BY KAREEM FAHIM AND DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
February 23, 2011
TOBRUK, Libya — Vowing to track down and kill protesters “house by house,” Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya tightened his grip on the capital, Tripoli, on Tuesday, but the eastern half of the country was slipping beyond his control.
A bloody crackdown drove protesters from the streets of Tripoli, where residents described a state of terror. After a televised speech by Colonel Qaddafi, thousands of his supporters converged in the city’s central Green Square, wearing green bandannas and brandishing large machetes.
Many loaded into trucks headed for the outlying areas of the city, where they occupied traffic intersections and appeared to be massing for neighborhood-to-neighborhood searches.
“It looks like they have been given a green light to kill these people,” one witness said.
Human Rights Watch said it had confirmed 62 deaths in two hospitals after a rampage on Monday night, when witnesses said groups of heavily armed militiamen and mercenaries from other African countries cruised the streets in pickup trucks, spraying crowds with machine-gun fire.
The death toll was probably higher; one witness said militia forces appeared to be using vans to cart away bodies.
But as they clamped down on the capital, Colonel Qaddafi’s security forces did not appear to make any attempt to take back the growing number of towns in the east that had in effect declared their independence and set up informal opposition governments. For now, there is little indication of what will replace the vacuum left by Colonel Qaddafi’s authority in broad parts of the country other than simmering anarchy.
Only around the town of Ajdabiya, south of the revolt’s center in Benghazi, were Colonel Qaddafi’s security forces and militia still clashing with protesters along the road to the colonel’s hometown, Surt.
The widening gap between the capital and the eastern countryside underscored the radically different trajectory of the Libyan revolt from the others that recently toppled Arab autocrats on Libya’s western and eastern borders, in Tunisia and Egypt.
Though the Libyan revolt began with a relatively organized core of longtime government critics in Benghazi, its spread to the capital was swift and spontaneous, outracing any efforts to coordinate the protests.
Colonel Qaddafi has lashed out with a level of violence unseen in either of the other uprisings, partly by importing foreigners without ties to the Libyan people. His four decades of idiosyncratic one-man rule have left the country without any national institutions — not even a unified or disciplined military — that could tame his retribution or provide the

framework for a transitional government.
Condemnations of his brutal crackdown mounted, from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the United Nations Security Council to the Arab League, which suspended Libya as a member. High-profile aides and diplomats continued to defect, among them Libya’s interior minister and the country’s ambassadors to the United States, India and Bangladesh.
In his second television appearance in two days, Colonel Qaddafi vowed on Tuesday to die as a martyr for his country. “I will fight on to the last drop of my blood,” he said.
Wearing a beige robe and turban and reading at times from his manifesto, the Green Book, Colonel Qaddafi called the protesters “cockroaches” and attributed the unrest shaking Libya to foreigners, a small group of people distributing pills, brainwashing and young people’s naïve desire to imitate the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.
He urged citizens to take to the streets and beat back the protesters, and he described himself in sweeping, megalomaniacal terms. “Muammar Qaddafi is history, resistance, liberty, glory, revolution,” he declared.
In Tobruk, an eastern city that joined the uprising almost as soon as it began, a resident watching the speech in the main square reacted by throwing a rock at Colonel Qaddafi’s face as it was broadcast on a large television. And in a cafe not far from
Tobruk, Fawzi Labada, a bus driver, looked incredulously at the screen. “He is weak now,” he said. “He’s a liar, a big liar. He will hang.”
In Tripoli, however, the reaction was more chastened. One resident reported the sound of gunfire during the speech — presumably in celebration, he said, but also in warning. “He is saying, ‘If you go to protest, all the shots will be in your chest,’ ” he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
“We are unarmed and his warning is very clear,” he added. “The people are terrified now.”
The gap between Colonel Qaddafi’s stronghold in Tripoli and the insurrection in the east recalled Libya’s pre-1931 past as three different countries — Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica — and underscored the challenge facing its insurrection.
Many analysts have suggested that Colonel Qaddafi seemed to fear the development of any national institutions or networks that might check his power, and he has kept even his military divided into battalions, each loyal mainly to its own officers.
That has set the stage for heavy defections during the revolt — rebels in the east said some government forces had simply abandoned their uniforms to join the cause. But it also means that Libya’s military is unlikely to play the stabilizing role its Tunisian or Egyptian counterparts did.
Foreign companies and Libyan factions focused intensely on the fate of the country’s substantial oil reserves. The Italian oil company Eni confirmed that it had suspended use of a pipeline from Libya to Sicily that provides 10 percent of Italy’s natural gas.
Opponents of Colonel Qaddafi tightened their control of their area around Ajdabiya, an important site in the oil fields of central Libya, said Tawfiq al-Shahbi, a protest organizer in Tobruk.
Tripoli remained under an information blackout, with no Internet access and limited and intermittent phone service. Colonel Qaddafi’s government has sought to block all foreign journalists from entering the country or reporting on the revolt.
But the uprising in the east cracked open the country on Tuesday as the Libyan military retreated from the eastern border with Egypt and foreign journalists poured through. The road from the border to Tobruk appeared to be completely under the control of Colonel Qaddafi’s opponents, and small, ragtag bands of men in worn fatigues ran easygoing checkpoints and flashed victory signs at visitors.
Except for those guards, there was little to suggest an uprising was under way. Shops were open along the road, which was full of traffic, mostly heading out of Libya.
Tobruk residents said neighboring cities — including Dernah, Al

