Muammar Qaddafi, driven into hiding by his foes, on September 1 urged his supporters to fight on as dozens of world nations pledged to support Libya’s new leadership at a conference in Paris.“Let there be a long fight and let Libya be engulfed in flames,” Qaddafi was quoted as saying in a message carried on Arabic news channels. “We will not give up. We are not women.”The fugitive leader was speaking on the 42nd anniversary of the military coup that toppled King Idris and brought him to power in 1969 when he was a 27-year-old army captain.
There have been conflicting reports about Qaddafi’s location since his Tripoli compound was overrun on Aug. 23.A senior military commander of the interim National Transitional Council (NTC) said Qaddafi was in a desert town outside Tripoli, along with his son Seif Al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah Al-Senussi, planning a fight-back. All three fugitives are wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity.
An Algerian newspaper said Qaddafi was in the border town of Ghadamis and had tried to call Algerian President AbdelazizBouteflika to appeal for refuge. Bouteflika would not take the call, even though Algeria gave sanctuary to Qaddafi’s wife and three of his children when they crossed the border.