Russia: Gaddafi will burn Tripoli

A Russian official and a Canadian commander revealed on Thursday that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is planning revenge for his fall if the rebels win. According to these sources he intends to burn Tripoli and the oil refineries. Meanwhile, the rebels are preparing to launch an attack on Brega in the East. In other news, the Libya Contact Group is holding its fourth meeting today, Friday 15th, in the city of Istanbul. The Kremlin's envoy in Libya, Mikhail Margelov, said that the Libyan Prime Minister, al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, told him in Tripoli that if the rebels seized the city, they would shower it in rockets and win it back. This was later denied by Mahmoudi. The Russian official said: "I think Gaddafi's regime already has a terrorist plan ready." Russia has hinted at the possibility of a settlement of the situation without Gaddafi, which would involve talking to the "pragmatic sector of power". Similarly, the Canadian commander of the NATO operation in Libya said that the Libyan Colonel has ordered his soldiers to blow up oil refineries and other facilities if they were forced to retreat. The Libya Contact Group is holding its fourth meeting in Istanbul today to discuss a political solution to the conflict in Libya, and the coordination of international assistance for the rebels, with the participation of the General Secretariat of the Cooperation Council for the Arab Gulf States.