Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is promising “a long war” against the international military forces that have targeted his troops with airstrikes and dozens of cruise missiles.
In a phone call to Libyan state television, Gaddafi says he will not let up on the rebellion in the country’s east.
He said he has opened up the weapons depots to Libyans, and said everyone is armed with “automatic weapons, mortars, bombs.”
“We promise you a long war,” he said in the address.
The US and European strikes, which were aimed at enforcing a UN-mandated no-fly zone, were a sharp escalation in the international effort to stop Gaddafi after weeks of pleading by rebels on the verge of defeat.