- Deep cracks opened in Moammar Gadhafi's regime Monday, with Libyan government officials at home and abroad resigning, air force pilots defecting and a major government building ablaze after clashes in the capital of Tripoli. Protesters called for another night of defiance against the Arab world's longest-serving leader despite a crackdown.

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At sunset, pro-Gadhafi militia drove around Tripoli with loudspeakers and told people not to leave their homes, witnesses said, as security forces sought to keep the unrest that swept eastern parts of the country - leaving the second-largest city of Benghazi in protesters' control - from overwhelming the capital of 2 million people.

State TV said the military had "stormed the hideouts of saboteurs" and urged the public to back security forces. Protesters called for a demonstration in Tripoli's central Green Square and in front of Gadhafi's residence, but witnesses in various neighborhoods described a scene of intimidation: helicopters hovering above the main seaside boulevard and pro-Gadhafi gunmen firing from moving cars and even shooting at the facades of homes to terrify the population.

Youths trying to gather in the streets were forced to scatter and run for cover by the gunfire, said one witness, who like many reached in Tripoli by The Associated Press spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Gadhafi, whose whereabouts were not known, appeared to have lost the support of at least one major tribe, several military units and his own diplomats, including the delegation to the United Nations. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi accused Gadhafi of committing genocide against his own people in the current crisis.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called on Gadhafi to "stop this unacceptable bloodshed" and said the world was watching the events "with alarm."

Warplanes swooped low over Tripoli in the evening and snipers took up position on roofs, apparently to stop people outside the capital from joining protests, according to Mohammed Abdul-Malek, a London-based opposition activist in touch with residents.

Communications to the capital appeared to have been cut, and residents could not be reached by phone from outside the country. State TV showed video of hundreds of Gadhafi supporters rallying in Green Square, waving palm fronds and pictures of the Libyan leader.

State TV quoted Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, as saying the military conducted airstrikes on remote areas, away from residential neighborhoods, on munitions warehouses, denying reports that warplanes attacked Tripoli and Benghazi.

Jordanians who fled Libya gave horrific accounts of a "bloodbath" in Tripoli, saying they saw people shot, scores of burned cars and shops, and what appeared to be armed mercenaries who looked as if they were from other African countries.

The first major protests to hit an OPEC country - and major supplier to Europe - have sent oil prices jumping, and the industry has begun eyeing reserves touched only after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the first Gulf War in 1991.

Tripoli was largely shut down Monday, with schools, government offices and most stores closed, except for a few bakeries, said residents, who hunkered down in their homes. Armed members of pro-government organizations called "Revolutionary Committees" hunted for protesters in Tripoli's old city, said one protester named Fathi.

Members of the militia occupied the city center and no one was able to walk in the street, said one resident who lived near Green Square described a "very, very violent" situation.

"We know that the regime is reaching its end and Libyans are not retreating," the resident said. "People have a strange determination after all that happened."

Another witness said armed men dressed in militia uniforms roamed the capital's upscale diplomatic neighborhood and opened fire on a group of protesters gathering to organize a march. People wept over the dead.

