A Libyan man carries a blanket to cover the body of a loyalist soldier killed in a French air strike on the outskirts of Benghazi. Gaddafi loyalists claim civilians have been killed

Libyan anti-aircraft tracer fire erupted in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, as international forces pounded the country's air defences and patrolled its skies

The Guardian's correspondnet in Sana'a, Tom Finn, says the defection of Major General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar is hugely significant as he controls an estimated 60% of the army. His decision to support the anti-government protesters is expected to lead to most of the armed forces going over to the opposition by nightfall. Ali Mohsen is basically considered the most powerful person in the military in Yemen and he has pledged his support for the protesters in Yemen. He said he was sending his soldiers to protect the protesters who have gathered outside the university. It's hugely significant because he's effectively opened the floodgates to a string of resignations from military officers to members of parliament and ambassadors.

The protests in Yemen against President Saleh have been going on for weeks, but they seem to have reached a tipping point last Friday, when snipers from rooftops killed at least 45 people and injured hundreds of others. This is Tom Finn's powerful account of the aftermath of what began as a peaceful protest by 100,000 people.

Several top Yemeni army commanders have declared their support for anti-government protesters seeking the resignation of the country''s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Major General Ali Mohsen Saleh, the head of the north western military zone and the head of the first armoured division, said on Monday that he had deployed army units to protect the protesters. Several other commanders, Brigadier Hameed Al Koshebi, head of brigade 310 in Omran area, Brigadier Mohammed Ali Mohsen, head of the eastern division, Brigadier Nasser Eljahori, head of brigade 121, and General Ali Abdullaha Aliewa, adviser of the Yemeni supreme leader of the army, rallied behind Major General Saleh and defected. Addressing a news conference, Major General Saleh said: "Yemen today, is suffering from a comprehensive and dangerous crisis and it is widespread. "Lack of dialogue and oppression of peaceful protesters in the public sphere, resulted in crisis which has increased each day. "And it is because of what I feel about the emotions of officers and leaders in the armed forces, who are an integral part of the people, and protectors of the people, I declare, on their behalf, our peaceful support of the youth revolution and their demands and that we will fulfil our duties." The announcement came days after scores died when armed men fired at an anti-government protest in the capital Sanaa. Several ministers resigned from the government after Friday's violence. Abdullah Alsaidi, Yemen's ambassador to the United Nations, also quit in protest over the killings. Huda al-Baan, Yemen's human rights minister, said she had resigned from the government and the ruling party in protest over the sniper attack on demonstrators. She said in a statement late on Saturday that her resignation was to protest the "massacre" of demonstrators. The undersecretary at the ministry, Ali Taysir, together with the ambassadors to Syria, Jordan, Kuwait and China have all resigned in protest. The chief of the state news agency has also stepped down, along with Yemen's ambassador to Lebanon. Hakim Al Masmari, editor-in-chief of Yemen Post, told Al Jazeera that Monday's army defections spell the end for president Saleh. "It is officially over, now that 60 per cent of the army is allied with the protesters. "For Ali Mohsen Saleh to annnouce this, it is a clear sign to president Saleh that the game is over and that he must step down now. "It means the fall of the Yemeni army, by nightfall, we expect 90 per cent of the army to join Mohsen Saleh. "According to our sources, the president knew that this will happen and he expects Major General Saleh to let him leave without further degradation and humiliation," he said. Masmari, however, said Major General Saleh was not an acceptable figure. "Ali Mohsen Saleh will not be accepted by the youth, it is not the start of a military government in Yemen, so a national emergency government will be a civil government," he said. "He is also very corrupt, he is not respected here in Yemen, however, it will open the doors for the fall of the current regime."

The drouhgt is having an effect all over Somalia. Now sub clans are stoning each other outside of Hargaysa. Sad really.

XX' support for the Amira Zubaayra is more than meets the eye.. Hope these sub clan clashes end insha Allah.

The secessionist Mugged one Siilanyo is failing even in Hargaysa..

Good news, I am an AT&T subscriber and now all my relatives will be on the same carrier. Though it won't effect my plan one bit.

