Dubai: A very nervous Muammar Gaddafi is entrenched in the Azizeh camp in Tripoli, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, Libya's former justice minister and head of the revolutionary council in the eastern city of Baida told Gulf News.
"Gaddafi is controlling less that 5 per cent of the country," Jalil said, warning that "Gaddafi will not leave until he kills every Libyan".
He urged the US and the European Union to protect the Libyan people from what observers have called a "massacre".
Al Zawiyah ready for attack from Gaddafi
Citizens of Al Zawiyah are bracing for another attack from the mercenaries of Gaddafi. They told Gulf News a group of 200 African forces are heading towards the city from a nearby city, Surman, located in the southern-west of Al Zawiyah.
Adel Al Zawiy, said the people in the city are ready for the confrontation and a number of defected military personnel were stationed in key locations in the city, waiting to deal with any assault.
He said revolutionaries in Al Zawiyah would had been able to defeat the Gaddafi mercenary’s attack on Thursday afternoon, if no trick was used to enter the city.
Two days ago, Al Zawiy said General Al Mahdi Al Oraibi, chief of the battalion in the neighbouring Musratah, had told the revolutionary committee in the city that the army will stop any attacks on their city from Tripoli or elsewhere and is committed to protect Al Zawiyah.
However, the man break his promise and disappeared few hours prior the day-light attack, he said.
“From now onward no one would be able to deceive us because we have acquired the weapons we need to defend ourselves including two anti-aircraft guns. The weapons were handed over to the citizens of Al Zawiyah,” he said.
17 killed in fresh violence
In fresh violence, 17 people were killed and 94 injured when mercenaries led by Gaddafi's son, Khamis, launched an attack on protesters in the city of Zawiya, 45 kilometres from the capital Tripoli.
Speaking to Gulf News, Dr Juma Hussain, professor at Tripoli University and resident of the Zawiya said warplanes, helicopters and tanks were used in the attack. He added that revolutionaries would today move to Tripoli to support the people under siege there.
"Gaddafi is taking revenge on the residents of Zawiya because they were the first to rebel against the regime," he said.
Speaking on state TV over the phone rather than appearing in person, Gaddafi yesterday offered condolences to the families of those killed in the violence, terming the victims Libya's children. Gaddafi said people in Libya were fighting among themselves and had been taking drugs.
Calling for calm, he accused Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden of orchestrating the uprising against him. "Bin Laden ... this is the enemy who is manipulating people," he said.
Oil terminals safe
Key oil terminals in the east of the capital are in the hands of protesters, according to residents of Benghazi in touch with them. They told Reuters yesterday that the oil terminals at Ras Lanuf and Marsa Al Brega were being protected.
On Wednesday, US President Barack Obama urged the world to unite and hold the Libyan regime accountable for the vicious crackdown stiffening a US response that critics had cast as too mild. In his first televised response to Gaddafi's threat to unleash vengeance on demonstrators, Obama promised to deploy a "full range of options" to halt the "outrageous" bloodshed.
Yesterday, the UAE Foreign Ministry issued a statement strongly condemning the violence. "The UAE is monitoring with great concern the development of events in Libya. The UAE is appalled by the suffering that the Libyan people are facing, and strongly condemns acts of violence, murder and destruction of the Libyan people's resources," it said.
Meanwhile, Ahmad Gadhaf Al Dam, Gaddafi's cousin and one of his closest aides, has defected to Cairo in protest against the crackdown as thousands of expatriates crowd Libya's borders to escape the bloodshed.
Helping hand: Khalifa orders aid
President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan yesterday ordered the Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation to provide urgent humanitarian aid to people in Libya affected by the violence in the country.