Residents hoped that help would arrive from the other parts of the country.

The eruption of turmoil in the capital after seven days of protests and bloody clashes in Libya's eastern cities sharply escalated the challenge to Gadhafi. His security forces have unleashed the bloodiest crackdown of any Arab country against the wave of protests sweeping the region, which toppled the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia. At least 233 people have been killed so far, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, visiting neighboring Egypt, called the Libyan government's crackdown "appalling."

"The regime is using the most vicious forms of repression against people who want to see that country - which is one of the most closed and one of the most autocratic - make progress," he told reporters in Cairo.

The heaviest fighting so far has been in the east. Security forces in Benghazi opened fire on Sunday on protesters storming police stations and government buildings. But in several instances, units of the military turned against them and sided with protesters.

By Monday, protesters had claimed control of the city, overrunning its main security headquarters, called the Katiba.

Celebrating protesters raised the flag of the country's old monarchy, toppled in 1969 by a Gadhafi-led military coup, over Benghazi's main courthouse and on tanks around the city.

"Gadhafi needs one more push and he is gone," said Amal Roqaqie, a lawyer at the Benghazi court, saying protesters are "imposing a new reality. ... Tripoli will be our capital. We are imposing a new order and new state, a civil constitutional and with transitional government."

Gadhafi's son went on state TV in the early hours Monday with a sometimes confused speech of nearly 40 minutes, vowing to fight and warning that if protests continue, a civil war will erupt in which Libya's oil wealth "will be burned."

"Moammar Gadhafi, our leader, is leading the battle in Tripoli, and we are with him," he said. "The armed forces are with him. Tens of thousands are heading here to be with him. We will fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet," Seif al-Islam Gadhafi said.

He also promised "historic" reforms if protests stop. State TV said Monday he had formed a commission to investigate deaths during the unrest. Protesters ignored the vague gestures. Even as he spoke, the first clashes between demonstrators and security forces in the heart of Tripoli were still raging, lasting until dawn.

Fire raged Monday at the People's Hall, the main building for government gatherings where the country's equivalent of a parliament holds sessions several times a year, the pro-government news website Qureyna said.

It also reported the first major sign of discontent in Gadhafi's government, saying Justice Minister Mustafa Abdel-Jalil resigned to protest the "excessive use of force" against unarmed demonstrators.

There were reports of ambassadors abroad defecting. Libya's former ambassador to the Arab League in Cairo, Abdel-Moneim al-Houni, who resigned his post Sunday to side with protesters, demanded Gadhafi and his commanders and aides be put on trial for "the mass killings in Libya."

"Gadhafi's regime is now in the trash of history because he betrayed his nation and his people," al-Houni said in a statement.

A Libyan diplomat in China, Hussein el-Sadek el-Mesrati, told Al-Jazeera, "I resigned from representing the government of Mussolini and Hitler."

Two Mirage warplanes from the Libyan air force fled a Tripoli air base and landed on the nearby island of Malta, and their pilots - two colonels - asked for political asylum, Maltese military officials said.

A protest march Sunday night sparked scenes of mayhem in the heavily secured capital. Protesters had streamed into Green Square, all but taking over the plaza and surrounding streets in the area between Tripoli's Ottoman-era old city and its Italian-style downtown.

That was when the backlash began, with snipers firing from rooftops and militiamen attacking the crowds, shooting and chasing people down side streets, according to witnesses and protesters.

Gadhafi supporters in pickup trucks and cars raced through the square, shooting automatic weapons. "They were driving like madmen searching for someone to kill. ... It was total chaos, shooting and shouting," said a 28-year-old protester.

The witnesses reported seeing casualties, but the number could not be confirmed. The witness named Fathi said he saw at least two he believed were dead and many more wounded. After midnight, protesters took over the main Tripoli offices of state-run satellite stations Al-Jamahiriya-1 and Al-Shebabiya, a witness said.

"Gunfire was echoing across the capital all night last night," said Adel Suleiman, a Jordanian adviser to the Libyan Central Bank governor.

"I saw scores of burned cars and shops in the capital," said Suleiman, who was among about 260 Jordanians evacuated from Tripoli.

Mahmoud Shawkat, a 28-year-old computer engineer, said his Libyan neighbor was shot in the head during a protest in Green Square. "I'm not sure if he died," Shawkat said. "I had to flee to the airport."

