Mian Shakeel Aslam -- Two sons of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi appeared to offer divergent and sometimes contradictory answers Wednesday to a question many of their countrymen are grappling with: Keep fighting or surrender?
"Victory or martyrdom!" a defiant Saif al-Islam Gadhafi told Rai TV, a Syrian television station, in a telephone call during which he called on his countrymen to rise up.
"Everyone should move now, begin to attack these gangsters," he said. "Attack everyone, day and night, until we clean this country from those gangsters and those traitors."
He added, "Wherever you see the enemy, attack them. They are weak, they have suffered lots of losses and they are now licking their wounds."
Gadhafi did not divulge the whereabouts of his father, but said, "The leader is fine. We are fighting and we are drinking tea and drinking coffee and sitting with our families and fighting."
Gadhafi said he was speaking from a suburb of Tripoli, where he had met with residents and found their morale was high. He also said he had recently visited the family's compound Bab al-Aziziya in Tripoli, an improbable statement.
"No one is afraid or frightened," he said.
Rebel forces were largely composed not of Libyans but of foreign mercenaries, he said. Any Libyans who may have appeared with rebel forces were acting under duress and threat, he said. "They hold them hostage and they tell them either we rape your women or you will have to make this announcement."
Referring to the rebels' ultimatum to the people of Sirte to surrender by Saturday or face attack, Gadhafi predicted rebel attackers would find 20,000 fighters "ready, willing and able" to defend the loyalist stronghold where his father was born.
Saif al-Islam said he had spoken with tribal leaders who were meeting in Bani Walid "and they all agreed unanimously that this is our country and we will defend it."
In response, NTC member Abdulrazag Elaradi told CNN that he is not aware of any meeting by tribal leaders in Bani Walid to support Gadhafi. He said the rebels were not involved in any negotiations with loyalist forces.
Saif al-Islam's brother, Saadi Gadhafi, appeared to be open to the possibility of surrender, but with a catch. "If this will prevent bloodshed, we will do it, just give us guarantees," said a man identified by Al Arabiya as Saadi Gadhafi.
"We need to stop the bloodshed right away," Saadi Gadhafi said, adding that he was speaking on behalf of his father.
He said he could not say whether he was in close touch with Moammar Gadhafi, but added, "If the rebels want to lead this country; we don't have an objection to that. In the end we are all Libyans and we are all together."
Asked if his father was willing to surrender, Saadi said, "Stop the fire and all ways of negotiations are open."
Asked if he was willing to hand Sirte to rebel forces without a fight, he said, "Nothing is impossible."
Whatever happens, he added, "I don't have a weapon and will never fight a Muslim Libyan."
Despite that talk, Saadi Gadhafi told CNN Wednesday in an e-mail that he was leaning against surrendering to the rebels. "Since they don't want to negotiate, I don't think I will go to them and surrender myself," he wrote. "They have already killed thousands of people and destroyed the country. I'd rather surrender myself to a real government than ... to those guys."
Moammar Gadhafi and Saif al-Islam along with the former head of military intelligence, Abdullah Al-Senussi, have been charged by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for crimes against humanity.
The scions' comments came as Libyans celebrated their first Eid al-Fitr in four decades free of the iron grip of their father.
Eid marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
But the enthusiasm in the capital was tempered by grim humanitarian conditions.
The United Nations estimated that 60% of Tripoli's 1.6 million residents had no access to clean drinking water as temperatures approached 100 degrees Fahrenheit. U.N. agencies have sprung into action to supply water and food in what the global body described as an "alarming" situation.
Posted By: Mian Shakeel Aslam
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