Watching Libya March 17, 2011 (Update 23:30 CET)

The UN Security Council has just approved a resolution (10 for, 0 against, 5 abstained) on Libya authorising a No-Fly zone and "all necessary measures" to “protect civilians and civilian-populated areas under threat of attack".  

As we update today’s Libya notes, Gheddafi’s forces in the east are threatening Benghazi and, possibly, Tobruk, both of which can be reached by separate roads from Ajdabya.

In a radio broadcast ending at around 20:05 CET, Muammar Gheddafi announced an imminent assault on Benghazi and vowed to mercilessly hunt down rebels in Benghazi.

His speech as well as the news that Ajdabiya continues – at the cost of terrible losses – to resist Gheddafi’s forces, seems to have strengthened the fighting resolve of Benghazi’s people. The news that the Security Council approved the No-Fly zone resolution has been greeted with relief by the people of Benghazi with thousands of citizens waiting for the result in the parking space in front of the city's law courts erupting in joy.

In the west, although the regime claims that Misratah has fallen to loyalist troops, rebel militias in this town only 200 km west of Tripoli – against all odds – continue to fight against vastly superior forces.

Conflicting reports from a number of towns and villages to the south and south west of Tripoli as well as from the country’s deep interior, suggest that the uprising against the regime has not been extinguished.