Football: Libya, Niger qualify for African Cup

Nigeria and South Africa were eliminated after a day of drama and confusion.

South African footballers, coaches, supporters and media celebrated after a 0-0 home draw with Sierra Leone believing Bafana Bafana (The Boys) had made it only to discover later that little Niger had topped the table on the head-to-head rule despite a 3-0 drubbing in Egypt.

The eight qualifiers join co-hosts Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Senegal at the biennial African football showcase during January and February with the final two slots to be filled Sunday.

Although Zambia and Libya failed to score in Copperbelt town Chingola, the 0-0 draw took the home team through as a group winner while the North Africans took one of two places reserved for the best runners-up.

It was a remarkable achievement for the Libyans as fighting between pro and anti-Moamer Kadhafi forces meant the national team played only one of three home fixtures in Tripoli with Mali and Egypt hosting the others.

Only results against first and third-place finishers in four-nation groups count in the battle for the runners-up slots and Libya amassed eight points by taking four each off Zambia and Mozambique.

Libya: Thousands celebrate in Benghazi

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Benghazi in the early hours of Monday to celebrate, as rebels streamed into the heart of Tripoli.

Waving the Libyan s independent flag jubilant supporters gathered in one of the city s main square watching televised developments in Tripoli via giant screens.

Earlier, a convoy of rebels had entered a western neighbourhood of Tripoli. Rebels said the whole of the city was under their control except Gaddafi s Bab Al-Aziziyah stronghold.

Two of Gaddafi s sons were captured by the rebels, who were also reported to have seized the Libyan state radio building in the capital. Gaddafi s presidential guard units laid down their arms.

Remaining defiant, Gaddafi earlier had made two audio addresses over state television calling on Libyans to fight off the rebels.

But resistance to the rebels appeared to have largely faded away, allowing the rebels and their supporters to demonstrate in Green Square.

Televised images showed Libyans kneeling and kissing the ground of Tripoli in gratitude for what some called a “blessed day”.
After a six-month civil war, the fall of Tripoli came quickly, with a carefully orchestrated uprising launched on Saturday night to coincide with the advance of rebel troops on three fronts.

Libya rebels cheer in Tripoli, Gadhafi’s sons held

TRIPOLI, Libya — Libyan rebels waved opposition flags and shot into the air in jubilation after reaching Tripoli’s central Green Square, Sky news live footage from the scene showed in the early hours of Monday.

The vast square, reserved until now for carefully orchestrated rallies praising Moammar Gadhafi, erupted in celebration after rebel troops pushed into the center of the Libyan capital overnight.

The rebel leadership said Gadhafi’s son and one-time heir apparent Seif al-Islam had been arrested.Rebel leaders later said a second Gadhafi son, Mohammed, and the top military unit in charge of protecting the Libyan leader surrendered.

Associated Press reporters with the rebels said they met little resistance as they moved from the western outskirts into the capital in a dramatic turning of the tides in the 6-month-old Libyan civil war. The rebels took control of one neighborhood, Ghot Shaal, on the western edge of the city. They set up checkpoints as rebel trucks rolled into Tripoli.

One of the rebels, Mohammed al-Zawi, 30, said he was in a convoy of more than 10 trucks that entered Ghot Shaal. He said they progressed as far as the neighborhood of Girgash, about a mile and a half from Green Square, where Gadhafi supporters have gathered nightly throughout the uprising to rally for their leader of more than 40 years.

He said the rebels came under fire from a sniper on a rooftop in the neighborhood.

“They will enter Green Square tonight, God willing,” al-Zawi said.

Sidiq al-Kibir, the rebel leadership council’s representative for the capital Tripoli, confirmed the arrest of Seif al-Islam to the AP but did not give any further details.

Earlier, Gadhafi said he will stay in Tripoli “until the end” and called on his supporters around the country to help liberate the capital from a rebel offensive.

He said in an audio message played over state television he was “afraid that Tripoli will burn” and he said he would provide weapons to supporters to fight off the rebels.

Libyan leader’s Gaddafi grip on power at breaking point

Fierce street fighting was under way in Tripoli last night after rebel fighters landed by sea to reinforce an uprising inside the capital, signalling that the bloody endgame to the civil war was fast approaching, with revolutionary forces surrounding the city.

Parts of the capital were in flames as the regime sent tanks into residential areas and opened fire on protesting crowds in a desperate attempt to claw back control.

