8.30am: Good morning, welcome to the Guardian's live coverage of the continuing crisis in Libya.

• Britain, France and the US have agreed that Nato will take over the military command of the no-fly zone over Libya. The move represents a setback for Nicolas Sarkozy, who had hoped to diminish the role of the alliance. Barack Obama agreed in separate phone calls with Sarkozy and David Cameron that political oversight would be handed to a separate body made up of members of the coalition, including Arab countries such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which are outside Nato.

• Fighting is continuing in the rebel-held Misrata, with residents reporting shelling and sniper attacks with water and food running short. A doctor told Associated Press that tanks had opened fire on a peaceful protest Monday. "The number of dead are too many for our hospital to handle," said the doctor, speaking on condition of anonymity. Regarding food, he said: "We share what we find and if we don't find anything, which happens, we don't know what to do."

• Barack Obama has said it may not be military might that ousts Gaddafi, rather belief among rebel Libyans that it is time for change. "Potentially what we may see is all the enthusiasm that the Libyan people had for a change in government that was occurring a few weeks ago," and that had repressed by Gaddafi's "brutal amplification of force" would now be reawakened, the president said. He added that Gaddafi may try to hang on to power rather than admit defeat.

• Right on cue, Gaddafi has told supporters "we will not surrender". "We will defeat them by any means ... We are ready for the fight, whether it will be a short or a long one ... We will be victorious in the end," he said in a live television broadcast, his first public appearance for a week.

"This assault ... is by a bunch of fascists who will end up in the dustbin of history," Gaddafi said in a speech followed by fireworks in the Libyan capital as crowds cheered and supporters fired guns into the air.

8.41am: The Guardian's Middle East editor Ian Black is in Tripoli, and has more on Gaddafi's speech at his Bab al-Aziziya compound in the early hours of this morning.

It was his first public appearance in a week, and there was nothing in it to suggest any lessening of his determination to sit out what he calls the "colonialist-crusader" attacks on Libya. The US may have intelligence about a weakening of Gaddafi's resolve or plans to leave the country but the face he presents to his people is as defiant as ever. There would be "no surrender" to powers who belonged "on the dustheap of history" he pledged to the approving roar of the crowd. It seemed clear that he was aware of growing rumours about his whereabouts after two strikes on Bab al-Aziziya – with one opposition source reporting him at a hideout deep in the Sahara. "I am here, in my modest tent," Gaddafi told them. "I am here."

8.58am: Chris McGreal is still on the outskirts of Ajdabiya, where he says the battle lines "remain as they were yesterday".

There continues to be a lot of incoming shelling from Gaddafi side against the rebels – if anything it is more intense this morning, suggesting Gaddafi forces, far from being broken by the airstrikes, might actually be being resupplied and reinforced. The situation is unclear but certainly at the moment it seems the rebels are on the back foot – they're just sitting and waiting, taking the shelling. The bursts of artillery are not very accurate, but periodically the shells do kill or injure someone. The shells come in waves, around every 20-30 minutes, and the effect is to say the least very unnerving for the rebels, a lot of whom have pulled back from the frontline. There's now a few hundred up at the front, but a few kilometres back are several thousand more.

9.05am: Sweden has frozen around 10 billion kronor ($1.6 billion) of assets belonging to Muammar Gaddafi's regime in Libya, according to AP.

Jonatan Holst at The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority says "it's not impossible" there could be more hidden in the Scandinavian country. He would not give details of the public Libyan assets, but said Wednesday the information has been received by financial institutions in Sweden. The Stockholm-based watchdog ordered Swedish companies to start reporting any financial links to the Libyan regime on 2 March. Holst says the value of the assets began to grow as more people with ties to the Libyan regime were added to the asset search list.

9.26am: This video shows Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen outlining the details of an operation to enforce Libya's arms embargo.

9.45am: Nato warships will begin patrolling off Libya's coast today to enforce the UN arms embargo on the country, a spokesman said.