A Jordanian engineer who identified himself as Abu Saleh, 30, said armed militias were in Green Square on Monday morning, and many of them appeared to be foreigners from other parts of Africa "who were shooting randomly at people and in the air. Some of them were carrying swords."

He said he also saw bloodstains on the road on my way to the airport and "pictures of Gadhafi were also torched."

Fragmentation is a real danger in Libya, a country of deep tribal divisions and a historic rivalry between Tripoli and Benghazi. The system of rule created by Gadhafi - the "Jamahiriya," or "rule by masses" - is highly decentralized, run by "popular committees" in a complicated hierarchy that effectively means there is no real center of decision-making except Gadhafi, his sons and their top aides.

An expert on Libya said she believed the regime was collapsing.

"Unlike the fall of the regime in Tunisia and Egypt, this is going to be a collapse into a civil war," said Lisa Anderson, president of the American University in Cairo, and a Libya expert said:

Seif has often been put forward as the regime's face of reform and is often cited as a likely successor. His younger brother, Mutassim, is the national security adviser, with a strong role in the military and security forces. Another brother, Khamis, heads the army's 32nd Brigade, which according to U.S. diplomats is the best-trained and best-equipped force in the military.

In Benghazi, cars honked their horns in celebration and protesters in the streets chanted "Long live Libya" on Monday, a day after bloody clashes that killed at least 60 people.

Benghazi's airport was closed, according to an airport official in Cairo. A Turkish Airlines flight trying to land in Benghazi to evacuate Turkish citizens was turned away Monday, told by ground control to circle over the airport, then to return to Istanbul.

There were fears of chaos as young men - including regime supporters - seized weapons from the Katiba and other captured security buildings. "The youths now have arms and that's worrying," said Iman, a doctor at the main hospital. "We are appealing to the wise men of every neighborhood to rein in the youths."

Youth volunteers directed traffic and guarded homes and public facilities, said Najla, a lawyer and university lecturer in Benghazi. She and other residents said police had disappeared from the streets.

After seizing the Katiba, protesters found the bodies of 13 uniformed security officers inside who had been handcuffed and shot in the head, then set on fire, said a doctor named Hassan, who asked not to be identified further for fear of reprisals. He said protesters believed the 13 had been executed by fellow security forces for refusing to attack protesters.

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Today 10:04 AM Libya's Interior Minister Quits

From CNN:

Libya's interior minister said Wednesday he has quit the government and is supporting the protesters, who he predicted will achieve victory in "days or hours."

Ex-Interior Minister Abdul Fattah Younis al Abidi told CNN that he resigned Monday after hearing that some 300 unarmed civilians had been killed in Benghazi during the prior two to three days. He accused Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi of planning to attack civilians on a wide scale.

Today 6:54 AM Libyan Regime Will Implement 'Penalty Law' Against Opponents

The Guardian reports:

Libyan state television has carried footage of a government official announcing that the regime will be implementing a "penalty law" against opponents.

Reiterating comments by Muammar Gaddafi earlier in the day that Libya was not Tunisia or Egypt, he also held the prospect of what appeared to be some very thin concessions.
They included the establishment of local government bodies and a committee "to investigate the sad events of the past week". The latter was ordered by Saif Gaddafi, the leader's son, he said.

@ SultanAlQassemi : Al Jazeera breaking: @AJArabic Correspondent: A Libyan battleship arrives in Malta after refusing Gaddafi's orders to shell Benghazi #Libya

Today 6:32 AM Tunisia Martyr's Family: Message To Lybia

Al Jazeera has posted a video message from the mother of Mohamed Bouazizi to the families who have lost loved ones in the crackdown on anti-government protests in Libya. Bouazizi was the young Tunisian whose act of self-immolation triggered the uprising in Tunisia that has spread across the region.

She says "I tell the people of Libya, may God help you. I hope you get everything you wish for. God willing, Libya will be a free country. We hope your dictator leaves, just as Ben Ali has left."

Watch the full video below.

Today 6:06 AM Analysis: Libya's Tribal Politics Hold Key To Gadhafi's Fate

Reuters has an interesting analysis on how tribal loyalties could be the deciding factor as to whether Libya's Col Gadhafi's regime falls or survives.

