Tripoli, May 31: Eight senior Libyan officers, including five generals, have deserted Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s army and fled to Italy, amidst a rise of international pressure on the embattled leader.
During a press conference with Italian Foreign Ministry officials in Rome, the high ranking military officers that included five generals, two colonels and a major, urged their fellow officers to abandon Gaddafi and join revolutionary forces, the Associated Press reported on Monday.
The officers claimed that they made the choice to leave the military to protest the killings of civilians by Gaddafi’s forces.
“No wise, rational person with the minimum of dignity can do what we saw with our eyes and what he asked us to do,” General Oun Ali Oun said.
Also, General Melud Massoud Halasa said that “not more than 10” generals now remain loyal to Gaddafi.
Meanwhile, another senior Libyan General, Salah Giuma Yahmed, emphasized that with the ongoing defections, Gaddafi’s days are numbered and his forces could no longer prop up his regime.
According to Libya’s National Transitional Council, over 120 officers have so far deserted Gaddafi’s side over the past few days.
This has dealt a major blow to the Libyan ruler, who is faced with growing international pressure and a NATO airstrike campaign against his embattled government.
NATO has conducted hundreds of sorties over Libya since it assumed control of a military campaign to impose a no-fly zone over the country and save civilian lives in late March.
The development comes as reports indicate that many civilians have also been killed in the UN-mandated aerial offensives.
NATO itself has admitted to killing revolutionary fighters and civilians in an airstrike in eastern Libya but has adamantly refused to apologize for the deadly bombardment.
South African President Jacob Zuma, who arrived in Libya on a mediation mission on Monday, also reiterated that NATO raids are undermining peace efforts launched by the African Union (AU).
Zuma added that Gaddafi has agreed to a ceasefire with revolutionary forces only if NATO raids stop.
AU officials have been trying to secure a ceasefire in Libya, which has been turned into fierce battlefields between Pro-Gaddafi troops and anti-regime forces since mid-February.
Revolutionary forces want an end to Gaddafi’s decades-long rule.
——-Agencies