Gaddafi Rule Near End

The 42-year time in power of the Libyan dictator, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, was on the edge of fall down last night as democracy campaigners laid blockade to the capital Tripoli and strengthened their hold on the city of Benghazi.

With unconfirmed reports of butchery in Tripoli's Green Square, protesters also come into view to have set fire to several key government buildings including the People's Hall located near the parliamentary precinct.

''I can see the People's Hall is on fire, there are firefighters there trying to put it out,'' a Libyan journalist told Reuters.

Confronted by a quickly changing situation on the ground, the government shut down the internet over the weekend in a bid to outmanoeuvre democracy group who called for enormous street protests following afternoon prayers on Monday.

Adding to the sense of crisis all-encompassing Colonel Gaddafi, who has not been seen since Friday, his second eldest son Saif al-Islam appeared on state television at 1am yesterday to warn that Libya faced civil war.

Wagging a finger at the camera, Mr al-Islam answerable Islamic extremists and foreign elements for the unrest that has brush Libya over the past five days and left hundreds dead, according to the international advocacy group Human Rights Watch. ''We will take up arms; we will fight to the last bullet. We will obliterate subversive elements. If everybody is armed, it is civil war, we will kill each other,'' Mr Islam said.

As the Obama administration and European Union leaders condemned the Libyan government's use of force against the protesters, the powerful al-Warfalla and al-Zuwayya tribes came out against the government on Sunday, intimidating to upset the country's vital oil exports which account for 95 per cent of Libya's export incomes.