The rebels were, however, unable to break through last night as Muammar Gaddafi turned thousands of troops gathered for his last stand on opposition members inside the capital, with claims from fleeing residents of homes destroyed and roadside executions.

sons of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had been arrested

Cairo – Libyan rebels said on Sunday night that two sons of embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had been arrested, broadcaster Al Jazeera reported.

Seif al-Islam and al-Saadi were arrested in a tourist village in western Tripoli, Abu Bakr al-Tarbulsi, a rebel spokesperson told Al Jazeera from the Libyan capital.

There was no word on the whereabouts of Gaddafi, who spat defiance at opposition forces and Nato on Monday amid rumours he was preparing to flee the country.

The veteran leader predicted a swift end for “the rats” and the “coloniser”, referring to the rebels and Nato, in an audio message on Libyan television, extracts of which were published by Libyan news agency JANA.

“They [the rebels] flee from one house to another before the masses who are chasing them,” Gaddafi declared in what the television said was a live broadcast.

“The coloniser and its agents can now only resort to lies and psychological warfare after all the wars with all the weapons have failed,” Gaddafi said as rumours circulated on Twitter and other media about his imminent departure into exile.

Much of the message, his first in several weeks, was inaudible due to a “technical breakdown”, according to the television station.

Government spokesperson Mussa Ibrahim meanwhile said the regime’s armed forces were capable of retaking the towns and districts where the rebels have made advances in recent days.

“Our mujahedin forces are capable of exterminating these gangs,” he told a news conference reserved for the local press.

Ibrahim told a news conference on Sunday night that at least 1 300 civilians had been killed and more than 5 000 injured in Nato air strikes in Tripoli over the last 12 hours.

The capital’s hospitals could not cope with the rise in the number of wounded, he said.

Gaddafi defiant, govt said talking with rebels

TRIPOLI: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi urged his people early on Monday to “liberate Libya” from NATO and traitors, a day after rebels captured a key town on the road west to Tunisia, severing Tripoli’s main supply route.

Late on Sunday, representatives of Gaddafi’s government were holding talks with rebels at a hotel on the southern Tunisian island of Djerba, a source with direct knowledge of the talks said — though the government spokesman denied it.

The talks followed a dramatic advance by the rebels that won them control of the town of Zawiyah, 50 km (30 miles) west of Tripoli on the coast, enabling them to halt food and fuel supplies from Tunisia to Gaddafi’s stronghold in the capital.

Tripoli was not under immediate threat from a rebel attack, but rebel forces are now in their strongest position since the uprising against 41 years of Gaddafi’s rule began in February, controlling the coast both east and west of Tripoli.

The rebels are helped by NATO aircraft which, under a U.N. mandate to protect civilians from Gaddafi’s forces, are bombing military facilities and equipment that are trying to crush the rebel fighters.

Gaddafi’s speech on Monday, delivered over a poor quality telephone line and broadcast by state television in audio only, was his first public address since rebel fighters launched their latest offensive, the biggest in months.

“The Libyan people will remain and the Fateh revolution (which brought Gaddafi to power in 1969) will remain. Move forward, challenge, pick up your weapons, go to the fight for liberating Libya inch by inch from the traitors and from NATO,” the Libyan leader said.

“Get ready for the fight … The blood of martyrs is fuel for the battlefield,” he said, in what state television said was a live speech.

In Djerba late on Sunday, security staff turned away a Reuters reporter from the hotel where the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the talks between rebel and government representatives were being held.

Lights were on inside the hotel and a man in jeans and t-shirt, a list in his hand, was standing outside with hotel security staff.

In Tripoli, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim blamed Western leaders and the media for the spread of rumours that the government was engaged in talks on the leader’s departure from Libya.

“This information is absolutely incorrect and it is part of a media war against us. Their target is to confuse us, break our spirit, and shake our morale,” he said.

“The leader is here in Libya, fighting for the freedom of our nation. He will not leave Libya,” Ibrahim said.

Gaddafi’s characteristically defiant speech followed a day of action across a swathe of northwest Libya during which rebels said they had seized the town of Surman, next door to Zawiyah, there was fighting in the town of Garyan that controls the southern access to Tripoli, and shooting could be heard near the main Libyan-Tunisian border crossing.

REBEL FLAG

Rebels from the Western Mountains region to the south advanced into Zawiyah late on Saturday, and early on Sunday, about 50 rebel fighters were milling around near the central market, triumphantly shouting “Allahu Akbar!” (“God is greatest”).

