Libyan rebels made a surprising discovery in Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s residence when they found photographs of a former United States Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice in his photo album.
Though, it may not be a surprising discovery as it appears. Over the years, the Libyan leader’s comments and actions related to the former secretary of state have raised a few eyebrows.
“I support my darling black African woman,” he said. “I admire and am very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders. Leezza, Leezza, Leezza. I love her very much. I admire her, and I’m proud of her, because she’s a black woman of African origin.”
One thousand rebels bombarded buildings filled with regime fighters hiding amid civilians in a ferocious battle yesterday for Muammar Gaddafi’s last major stronghold in Tripoli. The Libyan leader, still in hiding, sent a new message calling on his supporters to kill the rebels.
Bodies were scattered around a grassy square next to Muammar Gaddafi’s compound of Bab al-Aziziya. Prone on grassy lots as if napping, sprawled in tents. Some have had their wrists bound by plastic ties.
The identities of the dead were unclear but they were in all likelihood activists that set up an impromptu tent city in solidarity with Gaddafi outside his compound in defiance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation bombing campaign. It is impossible to know who killed them, but the discoveries raise the disturbing spectre of mass killings of non-combatants, detainees and the wounded.
The bullet-ridden bodies of three Gaddafi soldiers in military uniforms lay on the ground outside a fire station in the battle-scarred Abu-Salim neighbourhood and a few bodies of rebel soldiers were wrapped in blankets nearby. The sewers ran red with blood.
Rebels said one of their key targets now is Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte, about 250 miles (400 kilometres) from Tripoli, but acknowledged that capturing that city would not be easy because Gaddafi’s fellow tribesmen were expected to put up a fierce fight. Opposition leaders have said they were trying to negotiate a peaceful surrender of the city.
Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, head of the rebel National Transitional Council, called on people living in loyalist-held towns to join the fight against Gaddafi’s soldiers. “I am appealing to the areas not yet liberated to join the revolution,” he told reporters in Benghazi. “There is no excuse for them not to join.”
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