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CUBA and Nicaragua have sprung to the defence of embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, with Fidel Castro claiming Washington plans to order a NATO invasion of Libya to seize oil interests.

"To me, it's absolutely clear that the Government of the United States is not interested in peace in Libya," said the 84-year old former Cuban leader, who still heads the Cuban Communist Party.

Washington, he said, "will not hesitate to give the order for NATO to invade that rich country, perhaps in the coming hours or days."

There has been no immediate reaction to turmoil in Libya from Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, Mr Gaddafi's closest ally in the region.

But Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega defended his friend, saying he had spoken with Mr Gaddafi, who is "waging a great battle ... and in these circumstances is trying to dialogue, and defend the integrity of the nation so that it does not break up, and so that there is no anarchy."

Libya is confronting a growing diplomatic backlash against the bloody crackdown on protesters, denouncing charges it was carrying out massacres.

AnonQC Anonyme
Libya's interior minister resigns, predicts protest movement will achieve victory 'in a matter of days or hours' http://bit.ly/fSF5Zn

JackRiddler wrote: Now I'm such an immature American with trivial concerns that I actually spent time searching for "The Gaddafi Look," the Saturday Night Live mock-ad for a fashion line from the late 1970s or 1980s that spoofed the Jordache jeans commercials.

Fighting Nears Tripoli, Where Qaddafi Keeps Grip on Power

Libyans fleeing across the country’s western border to Tunisia reported fighting over the past two nights in the town of Sabratha, home of an important Roman archeological site 50 miles west of Tripoli. Reuters reported that thousands of Libyan forces loyal to Col. Qaddafi had deployed there.

“The revolutionary committees are trying to kill everyone who is against Qaddafi,” said a doctor from Sabratha who had just left the country, but who declined to give his name because he wanted to return.

There were also reports of fighting in Misurata, a provincial center 130 miles west of the capital. A witness said that messages being broadcast from the loudspeakers of local mosques were urging people to attack the government’s opponents, following Colonel Qaddafi’s call in a defiant television address Tuesday night for ordinary citizens to assist in eliminating opponents of his regime.

A local radio station that had been broadcasting opposition messages was reported to have been attacked. In the southern city of Sabha, considered a Qaddafi stronghold, large protests were also reported.

In Rome, meanwhile, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Wednesday said the death toll from days of unrest in Libya was likely more than 1,000, and worried that violence there could spark Islamic extremism. Noting that the situation was chaotic, Mr. Frattini told reporters that he believed estimates that more than 1,000 Libyan civilians had been killed in the clashes with security forces and government supporters “appear to be true.”

In Tripoli, the streets were relatively quiet Wednesday morning, a resident said, but armed mercenaries were still in the streets . A bloody crackdown drove protesters from the streets on Tuesday, and residents had described a state of terror.

“All the government buildings in Tripoli are burned down,” one resident said. “But the mercenaries, they have weapons. The Libyans don’t have weapons, they will kill you.”

Plutonia wrote:Just now: Al Jabal Al Akhdar battalion defects and joins protesters

Gaddafi loses more Libyan cities

Muammar Gaddafi, Libya's long-standing ruler, has reportedly lost control of more cities as anti-government protests continue to sweep the African nation despite his threat of a brutal crackdown.

Protesters in Misrata said on Wednesday they had wrested the western city from government control. In a statement on the internet, army officers stationed in the city pledged "total support for the protesters".

Much of the country's east also seemed to be in control of the protesters, and an Al Jazeera correspondent, reporting from the city of Tobruk, 140km from the Egyptian border, said there was no presence of security forces.

"From what I've seen, I'd say the people of eastern Libya are the ones in control", Hoda Abdel-Hamid, our correspondent, said.

She said there were no officials manning the border when the Al Jazeera team crossed into Libya.

'People in charge'

"All along the border, we didn't see one policeman, we didn't see one soldier and people here told us they [security forces] have all fled or are in hiding and that the people are now in charge, meaning all the way from the border, Tobruk, and then all the way up to Benghazi.

"People tell me it's also quite calm in Bayda and Beghazi. The do say however that "militias" are roaming around, especially at night. They describe them as African men, they say they speak French so they think they're from Chad."

Major General Suleiman Mahmoud, the commander of the armed forces in Tobruk, told Al Jazeera that the troops led by him had switched loyalties. "We are on the side of the people," he said.