Qadhafi vows to 'die a martyr', orders revolt crushed

A defiant Muammar Qadhafi vowed on Tuesday to die "a martyr" in Libya and said he would crush a revolt which has seen eastern regions already break free from his rule. Swathed in brown robes, Qadhafi seethed with anger as he banged the podium outside one of his residences that was heavily damaged in a 1986 US bombing raid that attempted to kill him. Nearby stood a monument of a giant fist crushing a US fighter jet.
"I am not going to leave this land, I will die here as a martyr," Qadhafi said on state television, refusing to bow to calls from his own diplomats, soldiers and protesters clamouring in the streets for an end to his four decades at the helm.
"I shall remain here defiant," said Qadhafi who has ruled Libya with a mixture of populism and tight control since taking power in a military coup in 1969. Anti-government protesters were "rats and mercenaries", he said, who under Libyan law deserved the death penalty. Qadhafi said he would call the people to "cleanse Libya house by house" unless protesters surrendered. Qadhafi urged Libyans to take to the streets on Wednesday to show their loyalty to his government.
"All of you who love Muammar Qadhafi, go out the streets, secure the streets, don't be afraid of them ... Chase them, arrest them, hand them over to the security (forces)," he said. State television showed what it said was live footage of hundreds of government supporters in Tripoli's Green Square waving portraits of Qadhafi and banners supporting the veteran leader. But refugees streaming across the Libyan border into Egypt said Qadhafi was using tanks, warplanes and foreign mercenaries to fight the growing rebellion.
Eastern Libya is no longer under Qadhafi's control, rebel soldiers in the city of Tobruk told a Reuters correspondent there. Tobruk residents said the city was in the hands of the people and had been for three days. They said smoke rising above the city was from a munitions store bombed by troops loyal to one of Qadhafi's sons. There was the occasional explosion.
"All the eastern regions are out of Qadhafi's control. The people and the army are hand-in-hand here," said the now former army major Hany Saad Marjaa. The White House offered its condolences for the "appalling violence" in Libya and said the international community had to speak with one voice on the crisis.
The UN refugee agency meanwhile urged Libya's neighbours to grant refuge to those fleeing the unrest, which was triggered by decades of repression and popular revolts that toppled leaders in Tunisia and Egypt.
"NO SURRENDER" On the Libyan side of the border with Egypt, anti-Qadhafi rebels armed with clubs and Kalashnikov rifles welcomed visitors. One man held an upside-down picture of Qadhafi defaced with the words "the butcher tyrant, murderer of Libyans", a Reuters correspondent who crossed into Libya reported. Hundreds of Egyptians flowed out of Libya on tractors and trucks, taking with them harrowing tales of state violence and banditry.
In the eastern town of Al Bayda, resident Marai Al Mahry told Reuters by telephone that 26 people including his brother Ahmed had been shot dead overnight by Qadhafi loyalists. "They shoot you just for walking on the street," he said, sobbing uncontrollably as he appealed for help.