Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was preparing last night for a blood-soaked final stand in Tripoli.
Thousands of hired fighters were massing on roads from the capital to join army units battling the uprising which had spread to within 50km of the dictator’s stronghold.
Fighting raged as Gaddafi made an extraordinary rambling speech on TV in which he compared himself to the Queen and blamed the revolt on Osama Bin Laden.
He claimed the protesters who have seized control of much of the east of the country he has ruled for 41 years were fuelled by milk and Nescafe spiked with hallucinogenic drugs.
In a bizarre message to protesters, he said: “You need to listen to your parents. If people disobey their parents they end up destroying the country.
“The same as in Britain (where) for 57 years the Queen has been ruling. I have been in the same situation.”
He went on: “Bin Laden ... this is the enemy who is manipulating the people. Do not be swayed by Bin Laden.”
Gaddafi’s former long-time ally and justice minister Mustapha Abdeljalil predicted yesterday that the Libyan leader would follow in Adolf Hitler’s footsteps by killing himself rather than give up power.
Abdeljalil, who resigned on Wednesday in protest at the bloody crackdown, said he expected Gaddafi to make good on his pledge to die on Libyan soil rather than slink into exile.
“Gaddafi’s time is up,” he said. “He is going to go like Hitler. He is going to commit suicide.”
As the death toll passed 2 000 with an estimated 300 000 refugees on the move, dozens more anti-government supporters were reported to have been killed and wounded in a series of counter-attacks yesterday by the army.
Dissident militias supported by defecting military units claimed to have the upper hand in a swathe stretching from the Egyptian border to the outskirts of Tripoli.
In the latest blow to the Libyan leader, a cousin who was one of his closest aides, Ahmed Gadhaf al-Dam, announced that he has defected to Egypt in protest against the regime’s bloody crackdown against the uprising.
He denounced what he called “grave violations to human rights and human and international laws”.
Many of those violations were said to be continuing in Tripoli, a city of two million, where pro-Gaddafi militia have clamped down since the Libyan leader called on his supporters to take back the streets.
Residents say militia roam the main avenues, firing in the air, while neighbourhood groups have barricaded side streets trying to keep the fighters out.
At the same time, members of the feared internal security force run by Gaddafi’s brother-in-law, Abdullah Senussi, have launched raids on homes around the city.
A resident in the Ben Ashour district said vehicles full of armed men swept in on Wednesday night, broke into his neighbour’s home and dragged out a family friend as women in the house screamed. He said other similar raids had taken place yesterday in other districts.
In Zawiya, about 50km west of Tripoli, an army unit attacked a mosque where regime opponents had been camped for days. The soldiers opened fire with automatic weapons and hit the minaret with an anti-aircraft gun. A doctor at a field clinic set up at the mosque said he saw ten bodies, shot in the head and chest, as well as around 150 wounded.
The witness said that a day earlier an envoy from Gaddafi had come to the city and warned protesters: “Either leave or you will see a massacre.”
Zawiya is a key city near an oil port and refineries. Despite the assault, thousands massed in the main Martyrs Square by the mosque, shouting “leave, leave” to Gaddafi, the witness said. “People came to send a clear message: We are not afraid of death or your bullets.”
What Gaddafi said:
YOUNG PROTESTERS
“Their ages are 17. They give them pills at night. They put hallucinatory pills in their drinks, their milk, their Nescafe.
“They are criminals ... is it logical that you let this phenomenon continue in any city? We do not see what is happening in Egypt and Tunisia (where governments were toppled) happening in Libya, ever!”
MORAL AUTHORITY
“Those (in Egypt and Tunisia) are people needing their governments and they have demands, our power is in the hands of the people.
“From a national, moral, ethical standpoint ...they should stop. I have no authority coming from laws or decisions or anything else, I just have moral authority. I only have moral authority. I am like the Queen of England. I have jurisdictions.”
BIN LADEN
“This is the enemy who is manipulating people. You people of Zawiya (a city west of Tripoli where fighting has been heavy), stop your children, take their weapons, bring them away from Bin Laden, the pills will kill them. You are the extension of the republic system, not Bin Laden. He is the criminal, catch him and present him to court. He is the one in charge of any murder or any disaster. Do not be swayed by Bin Laden.
“Al Qaeda will not succeed in Zawiya - those of Bin Laden, they are tricking your children. I cannot believe the country is being dragged down to this degree.”
PARENTS’ DUTY
“The constitution is clear. Take their weapons. The fathers and the mothers and the brothers of people in Zawiya are they backing this? Stop them (the protesters). Are they standing behind those people. What is this farce? What is happening in Zawiya is a farce!
“I wait from you people of Zawiya to show that I see you in the right light. Zawiya is the land of 1 000 martyrs who fought against the Italians and it is the mother of tribes. Zawiya! Be what I expect of you.
“Remember in the Iraq war, the United States and Britain said they had reason to intervene. Qaeda and the international terrorists work together ... Saddam Hussein had a relationship to Qaeda ... look what America did.” - Daily Mail