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TRIPOLI: An embattled Moamer Qadhafi addressed a crowd in Tripoli on Friday shouting “we will fight them and we will beat them”.
On a day that protesters against his iron-fisted rule braved deadly gunfire in several parts of the capital, Qadhafi called on his partisans to “defend Libya” adding that “if needs be, we will open all the arsenals”.
Speaking from atop a building in the central Green Square, he shouted that the Libyan people “love Qadhafi,” drawing cheers from the crowd below.
This was Qadhafi's third statement this week. He previously called on his followers to crush the rebellion against him that began last week and later said Al-Qaeda was behind what he called “drug crazed mobs” of youth trying to unseat him.
Meanwhile, outraged Western governments scrambled to craft a collective response to the bloody crackdown in the oil-rich North African state.
In a first step, the European Union agreed to slap an arms embargo, asset freezes and travel bans on Libya, an EU diplomat said.
However, they will not be enforced for several days because the accord needs to be drafted legally.
And Western nations have drawn up a draft UN Security Council resolution that would impose similar sanctions worldwide, diplomats said in New York, adding that a vote could come as early as this weekend.
Until now, governments have been constrained by fears of reprisals against their people still stranded amid what escaping expatriates described as hellish scenes as evacuation efforts dragged on into the 11th day.
In Tripoli, security forces opened fire indiscriminately on worshippers leaving prayers, desperate to prevent any new protests on the weekly Muslim day of rest, residents told AFP by telephone.
Two people were killed in the Fashlum neighbourhood and several more in Sug al-Jomaa, witnesses said.
Both are eastern suburbs where security forces had opened fire on previous days, but sustained gunfire was also reported in the western district of Ghut Ashaal.
With police and troops deployed in force outside their mosques, prayer leaders followed texts for their sermons that had been imposed by the authorities calling for an end to “sedition,” worshippers said.
