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'Iraq attacks are self-defence'
02/12/2003 14:10 - (SA)
Rome - The insurgents who are hitting US-led coalition forces in Iraq are not terrorists and the bombing of an Italian base last month was a justified act of self-defence, one of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's sons told an Italian newspaper in an interview published on Tuesday.
"The Iraqis are fighting, they are not terrorists," said Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, a son of the Libyan leader who heads the Gaddafi Foundation, in the interview with the daily Corriere della Sera.
"It is clear that they are terrorising the Americans, but that is because the Americans and you Europeans are occupying the country."
"They have the right to defend themselves, they are engaged in resistance," he said.
"In the current stage, their sole possibility is to sow terror," he added.
Asked if he also justified attacks like the bomb blast which killed 28 people, of whom 19 were Italians, in the Iraqi town of Nasiriyah on November 12, the junior Gaddafi said: "Yes, you have the right to defend your country."
The paper said Libya's ambassador to Italy, who was interviewed along with the junior Gaddafi, sought to qualify the latter's statement on the Nasiriyah bombing.
"Maybe Mr Gaddafi did not make himself clear," said envoy Ibrahim Alobidi, according to the paper. "What he meant to say was that in a war actions of that kind unfortunately happen."
Gaddafi also told the paper that in Iraq, "it is now too late ... the situation is totally out of control."
"It is no long possible to do anything at all" to save the situation, he said, adding many Arabs who had become violent, aggressive and fanatic after fighting in Iraq will be returning to other Arab countries and causing violence there.
- AFP
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