Libya: protests gather pace as Gaddafi's son vows to fight to the end

Opponents of the Gaddafi regime were in control of parts of Libya's second city Benghazi having driven back security forces who fired on them with high-velocity sniper rifles, machine guns and even anti-aircraft artillery.

There were less violent clashes in Tripoli, though there were also reports of gunfire and tear gas there as demonstrators gathered near Green Square and hurled stones at police. One protester told the al-Jazeera network they were chanting at the leader: "Where are you? Where are you? Come out if you're a man."

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, Col Gaddafi's second son and heir apparent, appeared on television late in the evening to say there would be "rivers of blood" and that Libya was on the brink of a civil war that would burn its oil wealth.

"Our spirits are high and the leader Muammar Gaddafi is leading the battle in Tripoli, and we are behind him as is the Libyan army," he said. "We will keep fighting until the last man standing, even to the last woman standing...We will not leave Libya to the Italians or the Turks."

But he admitted that "civilians are driving tanks in Benghazi" and though he said only 84 people had died showed he was aware of the extent of the uprising.