The allies agreed on Tuesday to organize the naval mission, which initially will consist of two Nato naval flotillas that routinely patrol the Mediterranean, AP said. The flotillas are made up of two frigates, six minesweepers and a supply ship.

A Nato official said the mission will be commanded from Nato's operational centre in Naples, Italy. He says more nations are likely to contribute warships to the task force.

9.53am: From 1pm we'll have a panel of experts answering questions on the Libyan crisis:

• Anthony Aust, former legal adviser at the Foreign Office who served at the UK mission to the United Nations and helped draft the resolution on Kuwait in 1990.

• Paul Smyth, a RAF former wing commander and Tornado navigator.

• Dr Laleh Khalili, a lecturer in Middle Eastern Politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London .

I'll post a link to the live Q&A page later this morning.

10.06am: This Al-Jazeera video from the frontline on the outskirts of Ajdabiya shows rebels being fired at by Gaddafi forces.

10.22am: It's difficult to get updates from Misrata – we're working on this and will hopefully have more as the day progresses – but here's a worrying witness testimony as heard on ABC's PM news programme.

The rebels are trying their best to secure a perimeter around the hospital but it's not safe because the rebels are holding just only light weapons. It's not a battle, it's a massacre what's happening here in Misurata. Most of the citizens who were in the areas under the control of Gaddafi's troops and army, they have moved down toward the sea looking for some safer places. They are stepping away and escaping from the gunfire.

10.30am: Time magazine has a good piece on the difficulties - understandable enough - the rebels in Benghazi have in cobbling together an effective alternative government and fighting force at the same time.

"The big problem here is that most of the revolutionary guys don't trust the military people because a lot of military guys were with Gaddafi from the start," says Najla Elmangoush, a criminal-law professor at Benghazi's Garyounis University and an activist at council headquarters. "We welcomed them when they joined," she adds. "But people are concerned that maybe they'll try anytime to change sides." The regime is trying to encourage that fear, spreading false rumors last weekend that rebel commander Younis had returned to the regime's camp.

10.53am: A resident in Misrata, which has come under heavy shelling from Gaddafi's forces, has told Reuters that coalition aircraft have launched two strikes in the area.

"The allied planes bombed twice so far. At 12:45 this morning (2245 GMT last night) and then again less than two hours ago," the resident, called Saadoun, told Reuters by telephone from Misrata. "They (pro-Gaddafi forces) haven't fired a single artillery (round) since the air strike.

11.07am: More than 335,600 people have fled Libya, mainly to Tunisia and Egypt, since the beginning of the crisis, according to the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA).

The situation of civilians in and around Ajdabiya, Misrata and other locations where active fighting continues remains of grave concern. In addition to the risk of personal injury from the fighting, the population of these towns may also have humanitarian needs arising from the disruption of regular services and supply lines. The presence of assistance actors inside Libya remains very limited due to prevailing security conditions.

11.21am: Tom Kington has emailed from the USS Kearsarge, from where Harrier jets bombed Gaddafi forces last night. This has shades of Joseph Heller's absurdist Catch-22.

US Navy vessels patrolling off the coast of Libya have been told to keep an eye out for Muammar Gaddafi's least expected threat – his submarine. Documents pinned up on the bridge of one vessel list the sea-borne threats American sailors may encounter as they take on the colonel, including Gaddafi's Soviet-era Foxtrot class submarine. But intelligence on the sub is reassuring, suggesting it has rusted into ineffectiveness alongside much of Gaddafi's pre-embargo arsenal. "Operations rare to non-existent" states the document, adding the submarine is currently being overhauled and "operates primarily on the surface," submerging "only for a few hours."

11.28am: Here is a video of Gaddafi in full flow last night in front of fired-up crowds, vowing not to surrender against the west's "crusade".

11.30am: A reminder of our upcoming Q&A on Libya with a panel of experts (see 9.53am for details). It'll be happening between 1pm and 2pm here.

