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Hoping to snuff out the uprising against his rule, Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi sent foreign mercenaries and Libyan militiamen to strike back against anti-government forces in cities where an unknown number of people were killed. The attacks came as Western nations, including the United States, talked about how to react to the onslaught. A ferry boat packed with fleeing Americans remained in port in Tripoli, Gadhafi's stronghold, because of rough seas.
"I cannot believe what is happening in Tripoli," said Bechir Ghorbali, a Tunisian who lived in Libya's capital for years and had reached the Tunisian border. "Oh my God! It is a genocide!" he cried. "They need help, but who will help them?"
Gadhafi is turning Tripoli into his bunker and will do whatever it takes to retain control of the country, even if that means thousands dead, said people crossing the border into Tunisia.
An oil industry worker who had fled the country and was boarding a plane at the airport in Tunis said that death toll estimate was far less than what he had seen. The man, a North American who asked that his name be withheld because of the danger of speaking out against the regime, saw corpses everywhere and figured the toll was in the thousands.
Those who made it out of Libya on boats to Malta or flights to Crete described a grisly scene: bodies hanging from electric poles in the port of Benghazi and militia trucks full of dead bodies. One video showed a tank apparently crushing a car with people inside.
Americans aboard the Maria Dolores ferry at Tripoli's port were told high waves in the Mediterranean Sea would delay departure to Malta until today or later. "The ferry will depart when the weather improves," said Elijah Waterman of the U.S. Embassy in Malta.
Gadhafi, who took power in a 1969 coup, went on television to call on his loyalists to hunt down opponents in their homes. He blamed the revolt on al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and teenagers on drugs given to them "in their coffee with milk, like Nescafé".
"Shame on you, people of Zawiya! Control your children!" he said, addressing residents of a city outside Tripoli that was attacked by pro-government forces.
An army unit opened fire with automatic weapons on a mosque in Zawiya where people— some armed with hunting rifles— have been holding a sit-in to support protesters in Tripoli, a witness told the Associated Press. The troops blasted the mosque's minaret with an anti-aircraft gun.
A doctor told the AP he saw the bodies of ten people shot in the head and chest and about 150 wounded people. Thousands massed in Zawiya's main Martyrs Square by the Souq mosque after the attack, shouting for Gadhafi to leave, he said.
Libyan militiamen and foreign mercenaries attacked an airport outside Libya's third-largest city, Misrata. Militiamen with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars barraged a line of government opponents who were guarding the airport, some armed with rifles, one of the rebels told the AP.
Some nations took actions against Gadhafi, but nothing that was aimed at stopping the violence. The Swiss government ordered a freeze of any assets in Switzerland belonging to Gadhafi. The European Union pushed for Libya to be suspended from the United Nation's top human rights body.
Witnesses have reported seeing roving bands of hired soldiers in Tripoli hunting down civilians. The atmosphere in the city is one of fear, and most residents refuse to leave their homes. Businesses were closed. Internet and phone communication is intermittent.
"Gadhafi and his hired guns are doing everything they can to scare the population," said Khaleed Kadoussi, a Tunisian man arriving at Tunis' airport Thursday. "We all know that many Libyans, as well as foreigners, are missing." Kadoussi said that Gadhafi's loyalists are a small minority of the country of six million, but that doesn't mean the slaughter can be stopped by Libyans, he said. "Even the so-called loyalists in Tripoli support Gadhafi out of fear," Kadoussi said. He said Gadhafi's loyalists are targeting Tunisians and Egyptians because of their revolutions. "There are many Tunisian and Egyptian girls that have been raped and beaten in Tripoli," he said.
Salah Jemali, who was returning from Tripoli, agreed: "We were humiliated, insulted, and threatened by Gadhafi loyalists," said Jemali, 40.
Kacem Youssfi said, "Only Sabha, in the south, Syrt, and Tripoli are still under the control of the dictator, and he is looking now to get the rest back into the fold."
Tunisian and other Arab media reported that the leader's son, Khemaiss Gadhafi, ordered his mercenaries to slaughter at least two hundred soldiers because they refused to shoot unarmed civilians. The report could not be independently confirmed.
Jemali said Gadhafi is getting more "insane" as the revolt goes on, referring to his latest speech in which he described protesters as "rats" and vowed to exterminate them. "Gadhafi's regime is horrible," he said.
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