Interpol issues alert for Qaddafi, associates

Updated 12:31 p.m. ET

Interpol has issued an international alert for Moammar Gadhafi and 15 other family members and close associates to help enforce international sanctions against the Libyan strongman and his regime.

The international police organization said Friday that Gadhafi, his relatives and allies "have been identified as being involved in or complicit in planning attacks, including aerial bombardments, on civilian populations."

Interpol issues the orange notice when an act or event poses a risk to public safety. The alert is sent to Interpol's 188 members around the world, give law enforcement and border police information on the targeted individuals that can be used to block their movements and freeze their assets.

Complete Coverage: Anger in the Arab World

The U.N. Security Council has imposed a global asset freeze on Gadhafi, his four sons and one daughter, and established a travel ban on the whole family along with 10 other close associates. The council also backed an arms embargo and referred the Libyan government's bloody attacks on protesters to a war crimes tribunal for investigation into possible crimes against humanity.

A Libyan human rights group says that more than 6,000 people have been killed in Qaddafi's violent crackdown on protesters.

Part of an upheaval across the Arab world, the Libyan uprising has pitted anti-government protesters against Gadhafi, who has ruled Libya with an iron fist for four decades. Gadhafi has unleashed a violent crackdown against those seeking his ouster, drawing international condemnation.

Meanwhile Friday, forces loyal to Qaddafi fired tear gas at protesters in Tripoli, calling for the Libyan leader's ouster in defiance of a fierce crackdown by regime supporters that has spread fear in the capital.

More than 1,500 protesters marched out of the Murad Agha mosque after noon prayers in the eastern Tripoli district of Tajoura, chanting "the people want to bring the regime down" and waved the red, black and green flag of Libya's pre-Qaddafi monarchy, adopted as the banner up the uprising.

The protesters transformed a nearby square, tearing down posters of the Libyan leader and replacing them with the flags. They spray-painted walls with graffiti reading, "Down with Qaddafi" and "Tajoura will dig your grave."

But soon after the march began, security forces fired tear gas at the crowd, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene. The protesters scattered, but rejoined to continue their march. Then security forces fired live ammunition, scattering the protesters again -- though it was not immediately clear if they fired in the air or at people.