There were other signs that the government’s grip was slipping, as prosecutor-general Abdul-Rahman al-Abbar became the latest senior official to resign and told al Arabiya television he was joining the opposition.
In the first practical attempt to enroll the support of citizens since the uprising began, Libyan state television announced the government was raising wages, increasing food subsidies and ordering special allowances for all families.
The U.N. Security Council was to meet on Friday to discuss a proposal for sanctions against Libyan leaders, fighting for survival against a popular uprising that has already driven them out of the east and the second city, Benghazi.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said that “thousands” may have been killed or injured, and called for international intervention to protect civilians.
Zawiyah, an oil refining town 50 km (30 miles) to the west of Tripoli that had been attacked by Libyan security forces on Thursday, was fully in rebel hands, said Saeed Mustafa, who drove through the town early on Friday on his way to Tunisia.
“There are army and police checkpoints around Zawiyah but there is no presence inside. I just saw a few unarmed civilians,” he told Reuters after crossing the border.
Army and police in the eastern city of Adjabiya told Al Jazeera television they had withdrawn from their barracks and joined the opposition.
REBEL-HELD EAST
Opposition forces are already in control of major centers in the east, including the second city Benghazi. Reports say the third city, Misrata, is also under rebel control.
The nature of the new ruling orders in the east is still unclear. There was little sign of radical Islamists among the lawyers, doctors, tribal elders and army officers who made up committees trying to bring order.
The turmoil, inspired by successful revolutions in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt, has caused particular global concern because Libya supplies 2 percent of the world’s oil, the bulk of it from well and supply terminals in the east.
Abdessalam Najib, a petroleum engineer at the Libyan company Agico and a member of the Feb 17. coalition that says it is running Benghazi on an interim basis, said the rebels controlled nearly all oilfields east of the key Ras Lanuf terminal.
Jammal bin Nour, a judge who is also a member of the February 17 coalition, said oil deals with foreign firms that were “legal and to the benefit of the Libyan people” would be honored.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch said crude production in Libya was likely to shut completely and could be lost for a long time.
Benchmark Brent oil futures rose more than a dollar to about $112 on Friday on fears of supply shortages, but a Saudi assurance that it would replace any shortfall in Libyan output kept prices well below Thursday’s peak of nearly $120.
President Barack Obama consulted the French, British and Italian leaders late on Thursday to discuss coordinated steps.
Washington said it was keeping all options open, including sanctions and military action, but coordinated action against Gaddafi, who has ruled the oil-rich desert nation of 6 million people for 41 years, still seemed some way off.
The U.N. Security Council was to receive a French-British draft text on Friday, but was not expected to vote on a resolution until the middle of next week, council envoys said.
French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said the draft would ask for an arms embargo, financial sanctions and a request to the International Criminal Court to indict Libyan leaders for crimes against humanity.
But NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said NATO members had not yet discussed trying to impose a no-fly zone to protect rebel-held areas from air attacks.
EVACUATIONS
Foreign governments mostly focused on evacuating thousands of their citizens trapped by the unrest. Chinese official media said on Friday that Beijing had so far evacuated 12,000, or about one third, of its citizens from Libya.
Gaddafi, appealing for calm on Thursday in a telephone call to state television, blamed the revolt on al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. He also said the protesters were fueled by milk and Nescafe spiked with hallucinogenic drugs.
Two days earlier he had vowed on television to crush the revolt and die a “martyr” in Libya.
State television said on Friday that each family would get 500 Libyan dinars ($400) to help cover higher food costs, and wages for some public sector workers would rise by 150 percent.
As growing numbers of Libyan officials, including cabinet ministers and ambassadors, reportedly deserted Gaddafi, the Swiss government said it was freezing assets of his family.
Libya’s foreign ministry denied that the leader had any such funds and said it would sue Switzerland for saying so. London’s Daily Telegraph newspaper said in an unsourced report that Britain may seize some $30 billion held in Britain.
Gaddafi’s grip on power could depend in part on the performance around Tripoli of an elite military unit led by one of his younger sons, U.S. and European officials and secret diplomatic cables obtained by Wikileaks showed.
Libya’s 32nd Brigade, led by Gaddafi’s son Khamees, is the most elite of three last-ditch “regime protection units” totaling about 10,000 men. They are better equipped and more loyal to Gaddafi than the rest of the military, which has seen heavy desertion, officials said.
A witness told Reuters the unit had attacked anti-government militias controlling the town of Misrata, 200 km (120 miles) east of Tripoli, killing several people, although residents said the forces were beaten back by lightly armed local people.
After decades of shunning Gaddafi, accusing him of supporting anti-Western militant groups around the world, Western powers had in recent years embraced the flamboyant leader with a penchant for flowing robes and female bodyguards.
Gaddafi was particularly reviled after the 1988 Pan Am airliner bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. A defecting minister said this week he had evidence Gaddafi had ordered the attack, in which 270 people were killed.
His ending of some weapons programs and cutting of overt ties with international militants, especially following the U.S. overthrow of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein in 2003, led to cooperation with Western companies on developing oil fields.