A call for Islamic state in Libya

AP

A top Libyan al Qaeda commander has urged his countrymen to overthrow Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s regime and establish Islamic rule, expanding the terror network’s attempts to capitalize on the wave of unrest sweeping the region.
Abu Yahia al-Libi, al Qaeda’s Afghanistan commander, said in a video posted on a militant website that after the fall of the regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, it is now Col. Gadhafi’s turn, as rebel fighters there press a nearly monthlong campaign to oust him.

Those nation’s autocratic governments — enemies of Islamic militants — practiced “the worst kind of oppression” with the backing of the West and failed to heed the lessons of history, he said.

“Now it is the turn of Gadhafi after he made the people of Libya suffer for more than 40 years,” he said, adding that it would bring shame to the Libyan people if the strongman were allowed to die a peaceful death.