining to be named.

Before the attack, electricity was cut off in the area and telephone services were severed. Cries of "Allahu Akbar (God is the greatest)" erupted across neighbourhoods in Deraa when the shooting began.

It was not immediately clear whether the protesters had any weapons.

U.S. sees key NATO role on Libya, but questions remain

Western nations waging an air campaign in Libya agreed on Tuesday to use NATO to drive the military effort but lack the backing of all alliance members and are divided on the mission's leadership.

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about Libya in a news conference during his meeting with Chile's President Sebastian Pinera at La Moneda Palace in Santiago, March 21, 2011.

U.S. President Barack Obama, hoping to hand over U.S. command of Libya operations to allies within days, agreed with British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy that NATO would play a key role, the White House said.

But the allies stopped short of endorsing NATO political leadership of the mission, which would be difficult for alliance member Turkey to accept and undercut shaky Arab support for the effort to protect Libyans from Muammar Gaddafi's forces.

France has called for a "political steering body" including Arab countries to take charge of the no-fly zone operation.

Yemen opposition call for mass protests on Friday

Yemen opposition groups called on protesters to march on President Ali Abdullah Saleh's Sanaa palace on Friday to demand he step down, hoping to end a crisis that his allies abroad fear will benefit Islamic militants.

Girls shout slogans during a rally demanding the ouster of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa March 18, 2011.

"Friday will be the 'Friday of the March Forward', with hundreds of thousands of people... We will arrive where you are and we will remove you," opposition spokesman Mohamed Qahtan told Al Jazeera on Wednesday, addressing the beleaguered Yemeni leader.

Seven weeks of street protests against Saleh's 32-year rule of the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state has raised alarm in Western capitals at the prospect of a country where al Qaeda has entrenched itself falling apart.

China seizes on Libya for propaganda war against West

A plot to seize Libya's oil. A warning to the world that the West will cling to dominance. A flagrant display of hypocrisy over human rights.

Libyan army soldiers stand on a building, destroyed in what the government said was a western missile attack, inside Bab Al-Aziziyah, Gaddafi's heavily fortified Tripoli compound March 21, 2011. (REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra)

China's ruling Communist Party has countered the West's air strikes against Libya's Muammar Gaddafi with a torrent of such criticisms in state-run newspapers and television, mounting a propaganda campaign to deter the public from any temptation to copy Arab insurrections against authoritarian rulers.

The media drive shows how nervous China's leaders are about any challenges to their firm hold on power, and especially about online comments that Western action in Libya shows the supremacy of international human rights standards, said Li Datong, a former editor at a Chinese party newspaper.

"The Chinese Communist Party sees a big threat in the idea that human rights and democratic demands can outweigh state sovereignty. They want to counter all that," said Li, who was forced out of his job for denouncing censorship.

Strikes on Libya set to slow, stalemate feared

Anti-aircraft fire rang out across Tripoli for a third night but air attacks on Libya are likely to slow, a U.S. general said, as Washington holds back from being sucked into the Libyan civil war.

Libyan army fire anti-aircraft rounds during air strikes by coalition forces in Tripoli March 21, 2011. (REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra)

State television said several sites had come under attack in the capital on Monday. Western powers had no confirmation of new strikes in a U.N.-mandated campaign to enforce a no-fly zone and protect civilians from Muammar Gaddafi's forces.

Rebels, who had been driven back towards their eastern Benghazi stronghold before the air attacks halted an advance by Gaddafi's forces, have so far done little to capitalise on the campaign -- raising fears the war could grind to a stalemate.

Gaddafi tells West to stay out of Libya

While Gaddafi addressed loyalists in Tripoli, people in rebel-held Benghazi threw shoes at his televised image.

Yemen president fires cabinet

At least 52 people were killed in a bloody crackdown on protesters on Friday.

America's Saudi air war

Controversy has built around a proposal to bring dozens of Saudi pilots to an Idaho training facility to learn how to pilot F-15E Strike Eagles, 84 of which Saudi Arabia is purchasing in a new arms deal.

Strikes on Libya - a military perspective

International forces, with Arab League approval, launched airstrikes on Libya on Saturday.

