Colonel Muammar Gaddafi still has a quarter of his stockpile of chemical weapons and is ready to use mustard gas in a "desperate" fight to the death, a senior Libyan rebel military commander claimed yesterday.
The question of arming the rebellion in Libya has divided the international community Photo: REUTERS
By Bruno Waterfield, Brussels and Richard Spencer 9:00PM BST 28 Apr 2011
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General Abdul Fatah Younis, who was Col Gaddafi's interior minister before defecting to the opposition and is now the rebel army's chief of staff, gave the warning as he pleaded for Nato allies to arm the rebels with heavy weapons, including helicopters and anti-tank missiles, to defend the besieged city of Misurata.
He predicted the Libyan dictator would "never accept retreat" and would be ready to use chemical weapons in a last stand against rebels or the civilian population.
"He will fight up to the final drop of his blood," he said. "He has been offered chances to leave and he refused them all the chances. Most probably he will be killed or commit suicide.
"Gaddafi is desperate now. Unfortunately he still has about 25 per cent of his chemical weapons, which he might use as he's in a desperate situation. He always says: 'You will love me or I will kill you'."
Col. Gaddafi is known to have around ten tons of mustard gas remaining from stocks that he had been destroying under the supervision of a United Nations body, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Last month American intelligence sources reported that forces loyal to Gaddafi had stepped up security around Libya's principal remaining stockpile of agents used in chemical weapons. The question of arming the rebellion in Libya has divided the international community, including the alliance of countries carrying out bombing raids over Libya.
Britain supports the idea but the United States is lukewarm and others oppose it outright.
"We are not talking about light or small weapons. We're talking about more advanced weapons like Apache helicopters, anti-tank missiles as well as fast boats equipped with torpedoes," said Gen. Younis.
"We are still waiting. Unfortunately the arms are delayed up to now."
The city of Misurata has seen the most intense fighting of the war, though rebels say they have driven pro-Gaddafi forces out and are now attacking them in their base at the city's airport. Government forces have hit back with Grad missile launchers, while a doctor in the city also said yesterday that 12 rebels had been killed by a misdirected NATO bomb.
Meanwhile, a major new front has opened in the west of the country, where rebels who have previously been limited to a number of local towns broke out and seized a border crossing with Tunisia last week.
Pro-Gaddafi forces yesterday launched a major counter-attack, sending missiles pouring into one rebel-held town, Zintan, and staging major desert operation to recapture the border post. Some missiles landed inside Tunisian territory.
By nightfall, they were in control of the border, with rebel forces retreating into Tunisia and laying down their weapons.
"Many in the Western Mountains in towns such as Yefrin, Zintan and Kabau are being killed by this indiscriminate shelling," a National Council spokesman, Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, told a news conference in Benghazi.
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