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Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi has accused al Qaida chief Osama bin Laden of being behind the uprising which has plunged the country into chaos.

He spoke as forces loyal to him struck back against rebels in clashes in cities close to the capital Tripoli today.

Army units and militiamen attacked a mosque where many were holding an anti-government sit-in and battled with others who had seized control of an airport. A doctor at the mosque said 10 people were killed.

Gaddafi blamed bin Laden for the uprising in a rambling phone call to state TV.

The Libyan leader said the more than week-long revolt has been carried out by young men fired up on hallucinogenic pills given to them "in their coffee with milk, like Nescafe."

"Shame on you, people of Zawiya, control your children," he said, addressing residents of the city outside Tripoli where the mosque attack took place.

"They are loyal to bin Laden," he said of those involved in the uprising. What do you have to do with bin Laden, people of Zawiya? They are exploiting young people ... I insist it is bin Laden."

The attacks aimed to push back a revolt that has moved closer to Gaddafi's bastion in Tripoli. Most of the eastern half of Libya has already broken away, and parts of Gaddafi's regime have crumbled.

In the latest blow to the Libyan leader, a cousin who is one of his closest aides, Ahmed Gadhaf al-Dam, announced that he has defected to Egypt in protest against the regime's bloody crackdown against the uprising, denouncing what he called "grave violations to human rights and human and international laws."

In Zawiya, 30 miles west of Tripoli, an army unit attacked the city's Souq Mosque, where regime opponents had been camped for days in a protest calling for Gaddafi's removal, a witness said.

The soldiers opened fire with automatic weapons and hit the mosque's minaret with fire from an anti-aircraft gun, he said.

Some of the young men among the protesters, who were inside the mosque and in a nearby lot, had hunting rifles for protection.

A doctor at a field clinic set up at the mosque said he saw the bodies of 10 dead, shot in the head and chest, as well as around 150 wounded.

The witness said that a day earlier an envoy from Gaddafi had come to the city and warned protesters, "Either leave or you will see a massacre." Zawiya is a key city near an oil port and refineries.

After today's assault, thousands massed in Zawiya's main Martyrs Square by the mosque, shouting "leave, leave," in reference to Gaddafi, the witness said.

"People came to send a clear message: We are not afraid of death or your bullets," he said.

The other attack came at a small airport outside Misrata, Libya's third largest city, where rebel residents claimed control Wednesday.

Militiamen with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars fired on a line of rebels guarding the airport, some armed with automatic rifles and hunting rifles, said one of the rebels who was involved in the battle.

During the fighting, the airport's defenders seized an anti-aircraft gun used by the militias and turned it against them, he said.

A medical official at a military air base by the airport said two people were killed in the fighting - one from each side - and five were wounded.

He said personnel at the base had sided with the Misrata uprising and had disabled fighter jets there to prevent them being used against rebellious populaces.

"Now Misrata is totally under control of the people, but we are worried because we squeezed between Sirte and Tripoli, which are strongholds of Gaddafi," he said. Sirte, a centre for Gaddafi's tribes, lies to the south-east of Misrata.

The militias pulled back in the late morning. In Misrata, the local radio - controlled by the opposition like the rest of the city - called on residents to march to the airport to reinforce it, said a woman who lives in downtown Misrata.

In the afternoon, it appeared fighting erupted again, she said, reporting heavy explosions from the direction of the airport on the edge of the city, located about 120 miles east of Tripoli.

The witnesses around Libya spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.