Protests in Tripoli after prayers

Libyan security forces are using tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters from the streets after Friday prayers in Col Gaddafi's stronghold of Tripoli.

A BBC reporter in the flashpoint eastern suburb of Tajoura said demonstrators were burning the official Libyan flag.

Secret police had tightened security in the area earlier, and Gaddafi loyalists set up traffic checkpoints.

Government forces have launched new air strikes on rebel territory in the east.

The revolt, which broke out in mid-February to end Col Gaddafi's 41-year rule, appeared to have reached deadlock.

'Al-Qaeda elements'
The BBC's Wyre Davies in Tajoura says the protesters have taken to the streets and are calling for the fall of the Gaddafi government.

"They fired tear gas," a Reuters news agency reporter said from the scene. "I heard shooting. People are scattering."

The atmosphere had been tense earlier as noon prayers began in the district's main mosque, while secret police milled around outside.

There was also a heavy military presence on main roads in Tajoura, where Gaddafi loyalists have been searching cars at checkpoints.

There were unconfirmed reports of mosques having been closed and arrests overnight, while internet services appeared to have been cut off.

The authorities stopped some foreign journalists leaving the main media hotel in Tripoli, saying it was to protect them from "al-Qaeda elements".

Reporters were later told they could leave the hotel on condition they boarded official buses to government-selected locations.

Protests last week after Friday prayers in several districts of the city ended in bloodshed when government forces fired on civilians, witnesses have said.

Pro-Gaddafi militias have been roaming Tripoli in civilian cars, according to residents.

A wave of detentions, killings and disappearances has been reported in the city in recent days.

Bodies of missing people have reportedly been left in the street.

Rebel advance
A Libyan warplane bombed the rebel-held Mediterranean port town of Ajdabiya on Friday, narrowly missing a munitions dump.

Gaddafi forces also carried out the second air raid in as many days on the nearby key rebel-held harbour of Brega, home to the country's second largest oil facility, Al Arabiya news network reported.

Opposition fighters reportedly advanced on Friday on the oil port of Ras Lanuf, to where pro-Gaddafi forces withdrew after a battle two days earlier.

The opposition - a mixture of citizen militias and army defectors armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades - have also been securing Brega in anticipation of a fresh onslaught by Gaddafi loyalists.

Several hundred mercenaries from Mali's Tuareg community have just joined government forces, a senior official from that North African country told the BBC.

The major western rebel-held cities of Zawiya and Misrata have also repelled attacks by Gaddafi loyalists.

The leader of the opposition National Libyan Council reportedly told cheering crowds in Libya's second city of Benghazi they would not give up.

"We are people who fight, we don't surrender," former Libyan Justice Minister Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, who went over to the opposition last month, was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

"Victory or death. We will not stop till we liberate all this country."