TOBRUK – Libyan strongman Moamer Gaddafi said his forces would fight a “decisive battle” on Thursday, as Washington added its voice to efforts at the UN Security Council to impose a no-fly zone. Gaddafi’s latest comments came after his forces pressed rebels in the west and threatened their eastern bastion of Benghazi, despite calls from UN chief Ban Ki-moon for an immediate ceasefire. “The battle starts today (Wednesday) at Misrata and tomorrow, that will be the decisive battle,” Gaddafi was quoted as saying by state television, referring to Libya’s third city, which has a population of half a million.
“From this evening, you are going to be called to take up arms and tomorrow you will take part in the battle,” he added in an address to a group of young people from Misrata, according to the television report. Gaddafi urged his audience “not to leave Misrata hostage in the hands of a handful of madmen.” On Tuesday, Libyan state television said the army would soon move against Benghazi, and on Wednesday, Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam predicted that everything would be over in 48 hours.
A rebel spokesman in Misrata, which lies 150 kilometres (90 miles) from the capital Tripoli, said Wednesday that opposition forces had beaten back an attack by Gaddafi loyalists, but that four people were killed and 10 wounded. In Zintan, meanwhile, the first western town to go over to the opposition, a witness said “things were starting” there.
And over to the east, witnesses in Ajdabiya, the gateway to Benghazi, said fighting was still under way there. Government sources continued to insist that it had fallen on Tuesday. A doctor told AFP by telephone that fighting was still raging on Wednesday in and around Ajdabiya, which also guards the road to Tobruk and the Egyptian border in the rebel-held east. In an interview with Russia Today TV broadcast late Wednesday, Gaddafi said Benghazi will fall to Tripoli govt “without our use of military force” as local residents will themselves chase out the “bandits.”
“As you see, all are on our side except the bandits. People are constantly appealing to us for help and to rescue them from the bandits,” he said in the interview. “It is Benghazi that particularly begs for help. While it is true that the bandits have occupied buildings, also residential ones, for the purposes of having a human shield for themselves, we believe Benghazi can deal with them without our use of military force.” As talks resumed in the divided UN Security Council, Ban spokesman Martin Nesirky said the secretary general was “gravely concerned” about signs that Gaddafi was preparing to attack Benghazi.
“A campaign to bombard such an urban centre would massively place civilian lives at risk,” he said. “The secretary general is urging all parties in this conflict to accept an immediate ceasefire…,” he added. The Red Cross announced Wednesday it was moving its staff in Benghazi eastwards to Tobruk until security improved, handing food and other relief provisions to the local Red Crescent society.
