Gaddafi warns NATO of attack: ‘We could move to Europe like locusts and bees’

In the speech,delivered by telephone to thousands of people marching in Green Square in Tripoli,Gaddafi warned that Libyans would be able to take the battle “to Europe,to target your homes,offices,families,which have become legitimate military targets,like you have targeted our homes,” The Associated Press reported.

“We can decide to treat you in a similar way,” he said of the Europeans. “If we decide to,we are able to move to Europe like locusts,like bees. We advise you to retreat before you are dealt a disaster.”

He also said he would welcome negotiations if Europe and the US were willing,but he said if they were not,“we’ll finish the battle.”

With NATO warplanes bombing his strongholds,Gaddafi now rarely appears in public and favours recorded messages or taped video,for instance,of a meeting he attended in May. Instead,he has been communicating with Libyans and the outside world through recorded messages from undisclosed locations.

One of Gaddafi’s sons,Seif al-Islam Gaddafi,suggested in a television interview that his father’s supporters had no intention of ending the fight.

“Nobody will give up and raise the white flag,” he said in the interview,posted Friday on the website of the Russian channel RT. “One of our biggest mistakes was that we delayed buying new weapons from Russia,and delayed building a strong army. We thought Europeans were our friends; our mistake was to be tolerant with our enemies.”

Seif also denied charges by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court that he,his father and military intelligence chief,Abdullah Senussi,had ordered killings of protesters during the early days of the uprising in February.

“This would have happened anywhere in the world if people in the street moved towards a military site trying to steal ammunition,” he said.

Gaddafi,in his speech,urged his supporters to attack the rebels in the mountains,as well as his opponents in Misrata,a rebel-controlled city on Libya’s western coast,and Benghazi in the east,saying that the rebels were losing the war. He mentioned the arming of the Libyan rebels by the French government and said that “mercenaries” were fighting with his opponents.

“They tried it for a hundred days and they failed,” he said. “Benghazi is finished.”