LIBYA’S UNDER-FIRE LEADER Muammar Gaddafi has told his citizens that his country and its native defence forces “will be victorious in the end”.
Speaking on Libyan TV from a site that had been hit by allied Western forces over the weekend, the 68-year-old leader vowed that his country’s own forces would ultimately prevail, the BBC reports.
Gaddafi also appealed for a military unity of all Islamic states, in a pointed reference to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates – both of whom have joined in the aerial bombardment of Gaddafi’s territory.
The address was Gaddafi’s first public appearance since the start of the armed campaign against him over the weekend, when Western countries moved to implement a UN resolution calling for a no-fly zone.
“We will win this battle,” the leader insisted, saying the attacks were an assault “by a bunch of fascists who will end up in the dustbin of history.”
The vow came amid a fourth consecutive night of military strikes, though it now appears that the domestic rebel forces have been unable to capitalise on the assistance of their Western allies.
Al Jazeera reports that despite the aerial campaign over Tripoli, Gaddafi’s forces had continued to attack the rebel-held towns of Misurata, Ajdabiya and Zintan.
Barack Obama, meanwhile, has moved to unify the anti-Gaddafi forces as he tries to prepare the ground for an easy secession by US soldiers.
The New York Times reports that while Obama was keen to reiterate how the US would withdraw its control of the operation, he acknowledged that the military campaign had been taken on board without the change to define a clear understanding of the role of each participating country.
His secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, suggested that Gaddafi may have been considering fleeing Libya and seeking exile abroad.
She also said it was impossible to confirm whether Gaddafi’s sixth son, as had been reported, had been killed in one of the air strikes.
AP has estimated the overall cost of the US military campaign at at least $200m so far, and added that budget-conscious politicians in Washington had been reluctant to estimate a full price of the mission so far.
Each Tomahawk missile – of which 162 have been launched so far – costs between $1m and $1.5m, while B-2 bombers being deployed cost around $10,000 an hour to fly.
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