Gaddafi warns against no-fly zone

Independent.co.uk
Gaddafi warns against no-fly zone
AP
Wednesday, 9 March 2011


Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has promised to fight any attempt to impose a no-fly zone on the country.

In a TV interview the dictator said the move would merely be an excuse by the West to seize Libya's oil deposits.

Gaddafi spoke to Turkey's state-run TRT Turk television, responding to US and British plans for a response to his armed crackdown on rebels, including imposing a no-fly zone to prevent his planes from attacking them.

Gaddafi claimed such a move would lead Libyans to understand the foreigners' aims to seize oil and take their freedoms away. He said if that happened "Libyans will take up arms and fight."

Gaddafi said there were no legitimate grounds for a foreign intervention in his country, insisting that Libya was only fighting al-Qa'ida as in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

"If al-Qa'ida seizes Libya, that will amount to a huge disaster," Gaddafi said. "If they (al-Qa'ida fighters) take this place over, the whole region, including Israel, will be dragged into chaos. Then Bin Laden may seize all of north Africa that faces Europe."

In separate remarks Gaddafi called on Libyans in the rebel-held east of the country to take back control from the opposition leaders.

Forces loyal to the Libyan leader have been fighting in the east as well as in a handful of towns close to Tripoli, where he has total contro

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