Lybia: "Martyrdom or Victory"

Lybia: "Martyrdom or Victory"

"Gaddafi vows 'martyrdom or victory' after fleeing compound"

" Muammar Gaddafi has vowed "martyrdom or victory" hours after Libyan rebels swarmed into his fortified compound in Tripoli.

Following a day of heavy fighting in the Libyan capital, opposition fighters broke into Gaddafi's walled citadel, Bab al-Aziziya, where they were seen stamping on a gilded bronze head of the deposed despot and setting fire to his famous tent in a cathartic end to his 42-year rule.

But in an audio recording released to a Libyan television station, the dictator called his retreat from the compound a "tactical move". Gaddafi, who has not been seen in public for weeks, told al-Rai TV that Libyans must "cleanse the capital", and claimed he had made a discreet tour of Tripoli and felt the city was not in danger.

"All Libyans must be present in Tripoli, young men, tribal men and women must sweep through Tripoli and comb it for traitors. I have been out a bit in Tripoli discreetly, without being seen by people, and … I did not feel that Tripoli was in danger," he said.

Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim, said 6,000 volunteers had arrived in Libya to join Gaddafi's cause, and warned that loyalist forces were ready and capable of fighting on for months, if not years.

In an audio recording, he warned they would turn Libya into "volcanoes, lava and fire against the imperialism". If the military strikes continued, he warned, Gaddafi forces would transform Tripoli into "a death trap".

"I don't think that the rebels will stand that fight because they haven't got the facilities to do that. They always ask Nato to help them and to intervene in their actions all the time. But I think Tripoli will be in two days or three days back to us," he said.

Rebel leaders said 400 people had been killed and 2,000 injured during the fighting, and there were reports of sporadic looting in the capital. But the whereabouts of the Libyan leader and his family remain unknown. (...)"

in The Guardian