Libyan Fighter Jet Crashes near Benghazi as Pilot Rejects to Bomb City

A fighter pilot disobeyed orders on Wednesday to bomb the opposition stronghold of Benghazi and ditched his plane after he and his co-pilot ejected, a Libyan newspaper reported on its website.

The Russian-made Sukhoi 22 crashed near Ajdabiya, 160 kilometers west of the city which has fallen to anti-regime protesters, a military source said, quoted in Quryna newspaper.

"Pilot Abdessalam Attiyah al-Abdali and co-pilot Ali Omar al-Gadhafi ejected with parachutes after refusing orders to bomb the city of Benghazi."

On Monday, the pilots of two Libyan fighter jets landed in Malta and defected after they had been ordered to attack protesters in Benghazi.

The two men told Maltese military officers that they were senior air force colonels and one of them requested asylum, as they were getting out of their single-seater Mirage F1 jets.

Malta is the closest European state to Libya, located just 340 kilometers north of Libyan shores.

Two French-registered Super Puma civilian helicopters also landed on the Mediterranean island around the same time, carrying seven passengers who said they were French working on oil rigs near Benghazi.

The helicopters were given permission to land in Malta but had not been given clearance to leave Libya, indicating they had escaped, the sources said.

Meanwhile, it emerged Wednesday that Gadhafi's regime has lost vast swathes of Libya's east to an insurrection, as pressure mounted on the strongman to step down amid growing evidence of a "bloodbath."

And as condemnation of the brutal crackdown grew and foreigners fled the oil-rich country, Gadhafi appeared to be increasingly isolated after reports that hundreds of civilians were killed in the backlash by his forces.

Opponents of Gadhafi appeared firmly in control of Libya's coastal east, from the Egyptian border through to the cities of Tobruk and Benghazi, with government soldiers switching sides to join the uprising.

An Agence France Presse news team traveling into Libya's east saw rebels -- many of them armed -- all along the highway that hugs the Mediterranean coast.

Soldiers in the east were declaring their support for the uprising, the residents said, but the regime asserted it was still in control via a text message sent on the Libyan national mobile telephone network.

"God give victory to our leader and the people," the message said, promising a credit in cellphone time if it was forwarded to other mobile telephone users.

But Italy's foreign minister, Franco Frattini, said the eastern province of "Cyrenaica is no longer under the control of the Libyan government and there are outbreaks of violence across the country."

Further west, streets of the capital Tripoli were mainly empty, barring a few dozen Gadhafi backers, despite his nationally televised call a day before for a show of popular support.

Only Green Square -- a Gadhafi stronghold since the revolt against his four decades of iron-fisted rule began on February 15 -- pulsed with activity as pro-regime supporters began arriving.

Drivers honked their horns and men and children poured out of minibuses as some Gadhafi supporters perched on the roofs of vehicles and two or three police cars patrolled the area.

Libya's regime says 300 people, including 111 soldiers, have been killed in the protests. Rights groups, however, have said the toll could be as high as 400.

One of the thousands of terrified Egyptian migrant workers in Libya who fled to the border on Wednesday gave evidence of atrocities to a hospital doctor in the Egyptian frontier town of Sallum.

The video footage from inside Libya, seen by AFP, showed 20 people, some in uniform, who had been made to lie on the floor. Each one had a bullet hole in the back of the head.

Urging a prompt end to the "horrible bloodbath," Frattini said he feared an immigrant exodus of "biblical proportions" if Gadhafi is ousted, predicting up to 300,000 Libyans could try to flee their country, Frattini told the daily Corriere della Sera.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, the north African nation's top trading partner, urged the world to oppose "unjustified violence and drifts towards Islamic extremism" in Libya, a day after phoning Gadhafi.

News of the call came after Gadhafi delivered a rambling speech on television, declaring he would die a martyr in Libya, and threatening to purge opponents "house by house" and "inch by inch."

Proclaiming the support of the people, Gadhafi ordered the army and police to crush the revolt against his rule.

"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.

His government said 300 people, including 111 soldiers, had been killed in the protests, which erupted after the rulers of neighboring Tunisia and Egypt were ousted in similar uprisings.

China, India, South Korea, France and the United States, among other countries, scrambled to evacuate their citizens from the turbulent nation, as the international community condemned the crackdown.

The U.N. Security Council "condemned the violence and use of force against civilians, deplored the repression against peaceful demonstrators and expressed deep regret at the deaths of hundreds of civilians."

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon called for international efforts to ensure a "prompt and peaceful transition" as he cut short a trip over the Libyan crisis and returned to New York on Wednesday.

The U.N. Human Rights Council said meanwhile it would hold a special session on Friday to discuss the crisis following a request by European Union.

The announcement came a day after Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said, "widespread and systematic attacks against the civilian population may amount to crimes against humanity."

Britain's The Financial Times reported Wednesday that the strongman's family was feuding over the vast business empire his regime has built up since coming to power in 1969.

Another British daily, The Times, said it had footage of severely wounded and dead protesters in a hospital in the eastern city of Benghazi proving heavy weapons were being used to crush the revolt.

Army, police and militias have killed unarmed demonstrators indiscriminately, even to the point where air force planes strafed civilians, according to widespread reports.

In response, Peru suspended diplomatic ties with Libya, becoming the first nation to take such a measure.

Spain said Gadhafi had "lost all legitimacy to continue to lead his country," as EU President Herman Van Rompuy insisted the crimes could "not to remain without consequences."

But the 68-year-old Gadhafi, a former army colonel, is yet to show any signs of relenting.

Despite this, numerous high level Libyan officials, including ministers, diplomats and military officers, have abandoned the regime and announced their support for the rebellion.

One of the latest to resign in protest was Salaheddin M. El Bishari, the Libyan ambassador to Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei, Indonesia's foreign ministry said Wednesday.

And in another sign of Gadhafi's slipping support, Libya's embassy in Vienna condemned Wednesday "the excessive use of violence" against peaceful protesters and urged the world to take "concrete measures" to protect them.

The turmoil in Libya, which has Africa's largest oil reserves and is the continent's fourth largest producer, has sent crude prices soaring.

London Brent rallied to $107.51 per barrel by midday on Wednesday, a day after hitting $108.75 -- the highest level since early September 2008.

New York's light sweet crude for April delivery rose by 68 cents to $96.10 a barrel.

There is a big difference between Brent and New York oil prices due to oversupply in the United States.

German oil firm Wintershall said Wednesday it had stopped production in Libya due to the security situation, as giant French counterpart Total announced it was "starting to suspend" its operations.

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France called Wednesday for the European Union to adopt "swift and concrete sanctions" and suspend economic and financial relations with the north African country.

Meanwhile, all Libyan ports and terminals were temporarily closed because of the deadly unrest, the CMA CGM shipping group said in a statement on its website.