Tripoli, March 01: Libya’s beleaguered strongman Moamer Kadhafi insisted on Tuesday “all my people love me” in an interview with foreign media, including ABC television.
“All my people love me. They would die to protect me,” the veteran Libyan leader said, according to ABC’s Christiane Amanpour in a message sent on her Twitter account.
Kadhafi, who has ruled his north African country for more than 41 years, also refused to acknowledge there were any demonstrations on the streets of Tropoli, Amanpour added.
ABC said in a statement that Kadhafi had sat down for the interview with the US television channel as well as the BBC and The Times of London as world powers ramped up pressure on his regime.
“The people of Libya have made themselves clear: it is time for Kadhafi to go now, without further violence or delay,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva.
Opposition demonstrations against Kadhafi’s regime erupted nearly two weeks ago in the wake of the upheavals in Egypt and Tunisia, and pro-democracy forces now control vast swathes of the east.
But Kadhafi alleged the people who had come on to the streets were under the influence of drugs supplied by Al-Qaeda, the BBC reported.
He also said people had seized weapons and that his supporters were under orders not to shoot back, the British broadcaster added.
But witnesses said Kadhafi’s forces had hit back today, with fighter jets bombing an ammunition stores in the eastern town of Adjabiya, around 100 kilometres (62 miles) south of the capital Tripoli.
Two planes also attacked a munitions dump at Rajma, just south of the city, a military reservist told AFP.
The brutal crackdown on opposition protests has killed at least 1,000 people and set off a “humanitarian emergency,” the UN refugee agency UNHCR has said warning of an exodus of people from Libya.
-PTI