Gaddafi accuses rebels of Bin Laden links

 A protester with his face painted with the colours of the Kingdom of Libya flag Tripoli - Arabstoday Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi addressed on Thursday the people of Az-Zawiyah, a town west of the capital, where there was fierce fighting between his forces and rebels, accusing them of being linked to Osama Bin Laden. Gaddafi, who has lost control of large parts of the country following violent clashes, offered his condolences over those who died and called them "Libya's children". Gaddafi, speaking on Libyan television on Thursday, said people were fighting among each other and were taking hallucinogenic drugs. Nato not to intervene in Libya: Rasmussen KIEV: Nato has no plans to intervene in the unrest in Libya and has received no request to do so, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after talks in Ukraine on Thursday. "I would like to stress that NATO has no plans to intervene and we have not received any request," Rasmussen said after talks with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. "In any case, any action should be based on a clear United Nations mandate," he added. Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro claimed Tuesday the United States was about to order NATO to invade Libya to control its oil interests. Washington "will not hesitate to give the order for NATO to invade that rich country, perhaps in the coming hours or days," he claimed in an article written for official state media. Gaddafi to speak of Libyan crisis on state TV Benghazi:The Libyan state TV has announced that Gaddafi will address the nation shortly. Gaddafi's son says Libya toll exaggerated Muammar Gaddafi's son denied that the government had launched airstrikes against Libyan cities and claimd reports of the number of protesters killed were exaggerated. In pictures: Unrest in Libya Thursday's comments by Saif Al Islam Gaddafi come as the Libyan government fights to maintain control after several other major Libyan cities and towns in the east and close to the capital have fallen to the rebellion against the longtime leader. World urged to step up pressure on Gaddafi British Foreign Secretary William Hague urged the world on Thursday to raise pressure on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and said Britain wanted an international investigation into the use of violence against protesters. Italy's foreign minister has said as many as 1,000 people may have been killed in Libya, where Gaddafi has launched a bloody crackdown on a spreading revolt against his 41-year rule. Hague, who said on Monday he had seen information suggesting, wrongly, that Gaddafi was on his way to Venezuela, said "the odds are stacking heavily against him". Live reports from Libya An Al Jazeera correspondent, spoke of the scene of panic he witnessed hours ago at Tripoli airport. "The airport has become log jammed. Some have been there for three days in pretty awful conditions, though many more are outside. Police are beating people with clubs, stopping them getting into airport, saying it is full. Flights are leaving and they are not full, because people can't get into the airport," he said.   He added "People are telling horrifying stories, one woman told me about watching soldiers shooting people in front of her, then shooting at them, as they do not want witnesses." The airport apparently is still very much in control of Gaddafi's forces. Libyan diplomats at the Libyan embassy in the Moroccan capital announced they are joining "the people's revolution" and the end of Gaddafi's rule. A video on different websites showed Libyan diplomats lowering a flag in the embassy's courtyard to half-mast, taking down a large picture of the Libyan leader, and then smashing it. Reports on Al Jazeera says that Gaddafi forces are attacking Zawiyah city in north-west Libya, where thousands are currently demonstrating. An eyewitness phoned Al Jazeera, saying 50 injured people were taken to hospital in the city after the "Gaddafi Brigade" used anti-aircraft weapons in the assault.  Several protesters were reportedly killed. A Libyan witness says a Libyan army unit has blasted a minaret of a mosque in a city west of Tripoli. The witness told The Associated Press by telephone that several protesters, who have been camped inside and outside the mosque while demanding the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi, have been killed or seriously wounded in Thursday's attack. 'Outrageous and unacceptable' International momentum was building for action to punish Gaddafi's regime for the bloody crackdown it has unleashed against the uprising that began Feb. 15. In a Q&A session with Al Jazeera, British Prime Minister David Cameron he threatened Libya with consequences, saying "What Libyan authorities are doing is completely unacceptable, it must stop. I back what President Obama said about this, these actions must have consequences...We should look at our full range of options." Adding "All of our minds are focused on Libya. What we've seen is unacceptable. It must stop - and if it doesn't there will be consequences." President Barack Obama said the suffering and bloodshed in Libya "is outrageous and it is unacceptable," and he directed his administration to prepare a full range of options, including possible sanctions that could freeze the assets and ban travel to the US by Libyan officials. Obama has urged the world to unite to hold Libya accountable for a vicious protest crackdown, stiffening a US response that critics had cast as too mild. In his first televised response to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's decision to unleash vengeance on demonstrators, Obama reached out to US allies on Wednesday and promised to deploy a "full range of options" to halt "outrageous" bloodshed. French President Nicolas Sarkozy raised the possibility of the European Union cutting off economic ties. Another proposal gaining some traction was for the United Nations to declare a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent it using warplanes to hit protesters. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said that if reports of such strikes are confirmed, "there's an immediate need for that level of protection." Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said estimates of some 1,000 people killed in the violence in Libya were "credible," although he stressed information about casualties was incomplete. The New York-based Human Rights Watch has put the death toll at nearly 300, according to a partial count. Calls for new rallies In Tripoli, Gadhafi's stronghold, protest organisers called for new rallies Thursday and Friday, raising the potential for a more bloody confrontation. The scope of Muammar Gaddafi's control was undermined as major Libyan cities and towns closer to the capital fell to the rebellion against his rule. Thousands in the coastal town of Tobruk celebrated their freedom from Gaddafi by waving flags of the old monarchy, honking horns and firing guns in the air around a city square where he once executed people. In the east, now all but broken away, the opposition vowed to "liberate" Tripoli, where the Libyan leader is holed up with a force of militiamen roaming the streets and tanks guarding the outskirts. In a further sign of Gaddafi's faltering hold, two air force pilots - one from the leader's own tribe - parachuted out of their warplane and let it crash into the eastern Libyan desert rather than follow orders to bomb an opposition-held city. 90 percent of Libya liberated So far, protesters have claimed control of 90 per cent of Libya, including most of the capital Tripoli and major cities such as Benghazi, Baida, Tobruk, Misurata, Zawiya and Zantan. Having lost control of the country, Gaddafi's militiamen are desperately trying to hang on to Sirte, Gaddafi's hometown. Early yesterday, security forces loyal to Sa'edi, Gaddafi's son, encircled Sirte, blocking the coastal highway and another highway linking Libya's eastern and western regions. "Tanks and manned armoured vehicles have cut the coastal and the inside road linking east with the west. Sirte is the last stronghold of the man since his tribe lives in the city," Fateh Al Talhouni, member of the revolutionary committee in Misurata told Gulf News. Militiamen and Gaddafi supporters - a mix of Libyans and foreign African fighters bused in - roamed the capital's main streets, called up Tuesday night by the Libyan leader in a fist-pounding speech in which he vowed to fight to the death. The gunmen fired weapons in the air, chanting "Long live Gaddafi," and waved green flags. With a steady rain, streets were largely empty, residents said. In many neighborhoods, residents set up watch groups to keep militiamen out, barricading streets with concrete blocks, metal and rocks, and searching those trying to enter, a Tripoli activist said. Gaddafi's residence at Tripoli's Aziziya Gates was guarded by loyalists along with a line of armed militiamen in vehicles, some masked, he said. The radio station building downtown was also heavily fortified. In one western neighborhood, security forces stormed several homes and arrested three or four people, a witness said, while tanks were deployed on the eastern outskirts, witnesses in at least one neighborhood said.