11.38am: Tom Kington on the USS Kearsarge has another update from last night's operations:

Four US Harrier jump jets flew bombing missions from an Navy vessel off the Libyan coast on Tuesday night as coalition forces continued attempts to dislodge Libyan forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi.

The Harriers, armed with GPU 12 laser guided bombs, took off from the USS Kearsarge at 11pm local time, returning at 2am before aircraft refuelled and took of for a second sortie.

The Kearsarge's group of six Harriers attacked targets outside Benghazi on Sunday morning and near Ajdabiya on Sunday night, hitting tanks, artillery pieces and mobile missile launchers.

Officials did not reveal Tuesday night's targets, but Libyan government forces were reportedly continue to shell rebels in Ajdabiya, suggesting they remain a viable target for coalition aircraft.

Marine Colonel Mark Desens, who commands the Harriers, said that flying the vertical take-off jets from the Kearsarge gave them an advantage over conventional jets flying from airbases further away from Libya.

"With the Harriers we can turn them around very quickly and do two sorties a night," he said.

11.42am: An interesting snippet from Reuters, who have spoken to an official at Agoco, a Libyan oil firm based in rebel-held Benghazi. Despite the surrounding chaos the company is still producing 95,000 barrels per day of oil, with two oil field working. This is around 25% of the normal level but they hope to resume full production in a couple of weeks.

11.58am: Now briefly to Yemen. Brian Whitaker writes:

After declaring a state of emergency in Yemen at the weekend, President Saleh won backing for it on Wednesday morning from the Yemeni parliament -- though almost half the MPs absented themselves from the session.

The text of the draft emergency law has been published (in Arabic) on al-Masdar's website. It provisions are truly draconian, imposing restrictions on the media, travel and public meetings, even regulating the opening of shops and allowing for the "temporary takeover" of property.

The state of emergency is supposed to last for just one month, though it's worth recalling that a similar "emergency" declared in Egypt in 1967 has remained in place almost continuously since then.

12.01pm: News of a renewed assault my Gaddafi loyalists on another rebel-held town, Zintan, about 50 miles south-west of Tripoli. Reuters spoke to a resident:

Gaddafi's brigades started bombardment from the northern area half an hour ago. The bombardment is taking place now. The town is completely surrounded. The situation is very bad... They are getting reinforcements. Troops backed with tanks and vehicles are coming. We appeal to the allied forces to come and protect civilians.

12.13pm: David Cameron has been speaking about Libya at the start of his pre-budget prime minister's questions in the Commons (see Andrew Sparrow's live politics live blog for full coverage.

Cameron said the no-fly zone has had "an early and good effect" in terms of forcing Gaddafi's forces back from Benghazi and protecting civilians. He added:

Clearly there is great concern about what the regime is doing in Misrata, and any idea that their second ceasefire was any more meaningful than the first ceasefire we can see is complete nonsense.

Asked by Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, about Arab contributions to the military effort, Cameron said Qatar, Kuwait and Jordan were now involved but conceded that due to the speed of the response the Arab involvement was not as great "as perhaps would have been welcomed".

Quizzed by Miliband about whether or not Gaddafi himself was viewed as a possible target – the source of apparent differences earlier this week between the government and military – Cameron said that all actions would be in line with the UN resolution, adding:



All targets should be in line with that, but I don't propose to give a running commentary on targets, or frankly to say anything beyond that.

12.34pm: A brief, and expected, update via the Associated Press - Nato commanders have confirmed that the alliance's warships are now patrolling off Libya's coast to enforce the arms embargo.

12.36pm: An image, below, from the under-siege rebel town of Ajdabiya – a rebel fighter at a checkpoint.

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12.42pm: Reuters have managed to get another telephone update from Misrata:

Western air strikes early on Wednesday hit an air base south of Libya's rebel-held Misrata where government forces are positioned, but snipers shot two people dead in the centre of the city, a resident said.

"This morning, air strikes twice hit the airbase where Gaddafi's brigades are based," the resident, called Sami, told Reuters.

"Two people were killed by snipers an hour ago in the centre of the town. Their bodies are now at the hospital, which I visited a while ago. Shooting is still going on there (in the city centre) now," he said.

