By DPA,
Tripoli/Istanbul : Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has dismissed rebels as “traitors” and criticised Western countries.
In a speech to supporters broadcast by state television early Wednesday, he said that the US, France and Britain were conspiring against Libya to get control of its oil fields.
He called on young men in Az-Zintan, a city in the northwest of the country that government forces and opponents are fighting to control, to abandon the rebels.
Gaddafi presented members of a clan based in the city who pledged their loyalty to him.
Opposition groups, many of them armed, have taken control of several cities particularly in the east of the country in the rebellion against Gaddafi’s 41-year rule. Forces loyal to Gaddafi have launched aggressive attacks to retake control of the territory.