Cairo: Libya's embattled leader Muammar Gaddafi on Thursday squarely blamed Al-Qaeda for the unprecedented revolt against his 41-year rule and remained desperate to stick to power as anti-regime protesters began to encircle capital Tripoli.
Making his public appearance for the third time in a week in a bid to mobilise support, an increasingly isolated Gaddafi went on state television and said the uprising against his regime was not a people's revolt in the style of Egypt and Tunisia, but inspired by Osama bin Laden's outfit.
Amid continued fighting, swathes of the east of Libya have fallen to opposition control and others descended into chaos and lawlessness with many army officers defecting to join the uprising. Over 300 people have been killed in the 10-day unrest.
The town of Zuara, 120 km west of the capital Tripoli, has reportedly become the latest to fall to the opponents of 68-year-old Gaddafi. There were no police or soldiers left in Zuara, BBC quoted witnesses crossing out of Libya as saying.
In the eastern city of Benghazi, residents had been queuing to be issued guns looted from the army and police in order to join what they called the battle for Tripoli, it said.
However, the regime continued to unleash a crackdown in the capital city where, according to witnesses, 'militias' roamed around the streets to target protesters.
They said Tripoli was heavily guarded by pro-Gaddafi forces, with tanks deployed in the suburbs.
In marked contrast to a 75-minute address from a podium outside his Tripoli home on Tuesday, this time Gaddafi spoke by telephone from an undisclosed location in an intervention that lasted barely 20 minutes. He once spoke briefly at the start of the unrest amid reports he had fled Libya.
The longest serving Arab leader's decision to speak by telephone rather than make an on-screen appearance has raised questions about his whereabouts.
Gaddafi accused residents of Az-Zawiyah, a town 50 kms west of the capital hit by fierce fighting between his forces and rebels, of siding with the Al-Qaeda leader.
"You in Zawiyah turn to Bin Laden," he said. "They give you drugs."
"It is obvious now that this issue is run by Al-Qaeda," he said, addressing the towns elders. "Those armed youngsters, our children, are incited by people who are wanted by America and the Western world. Az-Zawiyah is the site of the country's largest oil refinery.
"Those inciting are very few in numbers and we have to capture them. Others have to stay at home. They have guns, they feel trigger happy and they shoot especially when they are stoned with drugs."
The "situation is different from Egypt or Tunisia ... Here the authority is in your hands, the people's hands. You can change authority any way your wish. It's your call. You are the elderly, the head of the tribes, the professors."
Sending a stern warning to the Libyan leader, US President Barack Obama indicated that strong unilateral and multilateral measures in the form of sanctions were being deliberated.
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