Libya: Gaddafi 'increasingly worried' he will be killed by Nato

Libya: Gaddafi 'increasingly worried' he will be killed by Nato
Col Muammar Gaddafi is “increasingly worried” he will be killed by Nato and has taken to hiding in Libyan hospitals to avoid air strikes, British intelligence reports suggest.

By Andrew Porter, Political Editor in Deauville 9:42PM BST 26 May 2011
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Diplomatic sources last night disclosed that recent intelligence suggested the Libyan dictator was “paranoid” and “on the run” from Nato’s escalating attacks on his regime.

Hadeiba Hadi, Libya’s ambassador to the European Union, said on Thursday he was defecting along with all his staff. The envoy said he and his colleagues wanted “to place ourselves at the service of the Libyan people in the struggle for democracy”.

In the latest move to step up the military pressure on Col Gaddafi, David Cameron gave the final authorisation for Apache attack helicopters to start flying into Libya.

Britain and France have intensified attacks on Tripoli this week and Col Gaddafi, who has not appeared in public for weeks, was said to be moving between different hospitals.

Nato publicly denies targeting Col Gaddafi, but at least one strike has been launched on a building where he was thought to be present.

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Diplomats said the real risk of death was having a “psychological impact” on the colonel, whose officials signalled for the first time this week that he could be prepared to step down.

The diplomatic source said: “There’s a consensus that we need to be turning the screw now and that’s partly informed by our intelligence of what’s going on on the ground.

“One quite striking thing is the fact that Gaddafi appears to be moving from hospital to hospital.

“What he is doing is moving from one place we won’t bomb to another place we won’t bomb.”

The Prime Minister said Nato wanted to “turn up the pressure on the regime so that people in Libya can choose their own future”.

At the G8 summit in Deauville, Normandy, Mr Cameron held talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss the campaign in Libya.