1.00pm: Our live Libya Q&A with a panel of experts is about to begin. Post your questions, or read our experts' answers, here.

1.44pm: A doctor in Misrata has told the BBC World Service that there are no pro-Gaddafi tanks in the city today – "because all the tanks have either escaped or been destroyed by the allied forces". However the doctor said the hospital where he works is still surrounded by snipers loyal to Col Gaddafi. "They are shooting anybody going in or coming out of the hospital. Until now we have four civilian dead."

2.13pm: A resident in Misrata, who has asked not to be named, has told the Guardian that snipers are targeting the hospital in Misrata, 75km east of Tripoli on the Libyan coast, despite Gaddafi forces's heavy artillery having been silenced.

A coalition bombardment has silenced the cannon and tanks this morning, but snipers are targeting the hospital there.

The resident said he had spoken to a contact in Zintan, close to the Tunisian border, who said the town was being bombarded by Gaddafi's forces and is now "facing the fate of Zawiyah" and "needs desperate help".

2.27pm: The Guardian has been told that text messages are being sent to people in Tripoli, claiming to be from rebels in Benghazi and the east, but actually sent by Gaddafi's regime.

A source in Libya said the texts say the country will be split in two. The texts also threaten that rebels from Benghazi are heading to the west of the country to rape and pillage in Tripoli, with the help of western powers.

Separately, our source claims that state television in Tripoli is showing pictures of dead people which the reports say were killed in the coalition air strikes – however some of the dead have been recognised by viewers as relatives who disappeared during Gaddafi's crackdown on Tripoli.

The Guardian is unable to confirm the source's account at this moment in time.

2.37pm: Mahmoud Jibril has been appointed head of the Libyan interim government, a spokesman for the Democratic Libya Information Bureau has told the Guardian.

Jibril is a key opposition figure who met US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week.

2.51pm: The rebel Libyan interim government is to set up its own independent television station, the Guardian has been told.

The Democratic Libya Information Bureau said the interim government would set up an "independent, free" television station based in Qatar and streaming in Libya.

No more information was immediately available.

2.57pm: There were lots of interesting questions (and answers) on our Libya Q&A.

Users LettuceGnome and Albalha asked about the make-up of the rebels, and where they've got their weaponry from.

Dr Laleh Khalili, a lecturer in Middle Eastern Politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, answered:

"The composition of the opposition is at the moment both amorphous and unknown. There are indications that the early members of the revolutionary group throughout Libya were the youth, professionals, academics, etc with various ideological orientations (including nationalists, leftists and Islamists). In Eastern Libya, a "tribal" elements is also introduced into the mix; as well as people who have grievances against the regime for having suppressed a revolt there in the early 1990s. However, with the defection of some army officers, bureaucrats, and diplomats, it seems that former members of the regime (e.g. the ex-Justice Minister, Al-Jalil) might be having the upper hand now there and the professionals seem to have been sidelined. We do not know who the west-Libyan members are or even whether they have yet been named to the Council.

The rebels seem to be well-armed both because of army defections to their side, and because they have probably gained control of the arsenals and military bases in their region. There are speculations as to why the mutinying parts of the Army are not more visible in the fight against the Qaddafi regime. It could be because they hesitate about fighting against other divisions of the military; or it could be that any sort of battle is massively complicated by the arming of civilians and the lack of experience of these opposition civilians in fighting militarily.

Whether or not the National Front for Salvation of Libya was supported by the CIA is something that we will not know for certain until some sort of archives or memoirs indicate as much, but we do know that Saudi Arabia has previously donated substantial amounts to NFSL. NFSL may be issuing statements in support of the opposition, but it is not clear as to whether they are actually involved on the ground, or not."

3.21pm: The Democratic Libya Information Bureau, has emailed with a potted CV of Jibril, who has been appointed head of the Libyan interim government (See 2.37pm).

