Unrest intensifies in Tripoli

Libyan protesters and security forces battled for control of Tripoli’s city centre overnight, with snipers opening fire and Muammar Gaddafi supporters shooting from speeding vehicles, witnesses have said.

The protests appear to be the heaviest in Libya’s capital after days of deadly clashes in eastern cities.

Three witnesses say protesters moved into Tripoli’s central Green Square and nearby squares last night. Plain-clothes security forces and militiamen attacked in clashes that lasted until dawn.

One witness said snipers opened fire from rooftops. Two others said gunmen in vehicles with photos of Col Gaddafi sped through, opening fire and running people over. The witnesses reported seeing casualties, but the number could not be confirmed.

Early today protestors took over the offices of two of the multiple state-run satellite news channels.

The protests and violence were the heaviest yet in the capital, a sign of the spread of unrest after six days of demonstrations in eastern cities demanding the end of Muammar Gaddafi’s rule.

In Libya’s second biggest city, Benghazi, protesters were in control of the streets after days of bloody clashes and were swarming over the main security headquarters, looting weapons.

Protesters took down the Libyan flag from above the city’s main court and in its place raised the flag of the country’s old monarchy, toppled in 1969 in the military coup that brought Gaddafi to power.

Libya has seen the bloodiest crackdown of any Arab country on the wave of protests sweeping the region that toppled the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia. Since the six days of unrest began, more than 200 people have been killed, according human rights groups.

In in a rambling and sometimes confused national TV address Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam last night said his father would prevail.

“We are not Tunisia and Egypt,” he said. “Our leader, is leading the battle in Tripoli, and we are with him.”

“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,” he said.

He warned the protesters that they risked igniting a civil war in which Libya’s oil wealth “will be burned.” He also promised “historic” reforms in Libya if protests stop.

Seif has often been put forward as the regime’s face of reform. Several of the elder Gaddafi’s sons have powerful positions in the regime and in past years have competed for influence. Seif’s younger brother Mutassim is the national security adviser, with a strong role in the military and security forces, and another brother Khamis heads the army’s 32nd Brigade, which according to US diplomats is the best trained and best equipped force in the military.

The clashes in Tripoli began yesterday afternoon, when protesters from various parts of the city began to stream toward central Green Square, chanting “God is great”.

Then the backlash began, with snipers firing down from rooftops and militiamen attacking the crowds, shooting and chasing people down side streets.

After midnight, protesters took over the main Tripoli offices of two state-run satellite stations, Al-Jamahiriya-1 and Al-Shebabiya.

At dawn today Green Square and surrounding streets were empty. Schools, government offices and most shops were shut across the city of two million

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.

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 against the Middle East’s longest-serving leader.