TRIPOLI – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi described Sunday, March 20, airstrikes on Libya by Western countries as terrorism, calling on Libyans to prepare for a “long war” to defeat their enemies.
"All the Libyan people are united. The Libyan men and women have been given weapons and bombs," the Libyan leader said in a televised audio message cited by Agence France Presse (AFP).
"You will not advance. You will not step on this land. We promise you a long, drawn-out war with no limits."
French, British and American forces launched military attacks into Libya on Saturday, March 19, to stop Muammar Gaddafi’s onslaught against anti-regime opposition.
French planes fired the first shots, destroying tanks and armored vehicles in the Libyan opposition stronghold of Benghazi in eastern Libya.
Hours later, US and British warships and submarines launched 110 Tomahawk missiles against air defenses around the capital Tripoli and the western city of Misrata, which has been besieged by Gaddafi's forces.
Following the strike, road between Benghazi and Ajdabiyah, a strategic town that stands at the entrance to east Libya, was a scene of devastation and dozens of burned out vehicles with munitions still exploding, Reuters reported.
State television said the "crusader enemy" hit civilian areas of Tripoli and fuel storage tanks that supplied Misrata, putting the initial number of dead at 46.
Gaddafi Sunday’s speech was the second in the span of twelve hours, yet none of them showed his image.
He said the leaders of Britain, France and the United States would "fall like Hitler ... Mussolini".
"All tyrants fall under the pressure of the populist masses," he said.
"America, France, or Britain, the Christians that are in a pact against us today, they will not enjoy our oil. "You are aggressors, you are animals."
"We will defend our land from foreign enemies bent on exploitation."
Human Shields
Following the declaration of the start of allies strike, hundreds of pro-Gaddafi supporters lined up as human shields.
“House by house, alley by alley,” the catchiest song went, quoting a Qaddafi speech, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
“Disinfect the germs from each house and each room.”
The crowd included many women and children, and some said they had family in Colonel Qaddafi’s forces.
They said they had come to protect Colonel Qaddafi’s compound from bombing by volunteering to be shields.
“If they want to hit Muammar Qaddafi, they must hit us because we are all Muammar Qaddafi,” said Ghazad Muftah, a 52-year-old widow of a soldier from the Warfalla tribe, who said she was there with her six grown children.
But, in other areas targeted by pro-Gaddafi forces the tone was different.
“Our suffering is greater than anyone can imagine,” a resident from Tajoura, a neighborhood near the capital that has been a hotbed of anti-Qaddafi unrest, said.
A few hours before the allies strike, Tajoura was targeted by Libyan Air Force jets.
“Anyone who dares go outside is either arrested or shot dead,” he added.
“Food is decreasing, there is no tap water, and electricity comes and goes.
“The hospitals cannot really offer much treatment anymore because there are no medicines. There is no milk for the children.”
