Muammar Gaddafi has declared the Mediterranean a war zone and threatens to strike out at the region’s military and civilian installations. He also brands as a “colonial crusade” the ongoing western military operation against his regime.
In a phoned-in message aired by state television on Sunday Gaddafi called on the African, Arab and Latin American nations to support Libya in what he termed as a “struggle against a common enemy”, and said he was beginning to arm the population to fight off foreign aggression.
The UN-backed military operation, involving the US, Britain, France, Italy and Canada, was launched on Saturday. The coalition forces have already fired more than 100 cruise missiles at Libyan air defense installations and delivered numerous airstrikes on civilian sites in Tripoli and other big sites and on oil reservoirs in Misrata.