Gaddafi Says He's Not Leaving

The Russian head of world chess says Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi told him in a telephone call that he was in Tripoli and did not intend to leave the country despite an onslaught by rebels.

"I am alive and healthy, I am in Tripoli and do not intend to leave Libya. Do not believe the lying reports by Western television companies," Kirsan Ilyumzhinov quoted Gaddafi as saying in the conversation on Tuesday.

"I want to express thanks to everyone in the world who feels for the people of Libya. I am sure that we will be victorious," Gaddafi said, according to Ilyumzhinov, who spoke to the Interfax news agency.

Ilyumzhinov enjoys a strong personal relationship with the Gaddafi family and is one of the few outsiders known to have met the Libyan leader since the conflict began.

He was shown on Libyan television playing chess with Gaddafi in June and met his son Mohammed in Tripoli again in July. But Ilyumzhinov has in the past also provoked ridicule in Russia for claiming to have met aliens.

Ilyumzhinov said he also spoke to Mohammed Gaddafi, who was earlier reported to have escaped after having been arrested by rebels in Tripoli. Mohammed Gaddafi told Ilyumzhinov by phone that he was now next to his father. Read More