An Iraqi businessman whose Damascus-based television station aired audio messages attributed to fugitive Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi, said in remarks published Friday that Gaddafi had become a symbol of resistance against the western NATO alliance, DPA reported.
"We are on the side of resistance anywhere," Mushan al-Jaburi, owner of al-Rai television, told the pan-Aarb newspaper Asharq Al Awsat.
"We cannot support the Iraqi people in their struggle against the US occupation, and stay mum on the NATO troops' occupation of the Libyan people," added al-Jaburi.
In his third audio message broadcast on al-Rai on Thursday, Gaddafi called on his supporters to fight street battles in Tripoli against the "NATO occupation."
Al-Rai was blacklisted by the US four years ago allegedly for supporting terrorism, according to al-Jaburi.
Al-Jaburi said he would launch soon a new TV station to be called "Resistance."
"If Gaddafi becomes a martyr today, we will continue to support the Libyan resistance fighters," he said.
Gaddafi's whereabouts remain unknown, but the rebels' Transitional National Council has offered a 1.7-million-dollar bounty for his capture. The opposition council promised to pardon anyone who killed him.