AhlulBayt News Agency

source : AFP
Thursday

21 July 2011

7:30:00 PM
254982

Gaddafi rejects talks with revolutionaries

Libya's longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi has reiterated that he would not negotiate with revolutionaries to end a five-month chaos in the country.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - He said in a speech broadcast to his supporters in his hometown of Sirte, 450 km (280 miles) east of Tripoli that: "I will not talk to them. There will be no negotiations between me and them."

He added: "They cannot defeat us. They will be defeated and they will go home empty-handed."

Colonel Ahmed Bani, a revolutionary spokesman, said on Thursday that no one was seriously expecting talks.

The uprising has liberated much of the country's territory from Gaddafi's control, but some regions including the capital Tripoli, are still in full control of Gaddafi's forces.

NATO has been bombing Gaddafi's forces and military sites since mid-March after a revolution against Gaddafi began in mid-February.

On Thursday, the British military announced its first death related to the NATO-led military campaign in Libya, saying a member of the Royal Air Force died in southern Italy.

The man died after his vehicle went off the road in the Abruzzo region. The vehicle was carrying supplies to airbases in southern Italy, where British forces involved in the Libya war are based.

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