Showing posts with label threatens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label threatens. Show all posts

Monday, July 4, 2011

Defiant Gaddafi threatens Europe

1 July 2011 Last updated at 19:02 GMT Smoke billows from an area targeted by a Nato air strike in the Tripoli suburb of Tajura Nato strikes have continued in some areas of the capital, Tripoli Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has threatened to attack Europe in revenge for Nato's operations in Libya.

Col Gaddafi said Libya would target European "homes, offices, families" unless Nato stopped its campaign.

He spoke via an audio message broadcast to tens of thousands of supporters gathered in a central Tripoli square.

His message comes after France confirmed it had supplied weapons to anti-government rebels, delivering arms to Berber tribal fighters near Tripoli.

In the broadcast, played via loudspeakers to gathered crowds in the capital's Green Square, he called on supporters to "march on the western mountains", the area where the weapons had been delivered.

'Like locusts'

Then he warned Europe that Libyans would seek revenge.

"These people [the Libyans] are able to one day take this battle [...] to Europe, to target your homes, offices, families, which would become legitimate military targets, like you have targeted our homes," he said.

"If we decide to, we are able to move to Europe like locusts, like bees. We advise you to retreat before you are dealt a disaster," he added.

His message come just days after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Col Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and Libyan intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanoussi for crimes against humanity.

International prosecutors allege government troops fired on civilian protesters during anti-Gaddafi street demonstrations earlier this year.

Friday's rally was one of the largest in recent times, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, in Tripoli, and the message was the first time that Col Gaddafi had been heard of in weeks.


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Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Uganda threatens Somalia pullout

3 June 2011 Last updated at 01:12 GMT A Ugandan soldier of the African Union peacekeeping force in Mogadishu - 21 May 2011 Ugandan troops make up the majority of AU peacekeepers fighting Islamist militants in Somalia Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has said Somalia's transitional government should be given another year to consolidate gains against militants.

Otherwise, Uganda will withdraw its troops helping the government fight Islamist al-Shabab militants, he said.

The current mandate for the UN-backed government is due to expire on 20 August and the UN is calling for elections to be held quickly.

Mr Museveni said polls this year would allow the militants to reorganise.

Somalia's interim government and parliament are riven by deep political divides.

Earlier this year the government voted to extend its mandate by a year, but some MPs have objected to the move, saying only parliament has the authority to postpone elections.

The current parliament, chosen during a peace conference in 2004, voted to extend its mandate in February for three years.

'Win-win situation'

Uganda currently contributes about 5,000 troops to an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force, called Amisom, in Somalia. Burundi supplies the rest of the force.

"It seems to us that the win-win situation for all parties seems to be an extension of the Transitional Federal Institutions for a period not exceeding one year," Mr Museveni told an international meeting on Somalia held in Uganda's capital, Kampala.

Elections held too soon, he warned, would "allow the extremists time to reorganise and cause problems and undermine the battlefield gains so far obtained".

"If the current system collapses, or if it is seriously undermined, we can have no justification to stay in that situation - we will leave Somalia," he added.

Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmad, a moderate Islamist former rebel, told the International Contact Group on Somalia that the country was too unstable for a vote. He also called for the transitional government's tenure to be extended.

The AU force in Somalia deployed to Mogadishu in 2007 to back the weak interim government.

Somalia has been wracked by constant war for more than 20 years. Its last functioning national government was toppled in 1991.


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