Cleric calls on Libyan soldiers to shoot president

Big News Network.com
Tuesday 22nd February, 2011

A top cleric has called on Libyan soldiers to open fire on Libya's unpopular Leader Muammar Gaddafi if they see him.

Gaddafi's government has been opening fire on demonstrators with fighter jets with forces loyal to Gaddafi using live rounds.

There have also been reports of the arrival of planeloads of armed foreign mercenaries in the capital, Tripoli.

The Egyptian cleric, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, has said the soldiers should shoot the president if it means freeing the nation of oppression.

Al-Qaradawi, who is widely regarded as the spiritual leader of the Egyptian opposition Muslim Brotherhood, has decreed a fatwa against Gadaffi, who has ruled Libya for over 40 years.

He told al-Jazeera that such killing would "rid Libya of him."

Al-Qaradawi, who also heads the International Union for Muslim Scholars, has only been back in Egypt for the past week after three decades in exile.