Powerful military elites ultimately decided the outcome of Egypt and Tunisia's revolutions, but in Libya it is the much more opaque and complex tribal power structures that could decide how events play out.

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has long relied on his immediate -- but small -- Qathathfa tribe to staff elite military units and guarantee his personal security and that of his government, experts say. But that is seen unlikely to be enough to secure the country.
More important are the larger tribes long co-opted into his rule such as the Wafalla, who make up an estimated 1 million of Libyan's more than 6 million population. Some rumors suggest the ferocity of Gaddafi's crackdown on his own people may already be prompting tribal leaders to switch allegiance.

Read the full story here.

Today 6:01 AM Gadhafi's Hidden Billions

The Guardian reports on how Libya's oil wealth has been siphoned out of the country by a powerful elite – including Gaddafi and his nine children. They write that the Gaddafi family could have billions of dollars of funds hidden away in secret bank accounts in Dubai, south-east Asia and the Persian Gulf.

Read the full story here.

Today 5:59 AM Audio Report From Libya

NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro is currently reporting from Eastern Libya, where anti-Gadhafi forces say they have gained control of the region. She has filed an audio report that you can listen to here.

Today 5:47 AM Gadhafi Talks With Berlusconi, Says 'Libya Is Fine'

Reuters reports:

"The brother leader reassured during (the) telephone conversation the friend Berlusconi that 'Libya is fine, its people are ... holding on to its security, stability and national unity'," the official JANA news agency said.

AFP news agency reports that it has obtained official figures putting the death toll from the unrest at 300, including 58 soldiers.

Today 5:26 AM Libya Reacts To Gadhafi Speech

Al Jazeera has video of the reaction in Libya to Gadhafi's speech earlier today. Libyan state TV broadcast images of what appeared to be large crowds of pro-government demonstrators supporting Gadhafi's tough line. Due to restrictions on media operating in Libya, footage of anti-government demonstrations was sourced from YouTube.

Today 4:55 AM Gadhafi To Sabotage Oil Resources?

Time magazine's Robert Baer reports that sources in side Libya say that Gadhafi is planning to sabotage the country's oil supplies. Writes Baer:

There's been virtually no reliable information coming out of Tripoli, but a source close to the Gaddafi regime I did manage to get hold of told me the already terrible situation in Libya will get much worse. Among other things, Gaddafi has ordered security services to start sabotaging oil facilities. They will start by blowing up several oil pipelines, cutting off flow to Mediterranean ports. The sabotage, according to the insider, is meant to serve as a message to Libya's rebellious tribes: It's either me or chaos.

You can read the entire report here.

Today 4:39 AM Saif Al-Islam Gadhafi Reportedly To Hold Press Conference

Reuters is reporting that Gadhafi's son will hold a press conference in Tripoli following his father's address to the nation earlier today. Reuters tweets:

@ Reuters : FLASH: Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam to hold press conference in Tripoli -Reuters witness

Today 4:11 AM Libya's Interior Minister Defects, Urges Army To Join The People

Al Jazeera has just reported that Libya's interior minister has announced his defection and urged the army to join the people and respond to their "legitimate demands."

Today 3:53 AM Libyan Business Leaders Appear Ready For Post-Gadhafi Era

Al Jazeera reports:

Business leaders appear to be ready and waiting to move into a post-Gadhafi Libya. George Kanaan, CEO of the Arab Bankers Association in London, says reform will be "hugely positive" for the country - unlike Egypt, which already had a fairly open and "liberal" economy, change in Libya will encourage massive outside investment.

Today 3:44 AM Hillary Clinton On Libya

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton answered spoke briefly today about the situation in Libya She said that the U.S. had joined with the international community in "strongly condemning" the violence in Libya and that the U.S. held Libya responsible for the well-being of its citizens.

She urdeg "restraint" for the government in Libya, as well as the governments of Yemen and Bahrain. She said that "Political reform must respond to the demands of the Libyan protesters."

Today 3:28 AM Report: Bodies Of 150 Executed Military Officers Seen In Libya

The Guardian reports:

We reported yesterday that a reliable source in Benghazi had told us about people there finding the bodies of about 150 officers who were apparently executed after refusing to fire on protesters.

