In the first reaction from the United States the bloody events taking place in Libya, Washington said it is considering all appropriate actions in response to the Libyan regime's violent crackdown against protesters.
This came as Saif al-Islam Gaddafi appeared on state television, vowing to fight to the end against the demonstrators. His address in light of the continued silence from the West came amid reports about a "massacre" in the city of Benghazi following confrontations between demonstrators and forces loyal to leader Muammar Gaddafi.
For his part, Saif al-Islam, the son of the Libyan leader said early Monday that Muammar Gaddafi is in Tripoli and leading the battle against what he called the elements of "thugs and drug addicts". "We are all gunmen … and we will fight until our last woman and child, we will not leave our country as an easy prey to gangs."
Saif al-Islam added that "the army is fine, and will have a major role in the imposition of security at any cost." He warned against "a large number of Arabs, particularly Egyptians and Tunisians who carry guns in the streets of Libya." He declared that "thousands of people flock to Tripoli to defend it."
Seif al-Islam called for "dialogue before the resort to arms," and called for "a popular conference for the urgent adoption of new laws in line with the developments, including the Press Law, which opens prospects for freedom, start of a national debate on a new constitution, on limits of the powers of central government, the return of local governance to the countryside and the provinces, to approve the increase of salaries and allowances for the unemployed and to facilitate loans for young people and adopt a new flag."
Gaddafi's son stressed that "the alternative to reform is separation and division." He noted that the U.S. and the Europeans will colonize Libya, because they will not allow the situation of a chaos in a country which is located in the heart of the Mediterranean and just a few hours south of Europe. They will not allow damaging the oil wealth or the establishment of an Islamic Emirates on Libyan territory. "
Saif al-Islam said: "Libya is not Egypt or Tunisia, for our tribes, clans and alliances. There will be chaos and civil war. Arms are now in every place. We have seen some of the civilians take over the tanks and machine guns in Bayda."
He also warned of a " division scenario of Libya" between the east of Benghazi, and the West in Tripoli. He stated that "oil, which has united Libya is in the center and south of the country and in the empty desert away from the population who are concentrated in the areas of the West. Chaos would undermine the structure of the oil industry, and foreign investments will leave as 5 million armed Libyans will struggles over oil resources. "
Saif al-Islam said: "The area is undergoing changes, earthquakes and storm of democracy and freedom. This was expected in this part of the world."
He acknowledged "errors committed by the police against the demonstrators," and stressed that "the army is not trained to deal with civilians."
