Libya unrest: Defiant Gaddafi vows to die as martyr, fight revolt

A defiant Muammar Gaddafi vowed on Tuesday to remain in Libya as head of its revolution, saying he would die as a martyr in the land of his ancestors and fight to the "last drop" of his blood.

Saying the people were behind him, Gaddafi ordered the army and police to crush the popular uprising against his iron-fisted four-decade rule that has already left hundreds dead in the past eight days.

In a live, apparently unscripted speech on national television, the 68-year-old Gaddafi said, "Muammar Gaddafi is the leader of a revolution; Muammar Gaddafi has no official position in order for him to resign. He is the leader of the revolution forever."

"This is my country, my country," he shouted, in a speech consisting of short, angry bursts of words, which he punctuated by shaking his fist or pointing his finger.

He said he would "die a martyr in the land of my ancestors" and "I will fight to the last drop of my blood."

"The Libyan people are with me," he said, calling on them to demonstrate from Wednesday. "Capture the rats," he said of anti-regime demonstrators. "Go out of your homes and storm them" wherever they are.

Earlier, witnesses streaming across the Libyan border into Egypt said Gaddafi was using tanks, warplanes and mercenaries in an effort to stamp out the growing rebellion.

In the eastern city of Tobruk, a Reuters correspondent there said sporadic blasts could be heard, the latest sign that Gaddafi's grip on the [...]