We're still working to confirm that, but other outlets have now also been reporting that they are hearing the same story.
Lisa Goldman, a Canadian-Israeli writer and blogger who contributes to +972 Magazine writes that she was told something similar by a source in Tripoli she spoke to for a detailed account of events on the ground.
She also heard from several sources that officers in Benghazi, including air force officers, had been executed for refusing orders to kill the anti-government demonstrators. The same sources described a mass grave near Benghazi, containing the bodies of more than 100 executed officers.

Reuters reports that the U.S. markets have taken a tumble over the political uncertainty in oil-exporting Libya.

Oil prices hit a 2-1/2 year high on concerns the unrest could disrupt supplies from the Middle East. NYMEX crude oil futures jumped 6.5 percent and hit an intraday high of $94.49 per barrel.

Today 2:51 AM Bahrain Opposition Protests Resume

Reuters reports:

Shi'ite Muslim protesters filled streets in Manama on Tuesday demanding the fall of the Sunni-run government in the biggest protest since unrest began last week, while the return of a key opposition figure was delayed.

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters marched to Pearl Square -- the focal point of the week-long protests in central Manama -- to press demands for political reform in a country dominated by the Sunni Muslim minority.

The Associated Press reports that Greece has offered to evacuate 15,000 Chinese citizens by ship from Libya, and is considering requests from other countries to help ferry out their nationals.

Today 2:35 AM Libyan Muslim Leaders Issue Fatwa Against Government

A group of Muslim leaders in Libya has endorsed the ongoing revolt against the nation's government, headed by President Moammar Gadhafi.

The newly formed group, calling themselves The Network of Free Ulema, is made up of more than 50 of Libya's prominent clerics and scholars. The group first issued a statement on Saturday which condemned the violent actions of the government against the protesters.

Read the full story here.

Today 2:19 AM Germany's Merkel: Gadhafi's Speech 'Very, Very Frightening'

German Chancellor Angela Merkel described Gaddafi's speech as "very, very frightening".

Today 2:18 AM A Familiar Theme: Anti-Americanism

Al Jazeera reports:

In case you missed it - the backdrop to Gaddafi's speech - a piece of artwork showing a clenched fist crushing a US fighter jet, in front of the words "Allahu Akbar" [God is the greatest].

As an indicator of how Gadhafi's speech was received in the international media, The Guardian reports that several TV networks, including The BBC, Al Jazeera and Britain's Sky News all stopped short of broadcasting the speech in full.

Today's speech from Gadhafi, his second in two days, has been widely described as rambling and incoherent in the media.

Today 2:05 AM Report: Families Not Allowed To Retrieve Bodies Unless They Sign Waiver

@ EnoughGaddafi : Families not allowed 2 retrieve bodies of killed family members unless they sign waiver saying their loved 1s died in surgery #libya #feb17

Today 2:00 AM Al Jazeera: Libyia Suspended From Arab League: UPDATE

Al Jazeera's English langugage service is reporting that the Arab League, the political grouping of Arab states, has suspended Libya.

Update: Al Jazeera now states that Libya has not been fully suspended, but that Libyan delegations will not be permitted to take part in Arab League meetings for the time being.

As Libya's representative to the Arab League has resigned, this move is interpreted by Al Jazeera as a rather weak, symbolic move.

Today 1:36 AM NBC's Engel:Eastern Libya No Longer Under Government Control

MSNBC reports:

Unable to communicate by phone after crossing from Egypt into Libya on Tuesday, NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel reported via text messaging and Twitter that he encountered only protesters and military defectors in the eastern region of the war-torn country.

“No army presence in border area,” he wrote, noting it was now in “protesters’ hands.”

From BBC News:

Eyewitnesses in Tripoli tell BBC Arabic there is shooting on the streets of the capital.

Al Jazeera reports:

Talking about Gaddafi's address on state television, Ibrahim Jibreel, a Libyan political analyst told Al Jazeera

"there was no substance to this.. There was really no message to this besides the threats".
"The interesting thing is that Libya has no constitution but he has threatened the death penalty for people who fail to follow the constituion," Jibreel said.

Today 1:23 AM White House Condemns 'Appalling' Violence In Libya

The White House has condemned the "appalling" violence in Libya. Spokesman Jay Carney said: "We offer our condolences to families of the victims in Libya of this appalling violence."

Today 1:11 AM Report: Helicopters With Weapons Sighted Over Tripoli