Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi stood firm yesterday, accusing the West of plotting to seize Libya’s oil and insurgents of being traitors, as his forces pounded rebel positions.
“The colonialist countries are hatching a plot to humiliate the Libyan people, reduce them to slavery and control the oil,” he said on state television.
He again said al-Qaeda was behind the insurrection and called on inhabitants of Benghazi, the rebels’ main base, to “liberate” the city.
Photo: Reuters
Qaddafi made similar accusations against Western countries in interviews aired by the French LCI television channel and Turkish television yesterday.
On the eastern front both sides were taking up defensive positions, rebel fighters said amid government shelling.
A reporter saw about 200 rebels on the coast road between the rebel-held town of Ras Lanuf and Bin Jawad, about 30km to the west.
“Today, we have established defensive positions ahead of here,” rebel Colonel Masud Mohammed told reporters about 5km from Ras Lanuf.
“Qaddafi’s forces are in Bin Jawad, they are occupying the mosque and the school,” he said. “Today we are not attacking yet.”
He also said there were four strikes by government warplanes near Bin Jawad yesterday. He said several rebels were wounded, but gave no further details.
The rebels earlier said their own forces were 20km west of Ras Lanuf, while the government troops had not moved from Bin Jawad.
From Zawiyah, just west of Tripoli, a former official, Murad Hemayma, said Qaddafi wanted to take control of the city by yesterday after days of siege.
“Round every corner there are people shooting,” he said. “The international community must do something.”
As pressure grew from inside Libya and elsewhere in the Arab world for a no-fly zone, the White House said US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron had agreed to press forward with planning a range of possible responses.
These included surveillance, humanitarian assistance, enforcement of the arms embargo and a no-fly zone, the White House said.
Cameron said the world could not stand aside while Qaddafi did “terrible things” to the Libyan people.
“We have got to prepare for what we might have to do if he goes on brutalizing his own people,” he said.
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