Some 130 slain soldiers with their hands tied behind their backs were shot dead near Benghazi for ’mutiny’

Until the early morning hours of the eighth day of the Libyan revolution, the casualties' figures were rising appallingly reaching about thousands. Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was re-tightening his bloody grip on the capital Tripoli and its surroundings by his militia, which spread terror in its neighborhoods.

With the exception of Tripoli which was threatened by immediate danger, it appeared that Gaddafi has lost his hold on the rest of Libya regions, starting from the east, which announced its complete freedom from the tyranny, to the south, where the tribes announced it is joining the Revolution, to the West, where the rebels made important breakthroughs, particularly in Misurata, but remained unable to reach the besieged capital from outside and violated from the inside.

Gaddafi bloodcurdlingly vowed to cling to power by any means, prompting a desperate expatriate exodus.
  
Pro-democracy demonstrators appeared in control of Libya's coastal east, from the Egyptian border through the cities of Tobruk and Benghazi, towns made famous as key World War II battlefields. Journalists saw regime opponents -- many of them armed -- all along the highway that hugs the Mediterranean coast.

Libyan government vigilantes and snipers struggle to regain control of the capital after pro-Gaddafi forces lost several cities to revolutionary protesters.

Reports said the revolution flag is now flying over Tajuraa city close to Tripoli. The western cities of Zwaara and Azzawiya are also under the control of the protesters.

Anti-government protesters have also overrun the eastern province of Cyrenaica.

This comes as more and more soldiers are now joining the popular revolution.
Scores of Libyan soldiers have been executed for refusing to open fire on the protesters and obey Gaddafi orders to shoot peaceful protesters.

An amateur video shows the bodies of some 130 slain soldiers with their hands tied behind their backs. The mutinous soldiers were shot dead in al-Baida near the eastern city of Benghazi.

Two air force pilots jumped from parachutes from their Russian-made Sukhoi fighter jet and let it crash, rather than carry out orders to bomb opposition-held Benghazi, Libya's second largest city, the website Quryna reported, citing an unidentified officer in the air force control room.

One of the pilots — identified by the report as Ali Omar Gaddafi — was from Gaddafi's tribe, the Gadhadhfa.

A senior Libyan diplomat has resigned from his post as counselor at the country's embassy in Canada in protest at the violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, saying his decision was due to the embassy's effort aimed at hiding and downplaying the brutal attacks against protesters in his homeland, AFP reported.

GADDAFI TO AZ-ZAWIYAH PEOPLE: ISSUE RUN BY QAEDA!
In a new audio-speech, Gaddafi renewed on Thursday his accusations to the demonstrators and calls for the Libyan families to take off to the streets and fight the protestors.

Addressing the elders of Az-Zawiyah town west of the capital, Gaddafi claimed that Al-Qaeda was behind the unrest facing Libya, while the youth were on drugs and misbehaving. "It is obvious now that this issue is run by Al-Qaeda," he said.

"Those armed youngsters, our children, are incited by people who are wanted by America and the Western world. Those inciting are very few in numbers and we have to capture them. Others have to stay at home. They have guns, they feel trigger happy and they shoot especially when they are stoned on drugs."

Gaddafi expressed belief that the "situation is different from Egypt or Tunisia," based on the fact that he’s not a traditional president but, instead, an original leader. "Here the authority is in your hands, the people's hands. You can change authority any way you wish. It's your call. You are the elderly, the head of the tribes, the professors."
  
"They have been brainwashing the kids in this area and telling them to misbehave. These are the ones who are under Bin Laden's influence and authority, under the influence of drugs," Gaddafi went on to claim, seeking to convince the people of Libya to fight each other.