Gaddafi vows to stay in Libya

Gaddafi vows to stay in Libya

Ousted Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi has vowed to remain on Libyan soil battling NATO and the country's new leaders.

These comments came as fighters advanced on the tribal stronghold of Bani Walid overnight, a town suspected to be harbouring the ousted strongman and two of his sons.

Search for Gaddafi

Officials from the interim ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) said they had sent reinforcements to Bani Walid after reports that Gaddafi had issued a call for the town to fight.

Report says NTC pickup trucks had headed toward Bani Walid with dozens of fighters clutching rocket-propelled grenades and shouting anti-Gaddafi slogans.

"We will move into Bani Walid slowly. There was a message in Bani Walid from Gaddafi this evening", NTC unit commander, Jamal Gourji said.

"He was rallying his troops and calling on people to fight. He is hiding in a hole in the ground, like Iraq", he added.

Chance to leave

The NTC was said to have sent envoys to neighbouring Niger to try to stop Gaddafi and his entourage from evading justice by fleeing across a desert frontier toward friendly African states.

A convoy arrived in Niger this week, but Niger denied housing Gaddafi.

"We're asking every country not to accept him. We want these people for justice”, the NTC's head of political affairs, Fathi Baja, told reporters.

He said Gaddafi might be close to the Niger or Algerian border, waiting for an opportunity to slip across.

"He's looking for a chance to leave", he said.

Continued resistance

However, Gaddafi has dismissed the reports that he had secretly fled toward nearby African states as part of a military convoy.

In a call to broadcaster Arrai TV on Thursday, the 69-year-Gaddafi, rallied supporters and said surrender was out of the question.

"Our resolute Libyan people, Libyan land is your own. Those who try to take it from you now are intruders, they are mercenaries, they are stray dogs. They are trying to seize our ancestral land from you but this is impossible. We will not leave our ancestral land", Gaddafi said.

During the call, which the television station said was being made from within Libya, Gaddafi boasted:"The youths are now ready to escalate the resistance against the 'rats' (transitional forces) in Tripoli and to finish off the mercenaries."

Gaddafi said that a military convoy that entered neighbouring Niger this week, fuelling speculation that he might be about to flee, was ‘not the first.’

"Columns of convoys drive into and out of Niger carrying goods and people inside and outside (of Libya) This is not the first time that convoys drive in and out of Niger", he said.

Humanitarian conditions

Aid agencies have raised concerns about humanitarian conditions there and in the few other cities still under the control of Gaddafi loyalists. Communications with them have been cut.

"People are terrorized, but many still support Gaddafi because they were paid by the regime, because many have committed crimes and are afraid of arrest", the agencies observed.

REUTERS/Shakira/Ekata