Libya: Gaddafi Vows To Stay As Blasts Rock Tripoli
Explosions heard in Tripoli on Sunday hours after Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi vowed never to give in to mounting calls to go into exile. At least 13 blasts were heard before and just after 1 am, AFP reported. State television said civilian and military sites were attacked in the Ain Zara district and in Tajoura in the eastern suburbs.
Earlier, Gaddafi had insisted in a speech that he would never quit his homeland. “They are asking me to leave. That’s a laugh. I will never leave the land of my ancestors or the people who have sacrificed themselves for me,” he said in a loudspeaker address to supporters in Zawiyah, west of the capital.
“I’m ready to sacrifice myself for my people, and I will never quit this land sprinkled with the blood of my ancestors who fought Italian and British colonialists,” he said. “These rats have taken our people hostage in Benghazi, Misrata and the western mountains, using them as human shields,” Gaddafi said. “Five million armed Libyans will march on them and liberate the occupied towns as soon as the order is given.”