Gaddafi struggles to hold power in Libya

Cracks in Muammar Gaddafi’s once-total rule spread rapidly across Libya today.

Militia and mercenaries loyal to the dictator clamped down violently in Tripoli but the rebellion controlling much of eastern Libya claimed new gains closer to the capital.

And a jet fighter crew let their plane crash in the desert, parachuting to safety, rather than bomb opposition-held Benghazi.

Gaddafi’s opponents said they had taken over Misrata, which would be the largest city in the western half in the country to fall into their hands.

Clashes broke out over the past two days in the town of Sabratha, west of the capital, where the army and militia were trying to put down protesters who overwhelmed security headquarters and government buildings

The division of the country – and defection of some army units to the protesters – raised the possibility the opposition could try an assault on the capital.

There were internet calls by protesters for all police, armed forces and youth to march to Tripoli on Friday.

Gaddafi appears to have lost the support of several tribes and his own diplomats, including Libya’s ambassador in Washington, Ali Adjali, and deputy UN Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi.

The Libyan Embassy in Austria also condemned the use of “excessive violence against peaceful demonstrators” and said it was representing the Libyan people.

International outrage mounted after Gaddafi went on state TV yesterday called on his supporters to fight protesters.

Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said estimates of 1,000 people killed in the violence in Libya were “credible,” although he stressed information about casualties was incomplete.

Gaddafi’s speech appeared to have brought out a heavy force of supporters and militia that largely prevented major protests in the capital today.

But Libya’s upheaval, just over a week old, has shattered the hold of Gaddafi’s regime across much of the country. Protesters claim to control towns and cities along nearly the entire eastern half of the 1,000-mile Mediterranean coastline, from the Egyptian border. In parts, they have set up their own self-administrations.

At the Egyptian border, guards had fled, and local tribal elders have formed local committees to take their place. “Welcome to the new Libya,” a graffiti spray-painted at the crossing proclaimed.

A defence committee of local residents was even guarding one of Gaddafi’s once highly secretive anti-aircraft missile bases outside the city of Tobruk.

Protesters have claimed control all the way to the city of Ajdabiya, about 480 miles east of Tripoli, encroaching on the key oil fields around the Gulf of Sidra.

That has left Gaddafi’s power centred around Tripoli, in the far west and parts of the country’s centre. But that appeared to be weakening.

Protesters in Misrata were claiming victory after several days of fighting with Gaddafi loyalists in the city, about 120 miles east of Tripoli.

An audio statement posted on the internet was reportedly from armed forces officers in Misrata proclaiming “our total support” for the protesters.

New videos posted by Libya’s opposition on Facebook also showed scores of anti-government protesters raising the flag from the pre-Gaddafi monarchy on a building in Zawiya, 30 miles west of Tripoli. Another showed protesters lining up cement blocks and setting tires ablaze to fortify positions on a square inside the capital.

Further west, armed forces deployed in Sabratha in a bid to regain control after protesters burned government buildings and police stations.

The opposition also claimed control in Zwara, about 30 miles from the Tunisian border in the west, after local army units sided with the protesters and police fled.

“The situation here is very secure, the people here have organised security committees, and there are people who have joined us from the army,” said a 25-year-old unemployed university graduate in Zwara. “This man (Gaddafi) has reached the point that he’s saying he will bring armies from African (to fight protesters). That means he is isolated,” he said.

The crisis sparked a scramble by countries to get their citizens out of Libya. The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting that ended with a statement condemning the crackdown, expressing “grave concern” and calling for an “immediate end to the violence” and steps to address the legitimate demands of the Libyan people.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy also pressed for European Union sanctions against Libya’s regime because of its violent crackdown on protesters, and raised the possibility of cutting all economic and business ties between the EU and the North African nation.