Gunfire continues in Tripoli after Gadhafi vows to die a ‘martyr’

Tobruk, Libya (CNN) — With leader Moammar Gadhafi vowing to hold on to power or die a “martyr” and anti-government demonstrators promising more protests Wednesday, the battles lines appear starkly drawn as the standoff in Libya entered its ninth day.

Residents in the capital city of Tripoli heard sporadic gunshots overnight, a resident told CNN Wednesday. By daybreak, the main roads in the city had been “cleaned off as if nothing happened,” she said.

Most were staying indoors as security forces increased their presence on many streets after Gadhafi vehemently defended his regime in a defiant speech Tuesday.

Several more checkpoints have been set up, especially near the city center, restricting residents’ movements, she said.

And a food shortage is getting worse, she said. When her family members went to get bread Wednesday morning, the shops were closed.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for prompt European Union sanctions against Libya on Wednesday, such as “a ban on access to EU territory and financial monitoring.”

In a statement released Wednesday, Sarkozy said, “As the brutal and bloody repression against the Libyan population continues, France and French nationals follow these events with horror and compassion.”

Among the victims caught up in the violent unrest in Libya are asylum seekers and refugees, the U.N. refugee agency said as it urged neighboring countries not to turn them away should they flee the upheaval.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Switzerland, the chief spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said that the reports she has received have been worrying.

“A journalist has passed information to us from Somalis in Tripoli who say they are being hunted on suspicion of being mercenaries. He says they feel trapped and are frightened to go out, even though there is little or no food at home,” Melissa Fleming said.

On Wednesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged leaders of regional countries to let their people express their opinions, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. The Iranian official news agency also reported that Ahmadinejad wondered how the ruler of a country could kill his own people using guns and tanks.

But after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s regime was toppled following 18 days of protests this month, Iranian protesters took to the streets and were met with force.

Meanwhile, governments around the world were making a run to get their citizens out of volatile Libya.

The United States, which was unable to land charter planes in Tripoli because Libyan authorities did not give permission, chartered a ferry to take travelers from central Tripoli’s As-shahab port to Valletta, Malta, on Wednesday.

Two ferry boats carrying more than 3,000 Turks left the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi early Wednesday morning, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. Two more ferry boats – each capable of carrying 1,200 people — are headed to Libya.

On Wednesday, hours after Libya’s former interior minister said he resigned to support anti-government protesters, the Libyan government said he had been kidnapped.

Abdul Fattah Younis al Abidi told CNN he stepped down Monday after hearing that 300 unarmed civilians had been killed in Benghazi. He accused Gadhafi of planning to attack civilians on a wide scale and predicted that protesters will achieve victory in “days or hours.”

Libyan state media reported that “gangs” had abducted him in Benghazi, a city that witnesses say was taken over by the opposition. Witnesses told CNN they saw al Abidi on Sunday and Monday in Benghazi, where he was siding with the protesters.

Al-Abidi said the entire eastern part of the country is no longer under Gadhafi’s control and that security forces there have orders to never open fire on the people unless forced to do so in self-defense.

Justice Minister Mustafa Abdul Jalil also resigned, saying he was protesting the “bloody situation” and “use of excessive force” against unarmed protesters, according to the Libyan newspaper Quryna.

But Gadhafi gave no indication of yielding to calls for his ouster. On Tuesday, he vowed on Libyan state television to die “a martyr” in his country.

“This is my country, the country of my grandfathers,” the 68-year-old leader said.

Blaming the unrest on “rats” who are “agents” of foreign intelligence services, Gadhafi said people found to be cooperating with outside forces fomenting discord and those who carry weapons against the country will be executed.

A government spokesman said U.S. and Israeli intelligence operatives were behind the unrest. “We will get rid of them, in collaboration with our people in the eastern province,” he said.

Referring to reports that the military had attacked civilians, he said, “We have reports and evidence they are not using arms unless against those who attacked the barracks.”

The government version of events differed markedly from what witnesses reported, including helicopter gunships firing into crowds of protesters.

Human Rights Watch said earlier this week that at least 233 people have been killed during the unrest. Ibrahim Dabbashi, Libya’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said Monday that the death toll could be as high as 800.

CNN could not immediately confirm reports for areas beyond Benghazi. The Libyan government maintains tight control on communications and has not responded to repeated requests from CNN for access to the country. CNN has interviewed numerous witnesses by phone.

On Tuesday evening, some anti-government protesters began trying to gather in Tripoli and were fired on by people on foot wearing plainclothes, a witness said.

The sounds of “nonstop bullets” could be heard throughout the capital, which the source described as “electronic firing.”

An opposition figure said some people were told the bodies of their loved ones would not be released unless they signed a form saying the person had died in surgery.

Some students at Tripoli’s Academy of Graduate Studies were offered free master’s degrees if they joined Gadhafi supporters in Green Square, a source said. Some people in Tripoli were offered money to put pictures of Gadhafi on their cars and go to Green Square, the source said.

But in parts of Libya, Gadhafi’s grip on power appeared to be weakening.

In eastern Libya, groups of armed people wearing civilian clothing guarded the streets as opposition leaders seemed to be in firm control, CNN’s Ben Wedeman reported. Wedeman was the first Western television correspondent to enter and report from Libya during the crisis.

Residents said hundreds of mercenaries from sub-Saharan Africa had been killed or captured while fighting for Gadhafi, but much of the army appeared to have switched over to anti-government forces.

As Wedeman and his crew were entering the country, a young man at the border in civilian clothing and toting an AK-47 asked them for their passports. “For what?” responded Wedeman’s driver. “There is no government. What is the point?” They then drove in.

On the Libyan side, there were “no officials, no passport control, no customs,” Wedeman reported.

In Tobruk, demonstrators chanted the same slogans that were heard in recent days in Tunis, Tunisia, and Cairo, Egypt: “The people want to topple the regime!” The police station, a hated symbol of Gadhafi’s rule, had been ransacked.

And Cyrenaica, a region in eastern Libya, is no longer under the control of the Libyan government, Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Wednesday, according to the Italian Foreign Ministry.

CNN’s Richard Roth, Waffa Munayyer, Pam Benson, Ben Brumfield, Amir Ahmed, Ingrid Formanek, Eve Bower, Salma Abdelaziz, Mitra Mobasherat and Jaime FlorCruz and journalist Natalino Fenech contributed to this report