Troops are massing in Libya's capital of Tripoli in what many residents fear could turn into a massacre fueled by foreign mercenaries, an eye witness in Tripoli told ABC News.
"What I've seen today is hundreds, if not thousands of troops" that are gathering along with helicopters, said a Libyan-American who is visiting family and did not want to be identified. "Men on jeeps and military people in the town are coming in. There is going to be a massacre."
The military was gathering in the nation's capital as multiple reports described a violent crackdown on anti-government protesters. Demonstrations have rocked the country in recent days and have spread from Libya's second-largest city of Benghazi to Tripoli.
Witnesses said foreign mercenaries were being used to shoot indiscriminately at protesters.
"They seem to be people from African cities, South Asian states, and for some reason, even European looking soldiers. But the majority of the ones that I saw seem to be foreign soldiers or mercenaries, whatever you want to call them," the witness told ABC News. "There's a lot of fear and tension."
Libya's UN ambassadors called for the country's dictator Moammar Gadhafi to step down today as protesters claimed to have taken control of Benghazi and fighting -- including the burning of government buildings -- spread to the capital of Tripoli where angry demonstrators stormed the state television station, set fire to government buildings and the Olympic Square.
Libyan officials appeared to be defecting from the leader who has ruled the country for 40 years. Two senior Libyan Air Force colonels arrived in Malta today seeking political asylum, saying they fled the country after they were ordered to attack protesters in Benghazi, according to various reports.
Anti-government protesters demanding the ouster of longtime dictator Gadhafi carried placards and signs saying "Free Libya" and "Gadhafi - murderer, criminal," and descended on the nation's capital and its second largest city this weekend despite a government crackdown.
Oil prices surged this morning as violence spread across the Middle East. Companies and countries prepared to evacuate their staff and citizens as the United States ordered embassy family members and all non-emergency personnel to depart Libya.
Italian news agency Ansa reported that Tripoli airport is in chaos, with hundreds of foreigners waiting to board planes to leave the country. One director of a French company reached at the airport said that "last night was terrible, shootings all over the place and a river of people in the streets even in the residential areas". He said he was trying to get about 40 employees and their families out "but this is a disaster, there are not enough planes," he told the news agency.
With landlines and communications cut and news media mostly blocked from accessing the country, it has been difficult to confirm reports of what's happening on the ground.
Protests Spread Across Middle East and North Africa: View ABC's Interactive Map.
The escalating violence comes a day after Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, insisted in a televised message Sunday that his father is still in the country and in control and warned of a civil war if the protests aren't controlled.
He vowed that they would "fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet."
He also blamed the uprising on Islamic extremists and foreigners, claimed the media was exaggerating casualty figures, and offered his people a deal: constitutional reform and a new government in 48 hours or civil war.
"We are not Tunisia and Egypt," Seif al-Islam Gadhafi said. "Moammar Gadhafi, our leader, is leading the battle in Tripoli, and we are with him."
The State Department said it was "gravely concerned" about the "disturbing reports and images coming out of Libya," and said it had received "multiple credible reports that hundreds of people have been killed and injured in several days of unrest."
President Obama was briefed on the security situation in Libya Sunday night and he is considering "all appropriate actions," said a senior administration official.
"We are analyzing the speech of Seif al-Islam Qadhafi to see what possibilities it contains for meaningful reform," he said. "We will seek clarification from senior Libyan officials, as we continue to raise with them the need to avoid violence against peaceful protesters and respect universal rights."
Unlike Egypt, where 18 days of protests brought down the 30-year-long presidency of Hosni Mubarak, the protests in Libya have been particularly brutal.
Hospital officials and human rights groups say more than 200 people have been killed and thousands wounded since the unrest started about a week ago.
Protesters are calling for the ouster of Gadhafi, who has ruled the oil-rich country for more than 40 years.
"We need this guy to get out," said protester Ahmed Mansour. "Gadhafi, you are ruling over Libya, it's now your 42nd year. This type of issues is over in the whole world, there are no more dictatorships again in the whole world. We people are supporting each other and we need all dictators to get out of the whole world, not just Libya."
In Benghazi, the bodies of security forces were hung from flag poles after protesters took over a government building.
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