In new audio message, beleaguered Libyan leader says still in country, calls reports of his alleged flight to Niger ‘psychological war lies’.
The Libyan fugitive leader Muammar Gadhafi on Thursday dismissed reports that he has fled Libya to Niger, calling on Libyans to take up arms against the rebels.
“To all my beloved Libyans, the Libyan land is yours and you need to defend it against all those traitors, the dogs, those that have been in Libya and are trying to take over the land,” Gadhafi said in an audio message broadcast early Thursday on Syria’s-based Al-Rai TV.
He denied that he left Libya for neighboring Niger and described the reports as “psychological war lies.”
“How many times do convoys transporting smugglers, traders and people cross the border every day for Sudan, Chad, Mali and Algeria?” Gadhafi said. “As if this was the first time a convoy was headed towards Niger.”
On Monday, reports indicated that a convoy of 200 cars crossed the desert into Niger carrying Gadhafi and his close aides.
Meanwhile, clashes erupted between Libyan rebels and pro-Gadhafi fighters on the outskirts of Bani Walid, one of few towns still controlled by loyalists to the former strongman.
“The remnants of the Gadhafi Battalions launched late Wednesday an attack on the revolutionary troops from inside the town, but the revolutionaries repulsed the attack and killed one of them,” Daw al-Salheen, a rebel military commander, said Thursday.
He told broadcaster Al Jazeera that the rebels were committed to a deadline given by Libya’s interim rulers to pro-Gadhafi towns to surrender by Friday or face fight.
“The [latest] fighting does not mean an end to negotiations because the revolutionaries fought this battle in self- defense,” al-Salheen added.
Negotiations have been dragging on for days between the rebels and tribal leaders from Bani Walid, located around 150 kilometers south-east of the capital Tripoli.
The negotiations have yet to bear fruit, according to rebels.
