The EU freed up yesterday (1 September) billions of dollars to help Libya's new rulers rebuild a nation torn by 42 years of one-man rule and six months of civil war, as Muammar Gaddafi urged his supporters to continue fighting.
"Let it be a long battle. We will fight from place to place, from town to town, from valley to valley, from mountain to mountain," Gaddafi said in a message relayed by satellite TV on the anniversary of the coup that brought him to power in 1969.
"If Libya goes up in flames, who will be able to govern it? Let it burn," he said, speaking from hiding.
In further comments broadcast later, he vowed to prevent oil exports, in the kind of threat that stirs fears of an Iraq-style insurgency: "You will not be able to pump oil for the sake of your own people. We will not allow this to happen," Gaddafi said. "Be ready for a war of gangs and urban warfare."
