Muammar Gaddafi accuses West of launching new "crusader war"

Muammar Gaddafi is attempting to paint the air strikes by Western military as a new Crusade.

TRIPOLI — Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi warned the Western powers mounting air strikes on his country they had unleashed a war between Christians and Muslims that could spiral out of control.

Western states intervened in Libya after the United Nations authorized them to protect civilians it said were under attack by pro-Gaddafi forces, but Tripoli says the military intervention in an act of unwarranted aggression.

“If they continue, the world will enter into a real crusader war. They have started something dangerous that cannot be controlled and it will become out of their control,” said a text from Gaddafi, read out on state television.

“The leaders who decided to launch a crusader war between Christians and Muslims across the Mediterranean and who . . . killed. . . huge numbers of civilians in Libya, they have been made crazy by power and they want to impose the law of strength on the strength of the law,” it said.