I was just watching General Wesley Clark on TV he was NATO Supreme Comander when it bombed Belgrade. He stted that there will probably be "two Libya's, a democratic one based around Benghazi & a vengeful one on Tripoli led by Dictator Ghadafi". If one then gies back to what Admiral Mullen sated earlier in the day we get a clearer picture of the horrid things to come. The creation of a divided nation at war with itself.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, has said the military operation in Libya called for by the UN Security Council is not aimed at regime change - adding that a "stalemate" could well exist, leaving Muammar Gaddafi in power. The 64-year-old admiral also said that no-fly zone had "effectively been established", as Gaddafi's planes had not taken to the skies following Saturday's overnight shelling of dozens of targets in northern Libya. "In the first 24 hours, operations have established the no-fly zone. French air planes are over Benghazi as we speak and will do that on a 24/7 basis. The operations have taken out some ground forces near Benghazi, taken out air defences, some of his control nodes, some of his airfields, I don’t have all damage assessments, but so far [it's been] very very effective," he said. Gaddafi "was attacking Benghazi and we are there to stop that ... we are ending his ability to attack us from the ground, so he will not continue to execute his own people." Mullen, the most senior officer in the US military, denied that any civilians had been killed in the bombardment, which saw some 110 cruise missiles being shot from American naval vessels in the Mediterranean sea. Libyan state TV has reported that death toll from the air strikes has risen to more than 60. It's understood that 20 of 22 Libyan targets were hit in the overnight assault, "with varying levels of damage", a military source told Reuters. Mullen also said the US would be handing command of the operation to "a coalition" of militaries, with support coming from the Arab world, as well as NATO members. "There are forces, air planes in particular from Qatar, who are moving into position as we speak. There are other countries who have committed - I'd rather have them publicly announce that commitment, and it was a significant point when the Arab League voted against this guy. This is a colleague [of theirs], so that message is indeed loud and clear, and we’ve had a significant number of coalition countries who've come together to provide capability, most of them are from Europe, and I think this will continue to build." Now the Allied powers are contradicting themselves and highlighting that this was never about regime change.

It's unlikely Muammar Gaddafi has watched the 1971 British film Get Carter, in which Michael Caine plays vengeful London gangster Jack Carter, who embarks on a violent rampage before being killed. But as the west's military might bears down on Libya, the Libyan leader might find the story line instructive. This war is personal now. Its primary, stated aim is to halt the regime's attacks on Libyan civilians. But David Cameron and other leaders have made it plain they also want the Libyan dictator removed from power. The US and its allies will not relent until they "get Gaddafi" and their nemesis is captured, jailed or dead. This is a familiar scenario. When international disagreements deteriorate to the point when Washington feels it has no choice but to use massive military force, the person held most responsible is ruthlessly hunted down. Manuel Noriega, Panama's mafia boss in the 1980s, was toppled in a US invasion in 1989 and ended up in a maximum security jail in Illinois. Slobodan Milosevic was put on trial in The Hague, where he died in custody. Saddam Hussein was dug out of a hole and sent to the gallows. Gaddafi has no reason to expect that he will be treated any differently – a consideration that will certainly influence what he does next. Cameron has offered high-minded justifications for the American-led "Operation Odyssey Dawn" air and missile strikes that Tripoli claims have killed more than 50 people. But his language also conveys a developing personal animus. Gaddafi had "lied to the international community" and broken his word on the ceasefire, the prime minister said. This was behaviour akin to that of a pupil caught cheating during prep. It just couldn't go on. "He must stop what he is doing, brutalising his people ... We'll judge him by what he does," Cameron told the Commons on Friday. But in other remarks, he was more forthright. "Gaddafi needs to go," he said, and Britain would help him on his way. Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper, was similarly blunt. "It is our belief that if Mr Gaddafi loses the capacity to enforce his will through vastly superior armed forces, he simply will not be able to sustain his grip on the country," he said. Nicolas Sarkozy, Cameron's co-hawk, has been busy swapping insults with Gaddafi, with all the appearance of a personal vendetta. After the Libyan leader said the French president had "gone mad", Sarkozy responded in kind, condemning Gaddafi's "murderous madness". Sarkozy has also spoken of "targeted" actions – meaning assassination – should Gaddafi authorise the use of his stores of mustard gas or other WMD. Even normally measured Barack Obama has been getting hot under the collar about the man Ronald Reagan branded a "mad dog". Taken by itself, such name-calling might not matter so much. But the larger, unavoidable conclusion is that capturing or killing Gaddafi has now become an end in itself for the western allies (though perhaps not their Arab coalition partners), and that the war will not be deemed "won" until this objective is attained. The implications are serious. Now the missiles and B52s have begun their dreadful work, Gaddafi knows, if he didn't already, that he's in a fight to the finish – and for him, there may be no escape. His course of action in the coming days will be influenced by this realisation, and may be consequently more extreme and more aggressive than otherwise. His defiant overnight statement, when he condemned the "crusader colonialism" afflicting his country, was clearly aimed at Arab and Muslim world opinion in particular, and the non-western world in general (major countries such as China, India, Brazil and Germany have not supported the intervention). Regime claims about mounting civilian deaths will play big there, Iraq-style. Gaddafi will press his propaganda advantage for all its worth. The demonisation of Gaddafi has made it impossible for western leaders to countenance his continuation in power. But without the ground invasion they have pledged not to undertake, he could well survive as the overlord of western and southern Libya following a de facto partition, hostile, vengeful and highly dangerous. This seems to be his plan. Far from giving up or drawing back, Gaddafi escalated the fighting around Benghazi at the weekend. Rather than abandon cities such as Zawiya, as Obama demanded, he is reportedly moving his troops into urban areas where they can less easily be targeted from the air. Meanwhile, his apparent willingness to use "human shields", his threats of retaliation across the Mediterranean area, and his designation of the whole of north Africa as a "war zone" raises the spectre of possible terrorist attacks and an alarming regression to his old ways. Gaddafi has personalised this war, too. And he is not going to go quietly. Military superiority in the air will count for nothing if pro-regime army and air force units, militia and security forces, and civilian and tribal supporters who have remained loyal refuse to turn on him or kick him out of Tripoli. By its determination to "get Gaddafi", the west has made this a fight to the death – and death may be a long time in coming.

