Report: Gaddafi On the Run

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gaddafiLibyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has fled Libya and may be headed for Venezuela, William Hague said today. The Foreign Secretary said he had seen information ‘that suggests he is on the way there [Venezuela] at the moment’ – as the North African country was up in flames with reports of around 400 dead.

Gaddafi was said to have fled as the country he has ruled for more than 40 years after anti-government demonstrators breaching the state television building and setting government property alight.

But officials in Venezuela, where president Hugo Chavez is an ally of the Libyan dictator, denied any suggestions that Gaddafi was seeking refuge there. Information minister Andres Izarra said the reports were ‘false’ .

Hague spoke after a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday which sharply condemned Libyan authorities for their crackdown against pro-democracy protesters.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton dismissed Hague’s claim, saying she knew nothing about it and other officials described the report as ‘rumors.’

Protesters appear to have gained a foothold in Tripoli today as banks and government buildings were looted while demonstrators have claimed they have taken control of the second city Benghazi.

It is thought up to 400 people may have died in the unrest with dozens more reported killed in Tripoli as protests reached the capital for the first time and army units were said to have defected to the opposition.

The Libyan justice minister has now resigned in protest at the ‘excessive use of violence’ against the protesters, according to the Quryna newspaper, while the Maltese Foreign Ministry said it is trying to establish why two Libyan fighter jets landed on the island today.

A coalition of Libyan Islamic leaders has issued a fatwa telling all Muslims it is their duty to rebel against the Libyan leadership and demanding the release of all jailed protesters.

The Network of Free Ulema of Libya also demanded the release of fellow Islamic scholar Sadiq al-Ghriani, who was arrested after criticising the government, and ‘all imprisoned demonstrators, including many of our young students’.

As Europe and the U.S. condemned the regime’s handling of the unrest, Gaddafi’s son Saif said his family would ‘fight until the last bullet’.

Colonel Gaddafi was earlier today said to have left Tripoli to prepare for a last stand in Sebha, the small desert town where he grew up.

A source at Tripolis Mitiga Airport said he saw three planes leaving early this morning.

Gaddafi was on one, said the source. The planes were heading down south – to Sebha.

The claim was supported by at least two pro-democracy campaigners who said they had also seen the aircraft leaving.

More than 300 victims were massacred – many by foreign mercenaries – during the government crackdown in Libya’s second city, Benghazi.

The state TV headquarters in the capital Tripoli were also damaged during protests on Sunday while the AFP news agency reported several public buildings had been set alight.

Al Jazeera television quoted medical sources as saying 61 people had been killed in the latest protests in Tripoli.

It said security forces were looting banks and other government institutions in Tripoli, and protesters had broken into several police stations and wrecked them – pictures of the clashes in the capital are yet to emerge, however.

Read more at The Daily Mail.

{The Daily Mail/Matzav.com Newscenter}


4 COMMENTS

  1. Typical. Run far away and have your thugs do all the dirty work. I’d rather he be tried and hung but as long as he never comes back to Libya that’s ok. Now for the matter of his thuggish sons…

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