The U.N. Security Council called an emergency meeting as Libya descended into further chaos Tuesday amid reports that Moammar Kadafi's regime used warplanes, helicopter gunships and foreign mercenaries against mounting anti-government protests, witnesses and diplomats said.
The Security Council was to meet in closed-door session in New York to discuss the crackdown against mostly unarmed opposition forces in and around Tripoli, the Libyan capital.
Libyan state TV said the mercurial strongman, who has ruled since 1969, would address his nation later Tuesday.
Condemnation poured in from around the world, including from many of Libya's own top diplomats. Libya's ambassadors to the U.S., China, India and Malaysia resigned. The deputy ambassador to the U.N. denounced the attacks as genocide.
"Tripoli is burning," Ali Aujali, who stepped down as Libya's ambassador to Washington, told ABC News. He said he no longer wanted to serve a "dictatorship."
"We have never seen a government bomb its own people like this," Ali Essawi, who quit as envoy to India, told Al Jazeera television. The envoy said Kadafi "lost his legitimacy" and called for him to step down.
A defiant Kadafi appeared briefly on state TV in the early-morning hours to deny reports that he had fled the country. He did not refer to the protests.