You have Denmark, Canada, France & UK all Christain countries wanting to save the lives of those precious Libyans. Wonderful stuff. The lives of the Bahraini's and Those in Yemen, Somalia and other parts of that world is not so valuable.

The Secessionist Mujahids want to wage war in South Somalia against the Ethiopian filth. *** er they do not want to fight the same Ethiopians in NW Somalia. A suicid attack in Mogadishu is ok, yet it's a heinous crime in Hargaysa. The folly and the farts of those who claim the Queen is their lost mother is more than amusing.

The attack ha begun and the people of Libya will be worse of for it.

Today's update: Gaddafi forces shoot down the only plane rebels had. French & Italian war planes are over Libya as we speak.

Red Sea Adeer the hypocrisy that is your stance has always been clear, you tried to be clever and dropped two names, I told you like it is and you know how things stand in MPLS. Thus let's move on to the topic of the thread. The evidance is clear,'the killings the attacks by the armed secessionist militia against the population of Cayn and the subsequent outcry. As expected you the Mujahid who like a person infected with Rabis rushes to the south to fight Amxaro yet welcomes them in Berbera, will no doubt not understand what's taking place.

Secessionist now know the Good Garads and the bad ones. Well done lads, keep deluding yourselves. Anyone who signs an agreement with the secessionists will become persona non grata to that community.

^^^That’s a good secessionist, now you are left with usuall defeatest tactic of making empty assumptions the fact that, I know each one of the men I mentioned above and close to some. While you don’t even know the men you insulted is telling. Go preach the secessionist ideology and be careful what can of worms you open up. The Ethiopians , that you are so eager to fight using the blood and resources of the people of the south are right now as we chat living it up in Berbera using it as their toilet. While the leaders you are so eager to defend give exaltations to the Melez Zanawi you pretend to hate so much. Hypocrisy is a damn thing.

The Arab reveloution is live and kicking..

RedSea;703190 wrote: A real genocide is the one that is happening in Muqdisho and has happened in Hargeisa-burco-berbera in late 80 ironically you denied both actually happened although they were well documented and there are clear pictures. btw...I do support the efforts against the Ethiopian/AU forces. That is obvious. What are you going to do now snitch on me like your shameful causins of ina Bihi and Jamal omar. lool I do like the secessionist Mujahid some what glaring traits of a short temper and lack of composure. I told you before don’t join a gun battle armed with a fork. Cause you will end up remembering 1988. For you to come here in defence of Warlord Siilanyo for clan reasons is one thing, but to claim you care about the people of Mogadishu is as laughable as being told that Faisal Ali Warrabe just made sense. As for your attack on Omar Jamal & Bixi, I adare say you can take that up with them. However they were never political leaders back home or even in Minneapolis and you do forget that Shiekh Abdirizaq Hashi, Shiekh Abdirizaq Zancani, Shiekh Abdiqani Qardawi, Xasan Doyo[Who runs Abu-bakar] and key figures in every Masjid, every School in MN are from that clan you just attacked. How can someone even talk about faith and morality when his political leaders deeply believe they are the lost orphans of the living Queen of England and that children born in Addis are closer to them than those who were born in Mogadishu? Its like me pointing out the religious convictions of Edna Adan [former Foreign Minister] of the secessionist or Peter Thachell [ a lobbyist] for the secessionist . Or Egaals love letter to Israel or the Valentines Day letter the secessionist just pinned for Melez Zanawi a few days back. Now try again, for as usual you are all over the place, like your leader Siilanyo.

^^I never mind getting lectured from a fellow Somali. However I do mind getting lectures from a secessionist Jihadi who yesterday supporting the "Jihad" against South Somalia under the leadership of Godane & Afghani while at the same time supporting his clans aggression with the help of Ethiopia in Buhudle & Cayn. Common sense has never been your strong point. If you cared about the people of “Mogadishu” back in Yusuf time as you claimed, then you should care now for them and also rebuke the actions of Warlord Siilanyo right now. Mujahid secessionist spare us the tears, Siilanyo and his henchmen will be exposed.

A model any future Somali state should emulate.

The whole post is nonsense. The Godane supporters title is claiming that this clan is no longer listening to their Chief but instead supporting an unknown ***** who they have never ever seen.