Gaddafi vows to stay as Nato intensifies raids

leave his country.
Tripoli’s eastern suburban town of Tajoura came under heavy NATO air strikes in the early hours of Sunday, and at least 20 huge explosions were heard by Xinhua correspondents at the scene.
The air strikes went on for at least an hour and columns of heavy smoke were rising everywhere as a result of the bombing of the town, roughly 25 km east of Tripoli, the correspondents reported from there.
Libyan state television Al-Jamahiriya reported that NATO has raided civilian and military sites.
The television, quoting a military source, said there had been victims but did not give any figure. Earlier, Gaddafi said he would never leave his country or surrender in the face of rebel attacks and NATO airstrikes.
“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 Saturday in an audio address to supporters in the city of Zawiya, some 50 km west of Tripoli. “After we gave our children as martyrs, we can’t backtrack, or surrender or give up or move an inch,” he said.
In his speech, Gaddafi also said the NATO air raids on Libya must stop to avoid more civilian casualties.
The embattled leader’s speech came after Libya’s main opposition group had been recognised by more than 30 nations as Libya’s legitimate government.
On Friday, the Libya Contact Group recognised the opposition National Transitional Council as the sole and legitimate interlocutor of the Libyan people.
The announcement was made shortly after the conclusion of the fourth meeting of the group in Istanbul, which was attended by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and officials from 32 countries and seven international organisations.
“Henceforth and until an interim authority is in place, participants agreed to deal with the National Transitional Council as the legitimate governing authority in Libya,” the group said in a statement. It said Gaddafi’s government no longer had any legitimacy in Libya and that he and his family members must leave the country.
The statement also said that the group welcomed the role of the NTC in leading the transition process in Libya and expressed support for its efforts to broaden its popular base to embrace all Libyan people.
While NATO continues its heavy bombing of Libya, the Libyan opposition forces have failed to make significant advances recently.
On Saturday, the opposition forces suffered their bloodiest day in the offensive to seize the control of the country’s strategic oil town of Brega.
NTC spokesman Abdel Hafiz Ghoga told reportes in the rebels’ stronghold of Benghazi the opposition forces’ advance to Brega had been slowed by minefields but they were preparing to enter the town “within days.”
“The battles have caused some casualties, as Gaddafi’s forces laid landmines in and around Brega,” he said. “But our special forces managed to push forward a few kilometers and disarm some landmines.”
At least ten rebels have been reported killed and more than 170 wounded since the offensive began on Thursday.
Meanwhile, according to a report from Russia Today, Russia’s foreign ministry says it does not recognise Libyan rebel group the Transitional National Council as the sole people’s representative. The report says, Russia recognises the Transitional National Council (TNC) as a participant in talks, but not as the sole legitimate representative of the Libyan people, RIA Novosti news agency quotes Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as saying at a news conference on Monday. Earlier, on July 15, the
TNC was formally recognised at the fourth meeting of the Contact Group on Libya as a legitimate authority of the country by delegates from more – Xinhua-RIA Novosti.