Libyan protesters seize country's second city

Snipers opened fire on crowds trying to seize the square, and Gaddafi supporters speeding through in vehicles, shot and ran over protesters.

But they failed to stop the demonstrators taking over the offices of two of the multiple state-run satellite news channels.

As dawn broke smoke was rising from two sites in Tripoli, a police station and a security forces base.

The city was closed and streets empty, with schools, government offices and most shops shut.

The protests and violence were the heaviest yet in the capital of 2 million people, a sign of how unrest was spreading after six days of demonstrations in eastern cities demanding the end of the elder Gaddafi’s rule.

In Benghazi protesters were in control of the streets and swarmed over the main security headquarters, looting weapons, after bloody clashes yesterday that killed at least 60 people.

They took down the Libyan flag from above Benghazi’s main court and raised the flag of the country’s old monarchy, which was toppled in 1969 by the military coup that brought Gaddafi to power.

There were fears of chaos as young men – including regime supporters – seized weapons from captured security buildings.

Youth volunteers were directing traffic and guarding homes and public facilities.

Benghazi has seen a cycle of bloody clashes over the past week, as security forces killed protesters, followed by funerals that turn into new protests, sparking new bloody shootings.

After funerals yesterday, protesters fanned out, burning government buildings and police stations and besieging the large compound known as the Katiba, the city’s main security headquarters.

Security forces battled back, at times using heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft guns.

Ahmed Hassan, a doctor at the main Al-Jalaa hospital, said funerals were expected today for 20 of those killed the day before, but that families of 40 others were still trying to identify their loved ones because their bodies were too damaged.

In some cases, army units reportedly sided with protesters against security forces and pro-Gaddafi militias.

Protesters took over the Katiba, and weapons stores were looted.

Gaddafi has unleashed the bloodiest crackdown of any Arab country against the wave of protests sweeping the region, which toppled the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia. More than 200 have been killed in Libya, according to medical officials, human rights groups and exiled dissidents.

In his televised address Seif al-Islam Gaddafi warned of civil war in if protests continued, a theme continued on Libyan state TV today with a pro-regime commentator speaking of chaos and “rivers of blood” turning Libya into “another Somalia” if security was not restored.

Fragmentation is a real danger in the country of deep tribal divisions and a historic rivalry between Tripoli and Benghazi.

The Arab world’s longest ruling leader in power for nearly 42 years, Muammar Gaddafi has held an unquestioned grip over the highly decentralised system of government he created, called the “Jamahiriya,” or “rule by masses.”

The turmoil in Libya, an OPEC country that is a significant oil supplier to Europe, was raising international alarm. Oil prices jumped to nearly 88 dollars a barrel amid investor concern.

Two leading oil companies, Statoil and BP, said they were pulling some employees out of Libya or preparing to do so. Portugal sent a plane to pick up its citizens and other EU nationals and Turkey sent two ferries to pick up building workers stranded there.

As EU foreign ministers were discussing the possible evacuation of European citizens mobs attacked South Korean, Turkish and Serbian workers at building sites around the country.

The internet has been largely shut down, residents can no longer make international calls from land lines and journalists cannot work freely, but eyewitness reports trickling out of the country suggested that protesters were fighting back more forcefully.

Today state TV tried to give an air of normality, reporting that Gaddafi received phone calls of support from the presidents of Nicaragua and Mali.

In other setbacks for Gaddafi’s regime, a major tribe in Libya – the Warfla - was reported to have turned against him and announced it was joining the protests.

Demonstrators in Tripoli set fire the HQ of the Olympics committee and the People's Hall, the main building for government gatherings where the country's equivalent of a parliament holds its sessions several times a year.