The red, black and green rebel flag was flying from a shop. At the point where it passes through Zawiyah, the main highway linking Tripoli to Tunisia was empty of traffic.

Rebel fighters told Reuters there were still forces loyal to Gaddafi in the town, including snipers on tall buildings. Bursts of artillery and machinegun fire could be heard.

One rebel fighter said Gaddafi’s forces controlled the oil refinery on the northern edge of Zawiyah — a strategic target because it is the only one still functioning in western Libya and Gaddafi’s forces depend on it for fuel.

The fighting was spreading west from Zawiyah along the coastal highway towards the main Ras Jdir border crossing with Tunisia. A rebel spokesman called Abdulrahman said rebels had seized Surman, the next town west along the coast from Zawiyah.

But at the border crossing to Tunisia, Libyan customs and immigration officers were operating as usual, despite reports of clashes between rebels and pro-Gaddafi forces in the area late on Saturday.

On another front in Sunday’s fighting, heavy gunfire could be heard from the town Of Garyan, a Reuters reporter in the area said. A rebel fighter told Reuters “We control 70 percent of Garyan. There is still fighting taking place at the moment.”

Government spokesman Ibrahim said Zawiyah and Garyan were “under our full control” but that there were small pockets of fighting in two other locations in the area around Tripoli.

The coastal highway between Tripoli and Tunisia had not been blocked by the fighting, Ibrahim said in a telephone interview on Sunday, but foreigners were not being allowed to use the route “to save them from any bullets here or there”.

Rebels, backed by NATO warplanes, have been trying since February to end Gaddafi’s rule in the bloodiest of the “Arab Spring” uprisings convulsing the Middle East.

After a period of deadlock, the rebels’ advance to the Mediterranean coast near Tripoli represents a major shift in the balance of forces.

Gaddafi says the rebels are armed criminals and al Qaeda militants, and has described the NATO campaign as an act of colonial aggression aimed at stealing Libya’s oil. AGENCIES

Gaddafi revives offer of vote to end Libya conflict

TRIPOLI: The Libyan government on Sunday renewed its offer to hold a vote on whether Muammar Gaddafi should stay in power, a proposal unlikely to interest Gaddafi’s opponents but which could widen differences inside NATO.

Pressure is growing from some quarters within the alliance to find a political solution, three months into a military campaign which is costing NATO members billions of dollars, has killed civilians, and has so far failed to topple Gaddafi.

Moussa Ibrahim, a spokesman for Gaddafi’s administration, told reporters in Tripoli the government was proposing a period of national dialogue and an election overseen by the United Nations and the African Union.

“If the Libyan people decide Gaddafi should leave he will leave. If the people decide he should stay he will stay,” Ibrahim said.

But he said Gaddafi — who has run the oil-producing country since taking over in a military coup in 1969 — would not go into exile whatever happened. “Gaddafi is not leaving anywhere, he is staying in this country,” Ibrahim said.

The idea of holding an election was first raised earlier this month by one of Gaddafi’s sons, Saif al-Islam.

The proposal lost momentum when Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi appeared to dismiss it. At the time, it was also rejected by anti-Gaddafi rebels in the east of Libya, and by Washington.

Many analysts say Gaddafi and his family have no intention of relinquishing power. Instead, they say, the Libyan leader is holding out the possibility of a deal to try to widen cracks that have been emerging in the alliance ranged against him.

The election proposal could find a more receptive audience this time around, especially after a NATO bomb landed on a house in Tripoli on June 19, killing several civilians.

After that incident, alliance-member Italy said it wanted a political settlement, and also said that the civilian casualties threaten NATO’s credibility.

SOCCER DEFECTIONS

Libyan government forces have been fighting rebels, backed by NATO air power, since Feb. 17, when thousands of people rose up in a rebellion against his rule.

The revolt has turned into the bloodiest of the Arab Spring uprisings sweeping the Middle East.

Rebels now control the eastern third of the country, and some enclaves in the West. They have been unable though to break through to the capital, leaving Western powers banking on an uprising in Tripoli to overthrow Gaddafi.

The Libyan leader suffered a propaganda defeat when four members of the national soccer team and 13 other football figures defected to the rebels, the rebel council said.

Libyans are passionate about the sport and the national team was closely aligned with Gaddafi’s rule. At one point his son, Saadi, played in the side.

Asked about the defections, government spokesman Ibrahim said: “The Libyan footall team is full and functioning and performing all of its duties inside and outside Libya.”

