Anti-government protesters defied Moamer Gaddafi and took to the streets for the ninth day in a row Wednesday as the embattled Libyan leader struggled to cling on to power, dpa reported.
The fresh protests came a day after Gaddafi's defiant address, broadcast on state television, calling on his supporters to eliminate his critics, and threatening that the "cockroaches" would be tracked and killed "house by house."
Protesters were Wednesday reported to be in control of several areas, including the eastern cities of Benghazi and Tobruk.
The opposition group, Libyan Youth Movement, said thousands took to the streets in Benghazi, where the unrest began on February 16.
The demonstrators want residents in Tripoli to join the uprising, but the Libyan capital has so far remained in Gaddafi's control.
Tripoli was mostly calm through the day, with very few people on the streets. But some witnesses reported hearing gunshots in a few areas.
Libya's former ambassador to the Arab League, Abdel-Moneim al- Honi, who resigned from his post on Sunday over the crackdown, told broadcaster Al Arabiya that Gaddafi was losing his grip over Tripoli and that he only controls three army bases in the city and a few neighbourhoods.
There were protests in the city of Misurta, about 200 kilometres east of Tripoli, and hundreds of women rallied against the government in the eastern city of Derna.
There have been varying estimates of the death toll in the popular revolt, as accurate reporting has been hampered by limited access, phone and internet connectivity.
The Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights Leagues estimated at least 640 deaths - 275 in Tripoli and 230 in Benghazi. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Wednesday that a figure of 1,000 dead was "plausible."
A French doctor who recently fled Libya estimated that at least 2,000 people had lost their lives in Benghazi alone, Al Arabiya reported.
The Libyan Youth Movement said residents in Benghazi had reportedly found underground jails with political prisoners, and had released 1,500 of them.
Libyan sources said Gaddafi was barricaded in the Bab al-Azizya compound in Tripoli, and was being protected by four military brigades. But despite his defiant stance, there were signs that his grip on power was slipping.
After the defection of two jet fighter pilots to Malta, more military units in northeastern Libya signalled their support for the protesters, Al Arabiya reported.
A Libyan fighter jet crashed near Benghazi on Wednesday, news website al-Qurayna reported. The jet's pilot and co-pilot parachuted out of the jet after allegedly refusing to carry out orders to bomb Benghazi, military sources told al-Qurayna.
The jet crashed into an empty space near the town of Ajdabiya, about 160 kilometres southwest of Benghazi.
General Suleiman Mahmoud in Tobruk had defected and joined the protesters, according to Al Jazeera.
Gaddafi's interior minister, Abdul Fattah Younis, said Tuesday he was joining the protesters, and Libyan ambassadors in several countries have abandoned their posts.
International condemnation of Gaddafi's brutal crackdown was mounting: European Union diplomats were Wednesday debating imposing sanctions on Gaddafi's regime and the United Nations Human Rights Council said it would convene a special session on the crisis on Friday.
In his rambling speech Tuesday, Gaddafi dismissed the uprising as the work of "a few drugged people" and foreign agitators. The ruler of 41 years vowed to fight his opponents to his "last drop of blood."
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