BENGHAZI/TEHRAN – Mercenaries loyal to Muammar Gaddafi killed several people in a shooting rampage across Tripoli on Friday and Libyan activists have told media outlets that they do not need foreign interference to oust Gaddafi.

As protesters against Gaddafi’s iron-fisted rule braved deadly gunfire in several parts of the capital, opponents braced for a fight by a regime that has suffered yet more defections, AFP reported.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Gaddafi “must go.”
Sarkozy said, “Mr. Gaddafi must go,” becoming the first world leader to demand the ouster of the 68-year-old former army colonel who seized power in a 1969 coup.
“The systematic violence against the Libyan people is unacceptable and will be the subject of investigations and sanctions,” he Sarkozy stated at a press conference in Ankara with Turkish President Abdullah Gul.
Meanwhile, outraged Western governments scrambled to craft a collective response to the bloody crackdown in the oil-rich North African state.
In a first step, the European Union agreed to slap an arms embargo, asset freezes, and travel bans on Libya, an EU diplomat said. However, they will not be enforced for several days because the accord needs to be drafted legally.
And Western nations have drawn up a draft UN Security Council resolution that would impose similar sanctions worldwide, diplomats said in New York, adding that a vote could come as early as this weekend.
Until now, governments have been constrained by fears of reprisals against their people still stranded amid what escaping expatriates described as hellish scenes as evacuation efforts dragged on into the 11th day.
In Tripoli, security forces opened fire indiscriminately on worshippers leaving prayers, desperate to prevent any new protests on the weekly Muslim day of rest, residents told AFP by telephone.
Tens of thousands of protesters across Libya focused their attention on the capital on Friday afternoon, following the midday prayer.
There was heavy gun fire in various Tripoli districts including Fashloum, Ashour, Jumhouria, and Souq Al, sources told Al Jazeera.
“The security forces fired indiscriminately on the demonstrators,” said a resident of one of the capital’s eastern suburbs that has previously seen clashes between opponents of the regime and its remaining loyalists.
“There were deaths in the streets of Sug al-Jomaa,” the resident said.
The protests come a day after Gaddafi spoke on state television, accusing Al-Qaeda of fermenting the uprising and drugging and brainwashing the country’s youth.
The death toll since the violence began remains unclear, though on Thursday Francois Zimeray, France’s top human rights official, said it could be as high as 2,000 people killed.
Dissent reaches mosques
Violence flared up even before the Friday sermons were over, according to a source in Tripoli.
“People are rushing out of mosques even before Friday prayers are finished because the state-written sermons were not acceptable, and made them even more angry,” the source said.
Libyan state television aired one such sermon on Friday, in an apparent warning to protesters.
“As the Prophet (S) said, if you dislike your ruler or his behavior, you should not raise your sword against him, but be patient, for those who disobey the rulers will die as infidels,” the speaker told his congregation in Tripoli.
Solidarity from the east
Demonstrators in the eastern part of the country, a region believed to be largely free of Gaddafi’s control, held protests in support of the demonstrations in the capital.
“Friday prayers in Benghazi have seen thousands and thousands on the streets. All the banners are for the benefit of the capital. ‘We’re with you, Tripoli’ (they are saying),” Al Jazeera’s Laurence Lee reported.
In the town of Derna, protesters held banners with messages including “We are one tribe called Libya, our only capital is Tripoli, we want freedom of speech.”
Al Jazeera’s correspondent, who cannot be named for security reasons, reported on Friday that army commanders in the east who had renounced Gaddafi’s leadership had told her that military commanders in the country’s west, which Gaddafi still largely maintains control over, were beginning to turn against him.
They warned, however, that the Khamis Brigade, an army special forces brigade that is loyal to the Gaddafi family and is equipped with sophisticated weaponry, is currently still fighting anti-government forces.
Pro-democracy protesters attacked
On Friday morning, Al Jazeera’s correspondents reported that the town of Zuwarah was, according to witnesses, abandoned by security forces and completely in the hands of anti-Gaddafi protesters. Checkpoints in the country’s west on roads leading to the Tunisian border, however, were still being controlled by Gaddafi loyalists.
In the east, similar checkpoints were manned by anti-Gaddafi forces, who had set up a “humanitarian aid corridor” as well as a communications corridor to the Egyptian border, Al Jazeera’s correspondent reported.
Thousands massed in Az Zawiyah’s Martyr’s Square, calling on Gaddafi to leave office, and on Friday morning, explosions were heard in the city. Witnesses say pro-Gaddafi forces were blowing up arms caches, in order to prevent anti-government forces from acquiring those weapons.
Clashes were also reported in the city of Misurata, located 200 kilometers east of Tripoli, where witnesses said a pro-Gaddafi army brigade attacked the city’s airport with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.
They told Al Jazeera that pro-democracy protesters had managed to fight off that attack. “Revolutionaries have driven out the security forces,” they said, adding that “heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft guns” had been used against them.
Mohamed Senussi, a resident of Misurata, said calm had returned to the city after the “fierce battle” near the airport.
“The people’s spirits here are high, they are celebrating and chanting ‘God is Greatest’,” he told the Reuters news agency by telephone.
Another witness warned, however, that protesters in Misurata felt “isolated” as they were surrounded by nearby towns still in Gaddafi’s control.
Government loses oil terminals
Protesters and air force personnel who have renounced Gaddafi’s leadership also overwhelmed a nearby military base where Gaddafi loyalists were taking refuge, according to a medical official at the base. They disabled air force fighter jets at the base so that they could not be used against protesters.
Soldiers helped anti-Gaddafi protesters take the oil terminal in the town of Berga, according to Reuters.
The oil refinery in Ras Lanuf has halted its operations and most staff has left, according to a source in the company.
Protesters control east
Pro-democracy protesters appear to remain in control of much of the country’s eastern coastline, running from the Egyptian border, through to the cities of Tobruk and Benghazi, the country’s second largest city.
They also say they are in control of the western cities of Misurata and Zuwarah. Libyan army forces in many cities in the country’s east say that they stand with the anti-government forces against Gaddafi.
Pro-democracy protesters say they have established committees to manage the affairs of the cities they are in control of.
Al Jazeera’s correspondent reported that army commanders had told her that there were “cracks (appearing) in the whole system that Gaddafi has put in place and his whole grip in power is melting away by the hour.”
She said that pro-democracy protesters in the east had overrun military barracks and now had access to heavy weaponry.
Libya has been in the grip of turmoil since anti-Gaddafi protests began on February 15.
Violence ramped up after Gaddafi appeared on state television on Tuesday calling on his supporters to take back the streets and “cleanse” Libya.
The UN’s highest human rights body held a special session on Friday to discuss what it’s chief had earlier described as possible “crimes against humanity” by the Gaddafi government. Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, urged world leaders to “step in vigorously” to end the violent crackdown.
The United Nations Security Council planned to hold a meeting on the situation in Libya later on Friday, with sanctions and the possible imposition of a no-fly zone over the country under Chapter VII of the UN Charter on the table.
The Swiss government, meanwhile, has ordered a freeze of any assets belonging to Gaddafi in the country. Libya’s Foreign Ministry has denied that any such assets exist and said that it would “sue” Switzerland.