Efforts to repatriate Irish citizens from Libya are continuing as world powers consider tough sanctions against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The Government jet arrived at Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel from Malta earlier today with seven passengers on board. The seven, including a family of four, left Valetta this morning.
An Irish family of four also arrived in London this evening on an EU evacuation flight from Tripoli. Another flight, carrying an Irish family of seven, was due at Gatwick at 9pm.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs said there may have been more Irish passport holders on the flights, but that has not been confirmed.
David Cooney confirmed that an Air Corps aircraft remains on standby in Malta as officials work to help two families leave Tripoli.
The Department is also aware of four Irish people in the Libyan desert. One is trying to evacuate through Egypt, another through Algeria. Officials are trying to establish contact with the remaining two.
There are 21 Irish citizens still in Tripoli and six others in other parts of the country.
Outside of the seven who made it to Baldonnel this morning, a boat carrying Irish nationals who left Libya bound for Greece has been delayed according to a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs. The vessel is not due to arrive in Athens until early tomorrow morning.
Nine Irish citizens left Libya on two Maltese-bound vessels yesterday.
Violence in northern Libya
There have been reports this evening of dozens of protestors being wounded in western Libya after security forces opened fire.
According to local reports the Al-Khuweildi al-Humaidi battalion opened fire in an area along a strip on the Mediterranean coast between the cities of Sabratha and Surman.
Tripoli's streets were quiet last night after a day in which residents said pro-Gaddafi forces fired at and over the heads of protestors in many areas. Up to 25 people were said to have been killed in one area alone.
One of Gaddafi's sons, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, told reporters flown into Libya under close supervision that pro-Gaddafi forces had 'a problem' with Misrata, Libya's third largest city, and Zawiya, also in the west, where protestors had beaten back counter-attacks by the military.
The country's second city Benghazi fell to the opposition along with much of eastern Libya earlier in the uprising, which began more than a week ago.
Gaddafi vowed to 'crush any enemy', addressing a crowd of supporters in Tripoli's central Green Square yesterday.
At Tripoli's international airport, thousands of desperate migrant workers besieged the main gate trying to leave the country as police used batons and whips to keep them out.
International diplomats say some 2,000 or more people have been killed.
UNSC disagreement
UN Security Council diplomats clashed this evening over a proposal to refer the crackdown against anti-government demonstrators in Libya to the International Criminal Court.
While there was broad support for a draft resolution of sanctions to punish Gaddafi, countries appear split over whether to refer the issue to the ICC.
The council has referred only one other case to the ICC - the conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region.
France and Britain drafted the six-page sanctions resolution, which also calls for travel bans and asset freezes for Gaddafi and his inner circle, in consultation with the United States and Germany.
The draft calls for an end to the violence and says 'the widespread and systematic attacks currently taking place in Libya against the civilian population may amount to crimes against humanity.'
