Misrata rebel leader pleads for help to topple Gaddafi

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Source: The Guardian

The leader of the rebellion in Misrata has made an urgent plea to the international community for weapons that would allow his fighters not just to defend the besieged city, but to topple the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi.

Khalifa al-Zwawi, an appeal court judge who heads Misrata's transitional council, said that after weeks of fierce fighting, rebel forces would eject the last of Gaddafi's troops from the city "very soon".

"Once we have done that our target is to eliminate the Gaddafi regime," he told the Guardian in an interview. "We want to go to Tripoli and set it free, and Libya free. We want to move from defence to attack."

Until now, the rebels in Misrata have relied solely on small arms and weapons captured from loyalist troops, or sent by sea from Benghazi, the rebel capital in the east. But Zwawi said help was required if his forces were to go on the offensive.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/29/misrata-rebel-leader-pleads-help