BBC News with David Austin
An armed British team thought to include members of the special forces has left Libya by warship after being detained by opposition forces. Witnesses said most of the eight-man group arrived by helicopter on Friday near the eastern city of Benghazi, from where Jon Leyne reports.
Witnesses told us that the men denied to Libyan guards that they had weapons. But when their bags were searched, they were found to contain guns, explosives, maps and passports from at least four different nationalities.
Since then, there’ve been tense negotiations between the opposition leadership here in Benghazi and the British authorities - negotiations which continued on board the British warship HMS Cumberland when it arrived unexpectedly in Benghazi today.
The Foreign Office in London has now confirmed that a deal was agreed and the men were allowed to leave on board the ship when it sailed shortly before sunset.
It’s been a day of
intensified
fighting in Libya with forces loyal to Colonel Gaddafi mounting strong counter-attacks against opposition-controlled areas. In the east, artillery, missiles and helicopter gunships were used in the coastal town of Bin Jawad, forcing back the rebels who’d captured the area on Saturday. John Simpson reports on the latest fighting.
We were driving close to Bin Jawad, where the fighting is
concentrate
d, when two big mortar-bombs landed quite nearby. The rebels don’t seem so