Gadhafi tells of dismay over lack of support in 'fight against terrorism'
Sunday, March 06, 2011
MSNBC.msn.com
"Everything is safe. Tripoli is 100 percent under control. What you are hearing is celebratory fireworks. People are in the streets, dancing in the square." He warned, however: "I would like to advise not to go there for your safety.
TRIPOLI, Libya — Heavy automatic weapons fire erupted in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Sunday, the first such outbreak in Muammar Gaddafi's main stronghold in a two-week-old insurrection against his 41-year-old rule.
It was unclear who was doing the shooting, which started at 5:45 a.m., just before daybreak, or what had caused it. Machine gun volleys, some of them heavy caliber, were reverberating around central Tripoli, along with ambulance sirens, pro-Gaddafi chants, whistling and a cacophony of car horns as vehicles sped through the vicinity.
A government spokesman denied any fighting was under way in Tripoli. "I assure you, I assure you, I assure you, I assure you, there is no fighting going on in Tripoli," said Mussa Ibrahim, a government spokesman.
"Everything is safe. Tripoli is 100 percent under control. What you are hearing is celebratory fireworks. People are in the streets, dancing in the square." He warned, however: "I would like to advise not to go there for your safety.
A government spokesman, Abdel-Majid al-Dursi, told the AP that the gunfire was celebratory, claiming that government forces had retaken the oil port of Ras Lanouf, in central Libya. But residents of Ras Lanouf said Sunday that the opposition remained in control of the port.
Tripoli is the main stronghold of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who said in a French newspaper interview released on Sunday that he was embroiled in a fight against terrorism and expressed dismay at the absence of support from abroad.
"I am surprised that nobody understands that this is a fight against terrorism," the longtime autocrat of the North African oil-producing state told the Journal du Dimanche in excerpts of an interview due to be published later on Sunday.
"Our security services cooperate. We have helped you a lot these past few years. So why is it that when we are in a fight against terrorism here in Libya no one helps us in return?"
Gadhafi, who has ruled Africa's fourth largest country since a 1969 coup, faces an unprecedented popular uprising that has seen rebel forces assert control over Libya's east and loosen his grip in the west near the capital Tripoli.
Western leaders have denounced what they say has been Gadhafi's brutal, bloody response to the uprising, and the International Criminal Court said he and his inner circle could be investigated for alleged crimes committed against civilians by his security forces.
Gadhafi, who spoke to journalists from his headquarters in Tripoli, said Islamic holy war would engulf the Mediterranean if the insurrection in Libya, inspired by successful pro-democracy uprisings in neighboring Egypt and Tunisia, succeeded.
"There would be Islamic jihad in front of you, in the Mediterranean," he said. "Bin Laden's people would come to impose ransoms on land and sea. We will go back to the time of Red Beard, of pirates, of Ottomans imposing ransoms on boats."
Gadhafi added that his government was "doing well" despite the armed turmoil and warned Europe against an influx of Libyan migrants to its shores if his foes drove him from power.
Rebels advance on Gadhafi's hometown
Libyan rebels were advancing from the east on Gadhafi's hometown Sirte and clung to positions in a western town near the capital Tripoli after withstanding two armored assaults by government forces.
Calm settled back over the western town of Zawiyah after nightfall, with rifle-toting insurgents on rooftops and manning checkpoints on streets leading into the center. But the rebels said they were bracing for another tank and artillery attack by government on Sunday.
A doctor in Zawiyah, some 30 miles west of Tripoli, said at least 30 people, mostly civilians, were killed during fighting on Saturday that wrecked the town center, raising to at least 60 the death toll from two days of battles.
Almost 400 miles to the east along Libya's Mediterranean coast, insurgents said they took the town of Bin Jawad, on the heels of seizing the oil port of Ras Lanuf, and were thrusting westwards toward Sirte 100 miles away.
"We're going to attack Sirte, now," rebel fighter Mohamed Salim told Reuters, while another fighter, Mohamed Fathi, said: "Listen, we have no organization and no military plan. We go where we're needed."
"If (rebels) can expand down into the Gulf of Sirte ... they've got a very good shot at independence at the least — or maybe even overturning him at the most," said Peter Zeihan, analyst with the U.S.-based Stratfor intelligence newsletter.
But others were wary of the limitations of an undisciplined rebel force made up of soldiers who have bolted from Gadhafi's ranks and volunteers who have more enthusiasm than experience.
Where many eastern towns have fallen with scant resistance, Sirte is unlikely to be a pushover. It has long received hefty subsidies from Gadhafi, who liked to host Arab and other international conferences in the coastal city.
Sirte also hosts a major air base and significant military forces loyal to Gadhafi.
British forces seized
Britain's Sunday Times reported that rebels had seized a British SAS special forces unit of up to eight soldiers escorting a junior diplomat in eastern Libya on a secret diplomatic mission to make contact with opposition leaders.
The SAS intervention apparently angered opposition figures fear Gadhafi could use any evidence of Western military intervention to sway patriotic support away from the uprising, according to the London paper.
Citing Libyan sources, the Sunday Times said the special forces troops were taken by rebels to Benghazi, Libya's second largest city and epicenter of the insurrection, and hauled before one of its most senior politicians for questioning.
Committee named
In Benghazi, eastern heartland of the insurrection, the opposition National Libyan Council said it had named a three-member crisis committee, including a head of military affairs and foreign affairs. Its head told Al Jazeera television it expected to be formally recognized soon by some countries.
In Tripoli, Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim told reporters Zawiyah was "quiet and peaceful" late on Saturday. "We hope by tomorrow morning life will be back to normal."
In Zawiyah, whose takeover by rebels earlier last week shook the Libyan leader because Libya's west has traditionally been Gaddafi's basis of popular support, residents said sporadic clashes after dusk abated by late evening.
But the atmosphere was tense with the situation seeming fluid and the rebels were on alert for a fresh barrage.
Abu Akeel, a Zawiyah resident, told Reuters government forces had shelled houses and fired on a mosque where people were taking shelter. Another resident said he saw more than 20 tanks advance across the main square during the second assault.
In Bin Jawad, rebels played the pre-Gaddafi monarchist national anthem over a loudspeaker. Government fighter jets and a helicopter circled overhead but did not open fire.
U.S. airlifts Egyptians home
Four U.S. military aircraft flew 312 Egyptians home Saturday after they fled to the Tunisia-Libya.
Two Marine Corps KC-130s and two Air Force C-130s supported the effort, said the Pentagon.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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