Obama woos Brazil while Libya air assault unfolds

President Barack Obama praised Brazil's rise as an emerging power on Sunday, calling the South American country an equal partner of the United States as he pressed on with a trip overshadowed by a U.S. and European air assault on Muammar Gaddafi's forces in Libya.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff toast during lunch in Itamaraty Palace in Brasilia March 19, 2011. Obama is on the first leg of a three-country tour of Latin America.

Western powers strike Libya for second night

Western powers launched a second wave of air strikes on Libya early on Monday after halting the advance of Muammar Gaddafi's forces on Benghazi and targeting air defences to let their planes patrol the skies.

One of three Air Force Global Strike Command B-2 Spirit bombers returns to home base at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, March 20, 2011 after striking targets in support of the international response which is enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya.

US hits Libya air defences

Hours after US and British ships pounded Libya with precision missiles, American officials are eager to confirm that the damage was extensive enough to allow air patrols to protect civilians being targeted by embattled strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

British forces strike against Libya air defences

British forces yesterday took part in a “co-ordinated strike against Libyan air defence systems”, the country’s military said.“I can confirm that British armed forces have participated in another co-ordinated strike against Libyan air defence systems,” Chief of Defence Staff’s Strategic Communications Officer Major General John Lorimer said in a defence ministry (MoD) statement.

British Muslim, a Miss Universe contestant, receives death threats

A 24-year-old British Muslim woman, who entered the qualifying rounds of the Miss Universe contest, has reportedly received death threats on charges of denigrating Islam, a media report said on yesterday.Shanna Bukhari, a Pakistani-origin woman, wanted to be the first Muslim to represent the United Kingdom in a global beauty pageant but has been subjected to a flood of online hate messages, reports the Press Trust of India (PTI), quoting the Guardian.

Coalition strike hits Gaddafi's control centre

Gaddafi

An airstrike against an administrative building in a compound including Moamer Kadhafi’s residence in Tripoli destroyed the Libyan leader’s “command and control capability,” a coalition official told AFP yesterday.
“The coalition is actively enforcing UNSCR (UN Security Council Resolution) 1973, and that in keeping with that mission, we continue to strike those targets which pose a direct threat to the Libyan people and to our ability to implement the no-fly zone,” the official added.

Highlights from Obama statement on Libya action

The following are excerpts of U.S. President's Barack Obama's statement to reporters traveling with him in Brazil on the start of U.S. military action in Libya:

"Today I authorized the armed forces of the United States to begin a limited action in Libya in support of an international effort to protect Libyan civilians. That action has now begun.

U.S. President Barack Obama in South Korea, November 19, 2009. (REUTERS/Jim Young/Files)

US military takes lead on Libya but for how long?

A wary U.S. military, stretched thin by almost a decade of war, hardly wanted to be the face of another coalition strike on another Arab nation.

Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Stout (DDG 55) launches a Tomahawk missile in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn in the Mediterranean Sea on March 19, 2011 in this handout photo released to Reuters on Saturday. (REUTERS/Jeramy Spivey/U.S. Navy photo/Handout)

But just hours after U.S. warships and submarines launched a massive volley of Tomahawk cruise missiles at Libya, the big question at the Pentagon was not whether the United States was effectively in the lead but when it might hand over the reins to an ally.

Yes, French warplanes made the first, initial strikes in Libya. Indeed, British forces also were involved and a British submarine joined the United States in launching cruise missiles at the Libyan coast.

But the Pentagon acknowledged the strike on Libya -- the biggest military intervention in the Arab world since the 2003 invasion of Iraq -- was being spearheaded initially by the United States.

China calls for stability in Libya after attacks

China wants stability restored to Libya as soon as possible, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday after Western forces launched strikes against Muammar Gaddafi's troops.

Expressing regret about the attacks, the Chinese foreign ministry said that it hoped the conflict would not escalate and lead to greater loss of civilian life.

Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Stout (DDG 55) launches a Tomahawk missile in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn in the Mediterranean Sea on March 19, 2011 in this handout photo released to Reuters on Saturday. (REUTERS/Ho New)

China had the chance to veto last week's United Nations Security Council resolution that authorised "all necessary measures", a term for military action, to protect civilians against Gaddafi's forces. Instead, it joined Russia, Germany, India and Brazil in abstaining.

China has been trying to balance its worries about allowing military action with the demands of Arab and other governments angered by Gaddafi's unyielding response to uprisings demanding an end to his rule.

"China has noticed the latest developments in Libya and it expresses regret about the military attacks," the foreign ministry said in a statement on its website.