Libya continues to fracture

CAIRO, Egypt — Deep cracks opened in Moammar Gadhafi’s regime Monday, with Libyan government officials at home and abroad resigning and air force pilots defecting, 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.

Early today, Gadhafi appeared for less than a minute on state television and made brief remarks to say he was in Tripoli and deny rumors that he had fled to Venezuela amid the unrest sweeping his country.

At sunset Monday, a 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 hide-outs 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.

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 spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Gadhafi appeared to have lost the support of 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.

Dabbashi called Monday for Gadhafi to step down as the country’s ruler.

“If he doesn’t, the Libyan people will get rid of him,” Dabbashi added.

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. He has often been put forward as the regime’s face of change and is often cited as a likely successor.

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.

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 and 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.

At least 233 people have been killed so far in the protests, according to New Yorkbased Human Rights Watch.

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.

The pro-government news website Qureyna 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. A Libyan diplomat in China, Hussein el-Sadek el-Mesrati, told Al-Jazeera, “I resigned from representing the government of Mussolini and Hitler.”

The Libyan ambassador to the United States, Ali Adjali, also said he could no longer support Gadhafi, and the ambassadors to India and Bangladesh resigned.

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.

An expert on Libya said she believed that Gadhafi’s 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.

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.

European countries sent planes and ferries to Libya on Monday to evacuate their citizens as anti-government protests spread to Tripoli.

Portugal, Austria, the Netherlands and Serbia were among countries that sent or were readying flights to evacuate citizens. Croatian state television reported Monday that it had already begun the evacuation of 500 Croat citizens from Libya.

Benghazi’s airport was closed, according to an airport official in Cairo. Turkey sent ferries to pick up citizens after a Turkish Airlines flight trying to land in Benghazi was turned away Monday.

Information for this article was contributed by Sarah El Deeb, Maggie Michael, Hamza Hendawi, Sameer N. Yacoub, Nicole Winfield, Edith M. Lederer and Anita Snow of The Associated Press and Associated Press writers across Europe.