Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said he’s leader of a revolution that requires “sacrifice until the end of life,” defying a widening revolt that has left corpses on the capital’s streets and rebels claiming control of the second-biggest city.
“Muammar al-Gaddafi has no title to be sad about it and resign,” Gaddafi said in an address aired on state television today, speaking from the house in Tripoli where he was targeted by US bombs in 1986 that killed his adopted daughter. He said rebels had been “drugged” and the “masterminds” behind the uprising are abroad.
Gaddafi’s crackdown on a weeklong uprising has left more than 200 dead as regime supporters fired on protesters in Tripoli, according to Human Rights Watch. In Benghazi, the independence flag of the constitutional monarchy overthrown by Gaddafi in 1969 flew on streets and over several buildings and there were no security forces in evidence except traffic police, witnesses said.
Oil prices rose almost 10 per cent.
Libya, holder of Africa’s largest oil reserves, is the latest nation to be rocked by protests ignited by last month’s ouster of Tunisia’s president and fanned by the February 11 fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