Educated at the University of Pittsburgh in the USA, he led the team who drafted and formed the unified Arab training manual. He was also responsible for organising and administering the first two training conferences in the Arab world in the years 1987 and 1988. He later took over the management and administration of many of the leaders' training programmes for senior management in Arab countries including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Libya, UAE, Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey and Britain.

The DLIB did not know what the unified Arab training manual means, but they are keen to emphasise his education in the US.

3.27pm: Some more interesting points raised in our Q&A. Paul Smyth, a RAF former wing commander and Tornado navigator, discussed some of the military issues.

bluesforallah asked about the use of Western group troops. Paul responded:

Ultimately, this is a Libyan problem that demands a Libyan solution. External intervention on the ground should not include western forces but be limited to Arab nations. If a buffer zone (as in Cyprus or Bosnia) becomes necessary I would suggest Egypt should be encouraged to monitor and police it. Nb: airborne monitoring of a ceasefire could involve western air power as it has the necessary capabilities.

bill2 wondered if a successful resolution is possible in Libya without resorting to ground troops. Paul replied:

No war in history has been won from the air, or the sea. I agree that air power has yet to win a war. But is this a war? It is a crisis in which the absence of land forces may not prevent a successful outcome (whatever that is defined as). A germane lesson from Iraq (1991), the Balkans in the 1990s and especially Afghanistan in 2001 is that air & sea power can have a decisive effect on a ground conflict. That has already happened at Benghazi but the rebels are going to have to improve their martial capabilities immensely if they are to successfully advance west. That would take some time. The removal of the regime's military capability and the evaporation of popular support for Gaddafi in the west of Libya may allow for another uprising that would make an advance from Benghazi unnecessary...

3.30pm: Anthony Aust, former legal adviser at the Foreign Office who served at the UK mission to the UN and helped draft the resolution on Kuwait in 1990, addressed legal issues in our Q&A.

User myopicmuppet asked to what extent military action could be justified by the UN resolution. Anthony replied:

Much will depend on the specific circumstances. But, in my view para 4 of resolution 1973 entitles foreign forces to operate on the ground (not just in the air) to protect civilians being targeted by Qadafi's forces, provided the forces are not in reality an occupation force.

3.39pm: Some very bullish comments from Ali Zeidan, one of 31 members of the Libyan National Council, who told reporters in Paris that the rebels could overcome Gaddafi's forces in 10 days if the coalition continued its air strikes. He also said he wanted the international community to train and arm the rebel fighters. Zeidan's remarks do not exactly mesh with what the Guardian's Chris McGreal is reporting from Ajdabiya (8.58am).

3.48pm: Air strikes have forced Libyan government tanks to roll back from Misrata, a doctor tells AP.

A doctor in Misrata said the tanks fled after the air strikes began around midnight. He said the air strikes struck the aviation academy and a vacant lot outside the central hospital, which was under maintenance. "There were very loud explosions. It was hard to see the planes," the doctor said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals if Gaddafi's forces take the city. "Today, for the first time in a week, the bakeries opened their doors." He said the situation was still dangerous, with pro-Gaddafi snipers shooting at people from rooftops. "Some of the tanks were hit and others fled," he said. "We fear the tanks that fled will return if the air strikes stop."

3.51pm: Right on cue, the Guardian's Chris McGreal has just emailed on the situation in Misrata.

Nearly 12 hours of allied air strikes have virtually wiped out Muammar Gaddafi's forces that were attacking the rebel-held town of Misrata and ended five days of bloody assault that cost nearly 100 lives. Mohammed Ali, an IT engineer at the town's main hospital, said that waves of air strikes which began shortly after midnight destroyed tanks and artillery that Gaddafi's army had been using to shell the heart of Misrata. "The air strikes went on until 11.30 this morning. After that there was no shelling. We are very relieved. We are very grateful. We want to thank he world. The Gaddafi forces are scattered around. All that is left is the snipers and our fighters can take care of them," he

said. Ali said that among the targets of the air strikes was a former hospital used by Gaddafi's army as a station for its tanks during its assault on Misrata. He said that the hospital was almost destroyed along with all the tanks during the coalition bombing attack. Ali said that the past five days of fighting left 94 people dead and more than 1,300 injured. About 60 civilians were among the dead, including whole families killed in their cars or homes.

