In a fiery broadcast from hiding, Muammar Gaddafi warned on Thursday that loyalist tribes in his main strongholds were armed and preparing for battle, a show of defiance hours after rebels extended a deadline for the surrender of the fugitive leader’s hometown.
The rebels, who have been moving troops toward remaining Gaddafi bastions across Libya, had shifted the deadline for the town of Sirte in hopes of avoiding the bloodshed that met their attack on Tripoli.
“We want to save our fighters and not lose a single one in battles with Gaddafi’s forces,” said Mohammed al-Rajali, a spokesman for the rebel leadership in the eastern city of Benghazi. “In the end, we will get Sirte, even if we have to cut water and electricity” and let NATO pound it with air strikes.
World leaders meeting in Paris on Libya’s future after Gaddafi said the NATO military operations would continue as long as needed.
“We won’t surrender again; we are not women. We will keep fighting,” Gaddafi said in a blustery tone in the audio statement, broadcast by Syrian-based Al-Rai TV.
Gaddafi said the tribes in Sirte and Bani Walid were armed and “there is no way they will submit”. He called for continued resistance, warning “the battle will be long and let Libya burn”.
