TRIPOLI // The beleaguered Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi was preparing for a last stand in his Tripoli stronghold yesterday as rebels cemented their control over vast swaths of the country's eastern region.
Turkey, China, India, South Korea, France and the United States were among nations that moved to bring their citizens out amid fears of what the Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini called a "horrible bloodbath" as the regime fought for survival. Up to 1,000 people are feared to have died in the violence.
Colonel Qaddafi is still in control of Tripoli but there were indications yesterday that the fighting was nearing the capital. The rebels have taken Libya's oil-producing coastal east, from the Egyptian border through to the cities of Tobruk and Benghazi, with soldiers switching sides to join the uprising.
Benghazi, the cradle of the revolt, was alive with celebration yesterday as thousands thronged the streets, waving red, green and blacks flags from the pre-Qaddafi era and giving out snacks and juice to passing cars.
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Alongside charred buildings scarred by the violence, one man held up a picture of Mr Qaddafi's head grafted on to a pig's body as lorries full of exuberant protesters screeched around the streets. "Ben Ali, Hosni, Muammar," read graffiti on a city billboard setting Col Qaddafi's name alongside those of the ousted leaders of Tunisia and Egypt.
Two Libyan air force pilots baled out of their Russian-made Sukhoi-22 plane near Benghazi and let it crash rather than bomb the city. The two-man crew parachuted safely to earth.
In Tobruk, military officers still in uniform but no longer loyal to Colonel Qaddafi said he no longer controlled the area. TV news channels showed footage of anti-aircraft missiles at what they said was an abandoned military base.
Residents in nearby Bayda, the country's third-largest city, said militiamen loyal to Colonel Qaddafi had been executed after government forces used aircraft and tanks to kill 26 people the night before.
Libyans fleeing into Tunisia also reported clashes over the past two nights in Sabratha, about an hour's drive west of Tripoli, where Col Qaddafi is believed to have deployed thousands of troops.
There were also reports of fighting in Misurata on the Mediterranean coast about 215km east of the capital.
Government troops were keeping a tight grip on Tripoli and the streets of the capital were mainly empty yesterday, barring a few dozen Qaddafi backers, despite his nationally televised call a day before for a show of popular support.
Only Green Square - a Qaddafi stronghold since the revolt began on February 15 - pulsed with activity as regime loyalists began arriving. Drivers honked their horns and men and children poured out of minibuses as some Qaddafi supporters perched on the roofs of vehicles and two or three police cars patrolled the area.
In a text message sent on the Libyan national mobile telephone network, the government claimed it was still in control of the country. "God give victory to our leader and the people," the message said, promising a credit of airtime if it was forwarded to other mobile users.
In a televised diatribe on Tuesday night, Colonel Qaddafi threatened violence against groups who defy his rule, and called on supporters to "cleanse Libya house by house" unless protesters surrendered.
However, he faced continued political defections with his interior minister, Abdel Fattah Younes al Abidi, and a senior aide to Colonel Qaddafi's influential son Saif al Islam the latest to change sides.
"I resigned from the Qaddafi Foundation on Sunday to express dismay against violence," Mr Youssef Sawani, executive director of the foundation, said.
The Italian foreign minister, Mr Frattini, said he believed the entire eastern region of Cyrenaica, which includes both Tobruk and Benghazi and is home to many of the tribes that have traditionally been ambivalent about Colonel Qaddafi's 40-year rule, was no longer under government control.
He suggested that estimates of 1,000 people dead were "credible". Human Rights Watch had estimated 233 dead, with 62 killed in Tripoli in the past two days. Opposition groups put the figure much higher.
Urging a prompt end to the "horrible bloodbath", Mr Frattini also said he feared a flood of immigrants if Col Qaddafi is ousted. He predicted up to 300,000 Libyans could try to flee their country.
Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister of Italy, also urged the world to oppose "unjustified violence and drifts towards Islamic extremism" in Libya, a day after phoning Col Qaddafi.
The White House said global powers must speak with one voice in response to the "appalling violence" in Libya and the secretary of state Hillary Clinton said the US would take "appropriate steps" in time.
But Washington has little leverage over Libya, which was an adversary for most of Colonel Qaddafi's rule until it agreed in 2003 to abandon a weapons-of-mass-destruction programme and moved to settle claims from the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
France became the first state to call for sanctions. "I would like the suspension of economic, commercial and financial relations with Libya until further notice," the president Nicolas Sarkozy said.
Peru also suspended diplomatic ties, becoming the first nation to take such a measure. Spain said Colonel Qaddafi had "lost all legitimacy to continue to lead his country", and the EU president, Herman van Rompuy, said crimes could not be committed "without consequences".
The UN Security Council "condemned the violence and use of force against civilians, deplored the repression against peaceful demonstrators and expressed deep regret at the deaths of hundreds of civilians".
The UN Human Rights Council said it would hold a special session tomorrow to discuss the crisis after a request by the European Union. Libya's embassy in Vienna condemned "the excessive use of violence" against peaceful protesters and urged the world to take "concrete measures" to protect them.
An estimated 1.5 million foreign nationals are working or travelling in Libya and a third of the population are immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa. Witnesses described scenes of chaos as people tried to leave.
A British oil worker said he was stranded with 300 other people at a camp in the east of Libya, where he said local people had looted oil installations.
"We are living every day in fear of our lives as the local people are armed," James Coyle told the BBC. "They've looted … the German camp next door, they've taken all their vehicles, all our vehicles … everything. So we are desperate for the British government to come and get us."
* With reporting from the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Reuters and Bloomberg