4.15pm: Médecins Sans Frontières, the medical group, says it has been unable to get into Libya although some of its supplies did reach Misrata on Monday. Its teams in Benghazi left last week as fighting reached the rebel stronghold and other MSF staff have not received authorisation to cross the Tunisian border.

4.31pm: Italian air force Eurofighter EF-2000 Typhoons fly over the Birgi Nato air base in Trapani, Sicily.

4.48pm: Our colleague, Mona Mahmood, has been scanning the Arabic and Libyan press for comments. Here are some snippets.

Al-shareq Al-awssat, a Saudi paper based in London



No wise man likes see foreign intervention in an Arab country even if it is supported by a UN security council's resolution, but Colonel Gaddafi himself is responsible for this intervention. It is so sad to see the colonel trying to the last moment to destroy his people and ignite a civil war by his call to the tribes to march to Benghazi... Why he did not face, from the beginning, the peaceful demos with olive branches instead of bullets and bombing?

Al-Jamahiriyia, Libyan newspaper

Amr Mousa (secretary-general of the Arab League) only cares about his interest and his excessive selfishness. Mousa wants to launch his presidential election on the back of Libyan corpses whose blood was by shed by cowardly western planes.

4.53pm: A Libyan rebel fighter carries rocket-propelled grenades at a checkpoint near Ajdabiya, still under control by Gaddafi forces despite repeated air strikes.

4.58pm: Britain will host an international conference in London next Tuesday to discuss Libya.

"At the conference we will discuss the situation in Libya with our allies and partners and take stock of the implementation of UN security council resolutions 1970 and 1973," the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, said in a statement. "We will consider the humanitarian needs of the Libyan people and identify ways to support the people of Libya in their aspirations for a better future."

French officials have said the meeting would be at foreign minister level and would include the African Union, the Arab League and the associated European countries.

5.14pm: • Allied air strikes have virtually wiped out Muammar Gaddafi's forces that were attacking the rebel-held town of Misrata. The aerial attacks have ended five days of bloody assault that cost nearly 100 lives.

• The rebel council in Benghazi has created a governing body. Mahmoud Jibril, a US-educated planning expert who defected from the Gaddafi regime, has been named as its head.

• Gaddafi promised victory to an enthusiastic crowd in his first public appearance in a week late on Tuesday. He said there would be "no surrender" to powers who belonged "on the dust heap of history".

5.24pm: British aircraft flew over Libya today but for the second day running took no part in attacks, according to defence officials, reports Richard Norton-Taylor, the Guardian's security expert.

The commander of British aircraft operating over Libya has said that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's air force "no longer exists as a fighting force". Air Vice-Marshal Greg Bagwell said the allies could now operate "with near impunity" over the skies of Libya. He was speaking during a visit to RAF aircrew based at Gioia del Colle in southern Italy. Ten Eurofighter/Typhoons and eight Tornado GR4s ground attack aircraft are now based there. "We are watching over the innocent people of Libya and ensuring that we protect them from attack" Bagwell said. "We have the Libyan ground forces under constant observation and we attack them whenever they threaten civilians or attack population centres." US, British, and French aircraft have flown more than 300 sorties over Libya since Saturday and more than 162 Tomahawk cruise missiles have been fired. Four Tornado planes based at RAF Marham in Norfolk flew direct to Libya on the first two nights. The Trafalgar class submarines , HMS Triumph, has fired Tomahawk cruise missiles but less than its full complement of 16, it is understood. David Cameron told MPs that the Qataris on Tuesday deployed Mirage aircraft while Kuwait and Jordan would be providing "logistical contributions", adding that "further support will be forthcoming" from Arab countries. He said 11 nations had contributed 150 aircraft to operations over Libya but a "lot more remained to be done".