The Libyan people will take up arms against Western powers if they seek to enforce a no-fly zone in their country's airspace, Muammar Gadhafi said in an interview with Turkish state-run television on Wednesday.
"If they take such a decision it will be useful for Libya, because the Libyan people will see the truth, that what they want is to take control of Libya and to steal their oil," Gadhafi said in the interview by broadcast by TRT news channel on Wednesday.
"Then the Libyan people will take up arms against them," Gadhafi said. The interview was conducted in Arabic and aired with Turkish subtitles.
Meanwhile in Libya on Wednesday, the tanks of pro-Gadhafi forces were closing in on the rebel-held main square of Zawiyah and their snipers were shooting at anything that moved, rebels and residents said.
Bodies were lying unrecovered in the ruins of many buildings destroyed in air raids earlier in the week. There was no one in the streets of the center of the city of 290,000 and it was not possible to verify the reports independently.
"We can see the tanks. The tanks are everywhere," the rebel fighter told Reuters by phone from inside Zawiyah, which lies 50 km west of the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
The fighter, named Ibrahim, said forces loyal to Gadhafi were in control of the main road and the suburbs of Zawiyah, which in the past three days has become a focal point of a civil war on two fronts to end Gadhafi's 41-year-old rule.
Zawiyah was, briefly, described as a rebel stronghold in the uprising which erupted against Gadhafi last month. But it may now be on the verge of changing hands.
"The situation is not so good," said a resident reporting by telephone. Civilians are pinned down in their houses, unable to flee from the mounting violence.
"No one can move outside their homes because they there are snipers everywhere," he added.
Gadhafi's threat that Libyan's would fight against a Western no-fly zone came as discussions over the issue become increasingly serious.
The United States has made it clear that Washington believes any decision to impose a no-fly zone is a matter for the United Nations and should not be a U.S.-led initiative.
In a phone call on Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron spoke about the situation in Libya and agreed to "press forward with planning on the full spectrum of possible responses, including surveillance, humanitarian assistance, enforcement of the arms embargo, and a no-fly zone," the White House said.
Britain and France are seeking a UN resolution to authorize such a zone to ground Gadhafi's aircraft and prevent him from moving troops by air. Russia and China, which have veto power in the UN Security Council, are cool towards the idea, which would be likely to require the bombing of Libyan air defenses.
Hafiz Ghoga, spokesman for the rebel National Libyan Council, told a news conference in the rebel base of Benghazi in eastern Libya: "We will complete our victory when we are afforded a no-fly zone. If there was also action to stop him (Gadhafi) from recruiting mercenaries, his end would come within hours."