Gaddafi says leaving his compound was a tactical move.
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has addressed the nation via Libyan radio, declaring that “in the fight against aggressors there is only death or victory.”
He said that the Bab Al-Aziziya compound no longer exists. It was totally destroyed by 64 NATO air strikes.
As of now, the leader and his family are nowhere to be found.
Gaddafi spokesperson, Moussa Ibrahim, speaking on Libyan television from an undisclosed location, warned the battle for Libya will turn the country into a volcano, lava and fire. He stressed that the country’s government can resist the attacks for months or even years.
“Libya will become a volcano,” he promised. He condemned the rebels and claimed that 12,000 tribesmen were converging on Tripoli to fight.
Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV says that the capital is being pounded by Gaddafi forces’ Grad missiles and mortars. Reuters also reports pro-Gaddafi forces attacking the town of Ajelat, west of Tripoli, with missiles and tanks.
Meanwhile the National Transitional Council reports that 400 people have been killed and more than 2,000 injured over the last three days of fighting. Alternative reports claim that more than 1,000 people have died in the violence and NATO air strikes.
Don DeBar, an anti-war activist and journalist, believes that whatever Colonel Gaddafi or the rebel leaders say, it is practically impossible to verify what is true or false at this point.
“But certainly what has been coming from the Western media has been proven to be lies,” he declared. “Gaddafi opened up the armories to the people of Libya, more than a million rifles and other arms have been handed out to the people of Tripoli. The claim that has been made by the so-called ‘progressive’ media of the United States is that Gaddafi is a hated dictator and that this is an indigenous rebellion. The dictator does not hand people guns and say: ‘Please, defend me!’”