HUMANITARIAN SWAP

A momentary thaw in the fighting allowed the Red Cross to reunite people caught on the wrong side of the conflict with their families.

A ship, the Ionis, arrived in Tripoli’s port on Sunday carrying 106 people from the main rebel stronghold in Benghazi. Many of the passengers were elderly, and families with small children.

A crowd of a few dozen people waited for the ship to dock, among them Mohammed Al-Gimzi. “I love Muammar Gaddafi very much,” he said.

When Al-Gimzi’s sister disembarked from the ship, he rushed to greet her and the two stood weeping with their heads on each other’s shoulders. “I am very happy to see my sister again,” he said, tears running down his face.

As part of the same exchange, a ship carried around 300 people from Tripoli to Benghazi on Friday. They included dozens of rebel supporters who had been detained.

“This is purely humanitarian, for families to meet with their loved ones and to be able to travel,” Robin Waudo, a spokesman in Tripoli for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said on Sunday. AGENCIES

Air strikes hit Sabha in central Libya: Libya TV

TUNIS: Western air strikes have targeted military and civilian areas in the town of Sabha, Libyan state television reported on Saturday, quoting a military source.

Heavy machinegun fire rocks Libyan capital Tripoli

Heavy automatic weapons fire erupted in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Sunday, the first such outbreak in Muammar Gaddafi’s main stronghold in a two-week-old insurrection against his 41-year-old rule.

Government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim denied any fighting was under way in Tripoli, saying the gunfire was staged to fete the army’s recapture of several cities from rebel forces.

It was unclear who was doing the shooting, which started just before daybreak, or what had caused it. Machine gun volleys, some of them heavy calibre, reverberated around central Tripoli along with ambulance sirens, pro-Gaddafi chants, and a cacophony of car horns as vehicles sped through the vicinity.

“These are celebrations because government forces have taken control of all areas to Benghazi and are in the process of taking control of Benghazi,” Ibrahim said, referring to Libya’s rebel-controlled second largest city situated in the far east.

State television reported that government forces had retaken the important coastal cities of Zawiyah and Misrata, to the immediate west and east of Tripoli, and were also heading for Benghazi, where the opposition National Libyan Council has set up a crisis committee, in a quest for foreign recognition.

The state television report provided no details and, with poor communication affecting all areas outside Tripoli, there was no immediate way to confirm the battlefield turnaround.

Rebel spokesmen could not be reached for comment. “I assure you, there is no fighting going on in Tripoli.

Everything is safe. Tripoli is 100 percent under control. What you are hearing is celebratory fireworks. People are in the streets, dancing in the square,” said Ibrahim, adding, however: “I would like to advise not to go there for your safety.”

Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim had told reporters late on Saturday that Zawiyah was “quiet and peaceful. “We hope by tomorrow morning life will be back to normal”.

Libya’s insurrection was inspired by generally peaceful uprisings that toppled despots in neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia and that have spread to other Arab nations with entrenched leaders and a deficit of democracy, good governance and jobs.

As of Saturday night, Libyan rebels were advancing from the east on Gaddafi’s hometown Sirte, around 500 km (300 miles) from Tripoli, and dug into positions in Zawiyah after withstanding two armoured assaults by government forces.

A tense calm settled over the western town of Zawiyah after nightfall on Saturday, with rifle-toting insurgents on rooftops and manning checkpoints on streets leading into the centre.

Before the state television report that Zawiyah had changed hands, the rebels said they were bracing for another tank and artillery attack by government forces on Sunday.

A doctor in Zawiyah, some 50 km (30 miles) west of Tripoli, said at least 30 people, mostly civilians, were killed during fighting on Saturday that wrecked the town centre, raising to at least 60 the death toll from two days of battles.

Almost 600 km (400 miles) to the east along Libya’s Mediterranean coast, insurgents said they took the town of Bin Jawad on Saturday, on the heels of seizing the oil port of Ras Lanuf, and were thrusting westwards towards Sirte.

Exultant after asserting control over much of the east of the vast oil-exporting North African state in a revolt against the flamboyant autocrat Gaddafi, some rebels said an assault on Sirte was imminent. AGENCIES

105 dead in Triopli plane crash

TRIPOLI: One hundred and five passengers and crew were killed when a Libyan plane arriving from South Africa crashed on Wednesday at Tripoli airport, a security official said.

Among the dead were 94 passengers and 11 crew members, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

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