Violent unrest against Libya's Muammar Gaddafi spread to the capital Tripoli on Sunday and his son vowed to fight until the "last man standing" after scores of protesters were killed in the east of the country.
Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam said in an address on state TV the army stood behind his father as a "leader of the battle in Tripoli" and would enforce security at any price. His comments were the first official reaction from the Libyan authorities since the unrest began.
As he spoke, police used tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters in Tripoli, where gunfire was heard, vehicles were on fire and protesters threw stones at billboards of Gaddafi, who is facing the most serious challenge to his four-decade rule.
Revolutions which deposed the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt have shaken the Arab world and inspired protests across the Middle East and North Africa, threatening the grip of long-entrenched autocratic leaders.
In the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain, thousands of protesters gathered in a square in Manama, calling for political change and awaiting promised talks with the island's Sunni rulers.
After days of violence, the mood among the mainly Shi'ite protesters appeared to be more conciliatory.
Libya, however was witnessing the bloodiest episodes yet in two months of unrest convulsing the Arab world.
A resident in Tripoli told Reuters by telephone he could hear gunshots. "We're inside the house and the lights are out. There are gunshots in the street," he said. "That's what I hear, gunshots and people. I can't go outside."
An expatriate worker said: "Some anti-government demonstrators are gathering in the residential complexes. The police are dispersing them. I can also see burning cars."
Al Jazeera television said thousands of protesters clashed with supporters of Gaddafi in Tripoli's Green Square.
The violence spread to Tripoli after days of protests in Benghazi, Libya's second largest city, in which at least 233 people have been killed, according to Human Rights Watch.
Communications are tightly controlled and Benghazi is not accessible to international journalists, but the picture that has emerged is of a city slipping from the grasp of security forces in the biggest challenge to Gaddafi's rule since the "brotherly leader" seized power in a 1969 military coup.
Habib al-Obaidi, head of the intensive care unit at the main Al-Jalae hospital in Benghazi, said the bodies of 50 people, mostly killed by gunshots, had been brought there on Sunday afternoon. The deaths came after scores were killed on Saturday.
Two hundred people had arrived wounded, 100 of them in serious condition, he said.
Members of an army unit known as the "Thunderbolt" squad had come to the hospital carrying wounded comrades, he said. The soldiers said they had defected to the cause of the hundreds of thousands of protesters in the streets and had fought and defeated Gaddafi's elite guards.
"They are now saying that they have overpowered the Praetorian Guard and that they have joined the people's revolt," another man at the hospital who heard the soldiers, lawyer Mohamed al-Mana, told Reuters by telephone.
Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam said in an address on state TV the army stood behind his father as a "leader of the battle in Tripoli" and would enforce security at any price. His comments were the first official reaction from the Libyan authorities since the unrest began.
As he spoke, police used tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters in Tripoli, where gunfire was heard, vehicles were on fire and protesters threw stones at billboards of Gaddafi, who is facing the most serious challenge to his four-decade rule.
Revolutions which deposed the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt have shaken the Arab world and inspired protests across the Middle East and North Africa, threatening the grip of long-entrenched autocratic leaders.
In the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain, thousands of protesters gathered in a square in Manama, calling for political change and awaiting promised talks with the island's Sunni rulers.
After days of violence, the mood among the mainly Shi'ite protesters appeared to be more conciliatory.
Libya, however was witnessing the bloodiest episodes yet in two months of unrest convulsing the Arab world.
A resident in Tripoli told Reuters by telephone he could hear gunshots. "We're inside the house and the lights are out. There are gunshots in the street," he said. "That's what I hear, gunshots and people. I can't go outside."
An expatriate worker said: "Some anti-government demonstrators are gathering in the residential complexes. The police are dispersing them. I can also see burning cars."
Al Jazeera television said thousands of protesters clashed with supporters of Gaddafi in Tripoli's Green Square.
The violence spread to Tripoli after days of protests in Benghazi, Libya's second largest city, in which at least 233 people have been killed, according to Human Rights Watch.
Communications are tightly controlled and Benghazi is not accessible to international journalists, but the picture that has emerged is of a city slipping from the grasp of security forces in the biggest challenge to Gaddafi's rule since the "brotherly leader" seized power in a 1969 military coup.
Habib al-Obaidi, head of the intensive care unit at the main Al-Jalae hospital in Benghazi, said the bodies of 50 people, mostly killed by gunshots, had been brought there on Sunday afternoon. The deaths came after scores were killed on Saturday.
Two hundred people had arrived wounded, 100 of them in serious condition, he said.
Members of an army unit known as the "Thunderbolt" squad had come to the hospital carrying wounded comrades, he said. The soldiers said they had defected to the cause of the hundreds of thousands of protesters in the streets and had fought and defeated Gaddafi's elite guards.
"They are now saying that they have overpowered the Praetorian Guard and that they have joined the people's revolt," another man at the hospital who heard the soldiers, lawyer Mohamed al-Mana, told Reuters by telephone.
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