appeared on state television at green square, the main square in tripoli where he called upon libyans who support him to defend the country s what he called dignity and petroleum resources. and also disturbingly, he said he would open the arsenals of the state and provide weapons to his supporters and tribes loyal to him and to allow them to attack his opponents. eliot? ben, did the people in benghazi see gadhafi s appearance in tripoli s green square? and if so, what was their reaction? well, people here don t really spend much time watching libyan state television. in fact, i think i was the only one who was watching it this evening in this city of more than 1 million people. not for reasons of entertainment, but obviously for journalistic illumination. people who did hear about the contents of that speech were a
anti-aircraft guns firing at certain mosques that rally the protestors. they are beginning to try to stage forces to then move west into tripoli and into some of these towns to finally toss khadafy out. he has been making speeches on libyan state television. during one, libyan people love me, clearly at least in this part of the country, they do not. this mural used to hang above the main square, faith, honor and glory in the name of khadafy. now, the residents have torn it down and take pleasure in stomping on it. this is one of many pictures of khadafy put up in towns all over his country. defacing one was punishable by torture or death. it s important to understand where we re at. the main square behind the
what are you witnessing there now? what we re witnessing in the eastern part of the country is the obvious complete control of the anti gadhafi forces. there was a large demonstration against gadhafi. thousands of people braving windy and cold weather to come out and not only demonstrate against the leader in tripoli, but also to express their support and solidarity to the people in tripoli, many of whom tried today to participate in demonstrations against the regime, but we were told by eyewitnesses there that those demonstrators came under what they described as intense gunfire. coming from the libyan security forces. what we also saw today on libyan state television is that moammar gadhafi came out to green square, which is the main square
to leave libya. joining us now from libya is nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel. richard, you ve been doing great reporting there. we re now hearing, al arabiya is reporting that gadhafi may make an address in the next several hours. what are you hearing? reporter: we are hearing the same thing, that gadhafi might make an address somewhere west of tripoli. he s been trying to go on television to deny reports that he s fled the country. his daughter has appeared on television, on libyan state television to say she is still in the country and did not leave to malta. there is heavy fighting in tripoli between pro-gadhafi loyalists and the rebels. we are in eastern libya, in rebel-controlled territory. this country is divided into two. there s a rebel-held sector that stretches from the egyptian border to the city of benghazi,
there are massacres happening here. there is massacres happening not far from here. not that much in the square. we ve seen on libyan state television, on government controlled television, they show a pro-government demonstration in green square. who do you think those people are? he has been paying people. he had been recruiting people. even some of his own soldiers, he has put them in civilian clothes just to show that the country is fine. this morning, he has orders to clean up the streets, clean up the dead bodies. he doesn t want anybody to get any footage of the dead bodies killed in tripoli last night. we ll talk with ben wedeman inside libya and others inside libya, as well. for a few moments, just watch this man, moammar gadhafi, as he addressed his people today. don t be fooled by his bafoonry. he has tortured his own people,