A spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron denied there are any British combat troops on the ground in Libya folloing press reports claiming SAS forces have been spotted in Misrata. The spokesman said: "Any military activity we undertake will be in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1973. I am not making any statement about people who have been photographed." The Daily Mirror ran photographs on its front page purporting to show 11 former SAS and Parachute Regiment men aiding the rebel forces in Misrata. The Guardian said it had learned from its own sources that ex-SAS soldiers were helping NATO to identify targets in Misrata. But the prime minister's office insisted that the only British personnel in Libya were a joint Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and Ministry of Defence team in Benghazi. The spokesman said: "I don't think it would be right for me to go into details about the security arrangements for the team. But clearly we take their security very seriously and have arrangements in place. We have been very clear about what the MOD/FCO team is there to do. They provide various forms of support for the Transitional National Council, to help them in the organisation of their internal structures, helping them with communications." (BBC News, June 1)

NATO stepped up air raids on targets in Tripoli May 24, carrying out more than 20 strikes—many near Moammar Qaddafi's compound, the Bab al-Aziziya. A regime spokesman said at least three were killed and dozens wounded in the raids, which targeted buildings used by volunteer units of the Libyan army. NATO said in a statement that a number of the raids hit a vehicle storage facility adjacent to the Bab al-Aziziya that has been used to supply regime forces "conducting attacks on civilians." The regime made a show of support for Qaddafi, with loyalists filling the streets outside hotels where Western journalists stay, declaring their love of the dictator, honking horns and firing guns in the air. (The Guardian, May 24)

Following a regional summit in Bamako, the leaders of Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger agreed May 20 to form a 75,000-man security force to police the Sahel and Sahara regions against al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and trans-border organised crime networks linked to terrorism. A new body based in Algiers, the Joint Military Staff Committee of the Sahel Region (CEMOC), will co-ordinate the military force. The participating nations also agreed to hold regular ministerial meetings every six months, with the next gathering set for Nouakchott, and a summit external partner states is to be held in Algiers. "Our partners from outside the region, such as the European Union and the United States, will be invited to this meeting that will be probably held during the last quarter of this year," said Abdelkader Messahel, Algerian Minister for Maghreb and African Affairs. "Our countries have started to take action. Today, it is about enhancing the path that was kicked off to confront the terrorist threat and its branches."

We just noted how Barack Obama's celebrated speech on the Middle East two days ago was actually driven by the imperative to control the political trajectory of the Arab Spring. Now, not surprisingly, al-Qaeda attempts to do the same thing—which indicates again that imperialism and the jihad alike have been relegated to playing catch-up as the Arab masses themselves have seized the initiative. CNN informs us that an unnamed "jihadist website" posted an audio message purportedly from Ayman al-Zawahiri, presumed successor to Osama bin Laden, in which he hails the "winds of changes" in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen—but also warns of that "crusader enemies" led by the United States are attempting to colonize Libya: "NATO is not a goodwill organization—it is an aide to the hegemonic powers in this world. They aim to end the corrupt Qaddafi regime, but then install their own ideals. They want to steal Libya's resources and relics because of their greed and politics."

Moammar Qaddafi's forces are carrying an offensive into Libya's western Nafusah Mountains that is not only targetting rebel training camps and supply routes that have been established there, but villages of the indigenous Amazigh (Berber) population. Local hospitals are reportedly overwhelmed, with casualties having to be loaded onto donkeys and smuggled past government blockades to get treatment elsewhere. Since the uprising began in February, some 50,000 Libyans have fled through the mountains to Tunisia, where a refugee camp has been established near the Dehiba border crossing. Berber refugees interviewed there by Human Rights Watch report that their homes in the villages of Nalut and Takut were shelled and livestock destroyed by Qaddafi's forces. Said one refugee from Nalut: "They were killing everything, the troops. They kept some [sheep] to eat, and they killed the rest. They shot them.... I saw the dead sheep." Grad missiles have targetted homes, mosques, water facilities, a school, and hospital compounds, refugees said. (AP, May 19; HRW, May 18)

The International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced May 16 that he is seeking arrest warrants for Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi and two others in his "inner circle" on charges of crimes against humanity. Ocampo said his office has gathered evidence that Qaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and his brother-in-law Abdullah al-Sanussi plotted together to orchestrate attacks on civilians. He said al-Islam was acting as a "de facto Prime Minister" and called al-Sanussi, Qaddafi's "right-hand man" and "executioner." Ocampo said his office was almost prepared for trial, having collected quality testimony from some who have fled Libya. Ocampo said:

Persistent rumors that private Israeli security companies are recruiting mercenaries for embattled Libyan dictator Moammar Qaddafi were given new credence by a May 2 report on the Zurich-based International Relations and Security Network (ISN) website. Although the report itself cites unnamed "reports," it for the first time names a particular Israeli firm which is said to have been contracted by the afflicted Tripoli regime:

The annual Jewish pilgrimage to the Tunisian island of Djerba for the Lag B'Omer holy day has been officially canceled for the first time ever due to security concerns this year. For centuries, Mizrahi Jews from throughout the Mediterranean have converged on the island each year for a festival centered on the ancient El Ghriba synagogue on the holiday that follows Passover. But Roger Bismuth, president of Tunisia's Jewish community, said the event was called off thus year after consultations with the government. "We have this fight at the Tunisian border with Libya so the situation is not as we like," Bismuth told the Jerusalem Post by phone from Tunis. "Besides that we have had a revolution. The situation is not completely quiet yet so we took precautionary measures."