Posted on 05/13/2011 1:03:35 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
TRIPOLI, Libya -- Taunting NATO, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said Friday he had survived recent airstrikes and is "in a place where you can't get me." His government accused NATO of killing 11 Muslim clerics with a strike on a disputed eastern oil town.
Gadhafi had appeared on state TV but not been heard speaking since a NATO attack on his Tripoli compound two weeks ago, which officials said killed one of his sons and three grandchildren. In a brief recording played Friday on Libyan TV, Gadhafi said he wanted to assure Libyans concerned about a strike this week on his compound in Tripoli.
"I tell the coward crusaders - I live in a place where you can't get to me," he said. "I live in the hearts of millions."
NATO shrugged off the statement.
"We are not targeting him, our targets are solely military," alliance spokeswoman Carmen Romero said in Brussels.
Shortly before Gadhafi's remarks were broadcast, regime spokesman Moussa Ibrahim claimed that NATO had attacked Brega while dozens of imams and officials from around Libya were gathered there to pray for peace. Ibrahim said 11 imams were killed in their sleep at a guesthouse, and 50 people were wounded, including five in critical condition.
NATO, responding to the claim, said it had attacked a military command-and-control center in Brega.
"We're very careful in the selection of our targets and this one was very clearly identified as a command center," said an official at NATO's operational headquarters in Naples, Italy, who under the alliance's rules could not be named.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
11 imans... sounds like they really did target the military.
I hope it is true. 11 fewer rabble rousers next Friday!
There are mountains around Tripoli and I have no doubt that the Qadaffi guy is under one of them in a luxo-bunker.
Sounds like a good start to me.
Clerics conducting wedding services for those who worked at the baby milk factory, no doubt.
Who cares. Good riddance.
Sounds like a good start!
Too bad it wasn’t a busload!
Hmmm! Where have we heard that line before? Saddam? Osama?
Now, that is just too clever. Bring lots of clerics as hostages to the next town on the schedule for attack. Will this make the rebels angry at NATO, not likely? It might make it a little easier for those trying to establish a representative, secular gvernment. Then again, it probably is just a BIG LIE.
It’s cheaper by the dozen.
Gee, 11 clerics? That’s really sad.
I thought there were more than 11 in Lybia.
You beat me to it.... 200 million more to go!
"I tell the coward crusaders -- I live in a place where you can't get to me," he said. "I live in the hearts of millions."
11 huh?
BFD
It's that 12th one they gotta worry about.
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