Libyan protesters take second city

Libyan protesters claim to have taken control of Benghazi, the country’s second city, only hours after the son of ruler Muammar Gaddafi warned he would fight them “to the last bullet”.

Even as Seif al-Islam Gaddafi spoke on state TV on Sunday night, clashes were raging in and around Tripoli’s central Green Square, lasting until dawn

Snipers opened fire on crowds trying to seize the square, and Gaddafi supporters speeding through in vehicles shot and ran over protesters, but they failed to stop the demonstrators taking over the offices of two of the multiple state-run satellite news channels.

As dawn broke smoke was rising from two sites in Tripoli, a police station and a security forces base. The city was closed and streets empty, with schools, government offices and most shops shut.

The protests and violence were the heaviest yet in the capital of two million people, a sign of how unrest is spreading after six days of demonstrations in eastern cities demanding the end of the elder Gaddafi’s rule.

In Benghazi, protesters are in control of the streets and have swarmed over the main security headquarters, looting weapons, after bloody clashes on Sunday which killed at least 60 people.

They took down the Libyan flag from above Benghazi’s main court and raised the flag of the country’s old monarchy, which was toppled in 1969 by the military coup that brought Gaddafi to power.

Benghazi has seen a cycle of bloody clashes over the past week as security forces killed protesters, followed by funerals that turn into new protests, sparking new bloody shootings.

Gaddafi has unleashed the bloodiest crackdown of any Arab country against the wave of protests sweeping the region, which toppled the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia. More than 200 have been killed in Libya, according to medical officials, human rights groups and exiled dissidents.

In his televised address, Seif al-Islam Gaddafi warned of civil war if protests continue, a theme continued on Libyan state TV on Monday with a pro-regime commentator speaking of chaos and “rivers of blood” turning Libya into “another Somalia” if security is not restored.