Nato-backed 'charade' won't last: Gaddafi
Fugitive strongman Muammar Gaddafi denounced Libya's new leadership as a "charade" backed by Nato air strikes which will not last forever, in an audio message aired on television yesterday.
And the African Union has finally recognised Libya's National Transitional Council as the country's legitimate leadership yesterday.
The AU's reluctance to formally recognise Libya's new leadership had created a split on the continent, as about 20 nations had already established ties.
Gaddafi's remarks came ahead of the first talks between US President Barack Obama and Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the head of the National Transitional Council (NTC) -- now recognised as Libya's legitimate leaders.
"What is happening in Libya is a charade which can only take place thanks to the (Nato-led) air raids, which will not last forever," said Gaddafi, for decades an outlandish fixture at the annual UN General Assembly in New York with his tent and rambling speeches.
Gaddafi is believed to be hiding in Libya, although members of his family fled to Algeria and Niger after rebel fighters, backed by a Nato-led air war, overran Tripoli on August 23.
It was released after the new regime's forces said they captured the airport and a garrison in his southern redoubt of Sabha, and fighting raged in two of his northern strongholds.
The capture of the airport and garrison at Sabha, a strategic desert city 800 kilometres south of Tripoli, was announced early yesterday by Mohammed Wardugu, spokesman for the NTC's "Desert Shield Brigade."
NTC forces were set to take total control of the entire region "imminently," said Wardugu, brother of brigade commander Barka Wardugu.
He said NTC forces had also seized Gaddafi's intelligence chief in the Al-Kufra region in the deep southeast, General Belgacem Al-Abaaj, and forced more than 300 of his mercenaries to flee before detaining 150 loyalists.
Nato said it had targeted Sabha with air strikes on Monday, taking out two air missile systems, two radar defence facilities and three air missile facilities.
The Nato strikes around Sirte came as dozens of new regime fighters stormed the nearby town of Sultana, braving rocket and artillery attacks as they marched towards Gaddafi's hometown.
The column of fighters advancing on Sirte from the west was to join other NTC forces already at the gates of the city who have been fighting Gaddafi loyalists there since the weekend.
Fighting had also raged on Monday in Bani Walid when NTC fighters attacked the oasis town southeast of Tripoli where Gaddafi's son Seif al-Islam is believed holed up, possibly with his father.
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