Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi said Tuesday in a televised address that he will not step down from power and that he intends on staying in Libya.
Gadhafi vowed to fight protesters demanding his ouster and said that he does not intend on resigning or forfeiting power like other leaders have done, announcing that he intends on dying in Libya as a martyr.
Gadhafi said that the image of Libya is being distorted before the world, and described himself as a Bedouin warrior who brought glory to the Libyan people.
The night before amid the crackdown, a defiant Gadhafi appeared on state TV in the early hours Tuesday to show he was still in charge, brandishing a large umbrella and wearing a cap with fur ear flaps, and denying reports he had left the country.
The eruption of turmoil in the capital after a week of protests and bloody clashes in Libya's eastern cities has sharply escalated the challenge to Gadhafi, and his regime has been hit by a string of defections by ambassadors abroad and even some officials at home. His security forces have unleashed the bloodiest crackdown of any Arab country against the wave of protests sweeping the region, which toppled leaders of Egypt and Tunisia.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, citing sources inside the country, said Tuesday that at least 250 people have been killed and hundreds more injured in the crackdown on protesters in Libya, though its officials said the true number was not known.
Meanwhile, key Western nations urged the UN Security Council on Tuesday to demand an immediate end to Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi's bloody crackdown on civilian protesters and strongly condemn the violence.
The UN's most powerful body met behind closed doors Tuesday morning to discuss possible council action, most likely a press statement agreed by all 15 members, as key Libyan diplomats around the world disowned Gadhafi's regime.
Protesters, meanwhile, gathered at some Libyan embassies around the world, including those in Sweden and Serbia. In Stockholm, they were allowed into the embassy, where they raised the flag of the monarchy that was toppled by Muammar Gadhafi's military coup in 1969.