Libyan security forces fired on crowds of protesters in Tripoli as Muammar Gaddafi struggled desperately to hold on to power in what has become the bloodiest crackdown yet on Arab pro-democracy protesters.
With diplomats resigning en masse and two senior fighter pilots defecting to Malta after refusing to attack demonstrators, the Libyan leader looked beleaguered at home, unwelcome anywhere abroad and with very few options left.
"What's going on in Libya is a real genocide," said the country's deputy UN ambassador, Ibrahim al-Dabashi.
"Death is everywhere," one distraught Tripoli resident told al-Jazeera TV as he described air attacks on the terrified city. "Why is the world silent?"
Venezuela and Libya flatly denied reports that Gaddafi was on his way to exile in South America. But Libyan state TV said military operations were under way against "terrorist nests" and there were predictions of a bloodbath by a now desperate regime which feels the end approaching.
Developments on Monday included:
• The US ordering all non-emergency staff to leave Libya – a sure sign that the crisis is worsening.
• Libya's justice minister announcing he was quitting, as did ambassadors in at least seven countries.
• Benghazi, Libya's second city and the scene of alleged massacres in recent days, was reported to be in the hands of anti-government protesters, but violence continued unabated. Residents were organising vigilante groups to protect themselves and distribute food.
• Information remains fragmentary and confused, with phone lines and the internet intermittently cut and al-Jazeera satellite TV reportedly jammed by Libyan intelligence.
• Qatar condemned the use of military aircraft and machine guns against unarmed protesters and called for an emergency meeting of the Arab League.
• The death toll passed 250 after six days of unrest but this is a conservative estimate. Al-Jazeera quoted medical sources in Tripoli saying 61 people had died in the latest protests there. The International Federation of Human Rights estimated the death toll at 300 to 400.
• Tribal and religious leaders spoke out against Gaddafi, with a coalition of Islamic scholars issuing a fatwa telling all Muslims it was their duty to rebel.
• Reports from Tripoli said the parliament building used by the General People's Congress was on fire. Protests spread to the capital on Sunday after previously being confined largely to the east of Libya.
• Unconfirmed reports described firing from presumed Libyan naval vessels in the Mediterranean off Tripoli. The mood in the capital and its residential suburbs was tense and chaotic, with locals barricading themselves into neighbourhoods or staying inside, afraid of foreign mercenaries paid to shoot to kill.
Libyans had reacted furiously to Sunday night's speech by Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam, who warned of civil war, vowed to fight to the "last bullet" and claimed the country could be taken over by Islamists and divided by "imperialists". TV clips showed furious people throwing shoes at the TV screen as he spoke.
"The regime is clutching at straws," a Tripoli man told a friend abroad. "Their only hope is to create fear in the hearts of Libyans by planting the seed of fitna (sectarian strife). Fitna is often used by the weak to create upheaval and chaos in order to achieve division. We are united and we will continue."
Most analysts believe that after the extraordinary events of the last few days, the end of Gaddafi's rule is approaching.
"There is nowhere for him to go in the Arab world – the Saudis hate him," said Charles Gurdon of Menas Associates, a London-based Middle East consultancy. "It would have to be somewhere like Zimbabwe or Venezuela. It may take 24 hours or a couple of months – no one really knows. But the end is nigh."
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, who spoke at length to Gaddafi, condemned the escalating violence in Libya and told him it "must stop immediately".
Analysts are now looking ahead to the post-Gaddafi era, but admit that after 41 years of his rule the country is a "black box" about which it is hard to make predictions. "Everything is fragmented, there are no obvious leaders," said George Joffe of Cambridge University. "Politicians have been functionaries of the regime. The only people with power were in the Gaddafi family or in the tribes."
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