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Benghazi, Libya • Protesters demanding Moammar Gadhafi's ouster came under a hail of bullets Friday when pro-regime militiamen opened fire to stop the first significant anti-government marches in days in the Libyan capital. The Libyan leader, speaking from the ramparts of a historic Tripoli fort, told supporters to prepare to defend the nation.

Witnesses reported multiple deaths from gunmen on rooftops and in the streets shooting automatic weapons and even an anti-aircraft gun at crowds.

"In the first wave of fire, seven people within 10 meters (yards) of me were killed. Many people were shot in the head," one man who marching from Tripoli's eastern Tajoura district, told The Associated Press. "It was really like we are dogs."

Also Friday evening, troops loyal to Gadhafi attacked a major air base east of Tripoli that had fallen into the rebellion's hands.

A force of tanks attacked the Misrata Air Base, succeeding in retaking part of it in battles with local residents and army units who had joined the anti-Gadhafi uprising, said a doctor and one resident wounded in the battle on the edge of opposition-held Misrata, Libya's third largest city, about 120 miles from the capital.

During the fighting, the opposition captured two, including a senior officer, and still held part of the large base, they said. Shooting could still be heard from the area after midnight. The doctor said 22 people were killed in two days of fighting at the air base and an adjacent civilian airport.

In Washington, the White House announced it was moving forward with plans to impose unilateral sanctions on Libya in response to the regime's bloody crackdown on the 11-day-old uprising across the country. Hundreds have been killed, but rebels have taken control of nearly the entire eastern half of the country, as well as cities close to Gadhafi's stronghold in the capital.

White House spokesman said it is clear that Gadhafi's legitimacy has been "reduced to zero," the Obama administration's sharpest words yet.

The U.N. Security Council met to consider possible sanctions against Gadhafi's regime, including trade sanctions and an arms embargo. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged it take "concrete action" to protect civilians in Libya, saying "the violence must stop" and those responsible for "so brutally shedding blood" must be punished.

But Gadhafi vowed to fight on. In the evening, he appeared before a crowd over more than 1,000 supporters massed in Green Square and called on them to fight back against protesters and "defend the nation."

"Retaliate against them, retaliate against them," Gadhafi said, speaking by microphone from the ramparts of the Red Castle, a Crusader fort overlooking the square. Wearing a fur cap, he shook his fist in the air, telling the crowd, "Dance, sing and prepare. Prepare to defend Libya, to defend the oil, dignity and independence."

He warned, "At the suitable time we will open the arms depot so all Libyans and tribes become armed, so that Libya becomes red with fire." The crowd waved pictures of the leader and green flags as he said, "I am in the middle of the people in the Green Square. ... This is the people that loves Moammar Gadhafi. If the people of Libya and the Arabs and Africans don't love Moammar Gadhafi then Moammar Gadhafi does not deserve to live."

Earlier his son, Seif al-Islam, was asked in an interview with CNNTurk about the options in the face of the unrest. "Plan A is to live and die in Libya, Plan B is to live and die in Libya, Plan C is to live and die in Libya," he replied.

The marches in the capital were the first major attempt by protesters to break a clampdown that pro-Gadhafi militiamen have imposed on Tripoli since the beginning of the week, when dozens were killed by gunmen roaming the street, shooting people on sight.

In the morning and night before, SMS messages were sent around urging protesters to stream out of mosques after noon prayers, saying, "Let us make this Friday the Friday of liberation," residents said. The residents and witnesses all spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

In response, militiamen set up heavy security around many mosques in the city, trying to prevent any opposition gatherings. Armed young men with green armbands to show their support of Gadhafi set up checkpoints on many streets, stopping cars and searching them. Tanks and checkpoints lined the road to Tripoli's airport, witnesses said.

After prayers, protesters flowed out of mosques, converging into marches from several neighborhoods heading toward Green Square. But they were hit almost immediately by militiamen, a mix of Libyans and foreign mercenaries.

"We can't see where it is coming from," another protester from Tajoura district — several miles from Green Square — said of the gunfire. "They don't want to stop." He said a man next to him was shot in the neck.

In the nearby Souq al-Jomaa district, witnesses reported four killed as gunmen fired down from rooftops. "There are all kind of bullets," said one man in the crowd, screaming in a telephone call to The Associated Press, with the rattle of gunfire audible in the background. Another protester was reported killed in the Fashloum district. The reports could not be independently confirmed.

After nightfall, protesters dispersed, and regime supporters prowled the streets, a Tripoli resident said. As they have past nights this week, many blockaded streets into their neighborhoods to prevent militiamen and strangers from entering.

Tripoli, home to about a third of Libya's population of 6 million, is the center of the eroding territory that Gadhafi still controls. The opposition holds a long sweep of about half of Libya's 1,000-mile Mediterranean coastline where most of the population lives.

Even in the Gadhafi-held pocket of northwestern Libya around Tripoli, several cities have also fallen into the hands of the rebellion. Militiamen and pro-Gadhafi troops were repelled Thursday when they launched attacks trying to take back opposition-held territory in Zawiya and Misrata, near the capital, in fighting that killed at least 30 people.

Support for Gadhafi continued to fray within a regime where he long commanded unquestioned loyalty.

Libya's delegation to the United Nations in Geneva announced Friday it was defecting to the opposition — and it was given a standing ovation at a gathering of the U.N. Human Rights Council. They join a string of Libyan ambassadors and diplomats around the world who abandoned the regime, as have the justice and interior ministers at home, and one of Gadhafi's cousins and closest aides, Ahmed Gadhaf al-Dam, who sought refuge in Egypt.

Libya's 11-member Arab League mission also announced its resignation in protest at the crackdown

The New York-based Human Rights Watch has put the death toll in Libya at nearly 300, according to a partial count from several days ago. Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said estimates of some 1,000 people killed were "credible."

Several tens of thousands held a rally in support of the Tripoli protesters in the main square of Libya's second-largest city, Benghazi, where the revolt began, about 580 miles east of the capital along the Mediterranean coast.

Tents were set up and residents served breakfast to people, many carrying signs in Arabic and Italian. Others climbed on a few tanks parked nearby, belonging to army units in the city that allied with the rebellion.

"We will not stop this rally until Tripoli is the capital again," said Omar Moussa, a demonstrator. "Libyans are all united ... Tripoli is our capital. Tripoli is in our hearts."

Mroue reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb, Ben Hubbard and Lee Keath in Cairo contributed to this report. —

Sanctions likely against Libya

United Nations • The U.N. Security Council agreed Friday to consider sanctions against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's regime to try to end its bloody crackdown against anti-government protesters. France, Britain, Germany and the United States circulated a draft resolution that would impose an arms embargo on Gadhafi's government and an asset freeze and travel ban on Gadhafi's family and regime leaders.

United States • Independent of the United Nations, the U.S. will impose sanctions on Libya, White House press secretary Jay Carney said. The Obama administration also has temporarily shuttered its embassy in Tripoli after evacuating diplomatic personnel and other Americans by ferry to Malta and by chartered aircraft to Turkey, Carney said.