Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has likely been wounded in western airstrikes and has probably left Tripoli, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Friday.| Nice job, CIA! You got the Italian minister on board! |
| "Lies! All lies!" |
"I tend to give credence to the comment of the bishop of Tripoli, Monsignor Martinelli, who has been in close contact over recent weeks, when he told us that Gaddafi is very probably outside Tripoli and is probably also wounded. We don't know where or how," Frattini said.
"It's nonsense," Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said in Tripoli. "The leader is in high morale. He's in good spirits. He is leading the country day by day. He hasn't been harmed at all."
| "He's strutting about in a new uniform! It has even more bling and sprockets than the last one! Really, the entire Tour de France has fewer sprockets than our beloved leader!" |
In a separate interview published on the website of the Corriere della Sera, Frattini also said that he did not believe that Libyan TV footage of Gaddafi greeting tribal leaders on Wednesday was authentic.
"I strongly doubted that those images were taken on that day and above all in Tripoli," Frattini said. He added: "The international pressure has likely led Gaddafi to decide to seek shelter in a safe location. I tend to think that he fled Tripoli, not Libya."
Contacted from Rome, Martinelli's office said the bishop had left Tripoli for Tunis.
| Smart and necessary move... |