Troubled Libyan President Moamer Gaddafi on Thursday urged his supporters to wage war on rebels who have seized most of Libya and put him to flight, as opposition leaders arrived in Tripoli preparing to take power.
Gaddafi’s audio message came as the head of the rebels’ National Transitional Council (NTC), Mustafa Abdel Jalil, gave the grim assessment that more than 20,000 people had been killed in the drive since mid-February to end the strongman’s 42-year iron-fisted rule.
Gaddafi, who has a $1.7 million price on his head, said in his third audio message since rebels overran his Tripoli headquarters on Tuesday, “We must resist these enemy rats, who will be defeated thanks to the armed struggle, leave your homes and liberate Tripoli,” he added in the message broadcast on Syria-based Arrai Oruba television. Addressing the youth of the city, which rebels say they mostly control, he said, “Fight them street by street, alley by alley, house to house. With rifles and pistols they will be annihilated.”
“Do not fear them, fear only God,” he said, telling them not to fear bombardment by NATO warplanes. “They are just sound bombs.” Even as he was speaking, half of the NTC members were arriving in Tripoli to begin a transition to the post-Gaddafi era. “Half of the government is here, and today we have had meetings with the military leadership,” NTC spokesman Mahmud Shamman told AFP, as rebel fighters were readying a final push to secure the capital and continued to look for the elusive strongman.
“At least eight members have already arrived. All major posts are here, including health, comunications, interior, justice, information and defence,” he said. Shammam, who said he had arrived by land from Tunisia, said they were “preparing to move our council to Tripoli” from the rebel bastion in the eastern city of Benghazi. Rebel chief Abdel Jalil said that countries that had helped the rebel cause would be rewarded accordingly.
“We promise to favour the countries which helped us, especially in the development of Libya. We will deal with them according to the support which they gave us,” he told a news conference in the eastern city of Benghazi. Beyond Tripoli, rebel commanders said they were also readying a new advance against forces defending Gaddafi’s hometown Sirte, 360 kilometres east of Tripoli and seeking to break a siege of Zuwarah, a town to the west.
