U.S. Is Driving Libya to Brink of War, Kadafi Says

Col. Moammar Kadafi said Sunday that U.S. military moves in the Mediterranean after Palestinian terrorist attacks in Rome and Vienna have pushed Libya and the United States to the brink of war.

The Libyan strongman called on Washington to take steps to ease tension over the attacks but again warned that his country would send suicide squads into the streets of America if President Reagan ordered a retaliatory strike.

“The U.S.A. mobilized yesterday no less than 40 warships in front of Libya, and we have considered this a state of war and have announced the state of preparedness in the air and naval forces and air defense,” the official Libyan news agency quoted Kadafi as saying.

Pentagon officials denied Sunday that there have been any unusual U.S. ship movements in the Mediterranean.

Fifteen travelers--including five Americans--were killed and more than 100 were wounded in twin Palestinian terrorist attacks at Israeli airline counters at the two airports on Dec. 27.

Authorities investigating the attacks believe that they were carried out by a breakaway Palestinian terrorist faction led by Abu Nidal. The United States and Israel have accused Libya of supporting the attackers, and U.S. officials have reportedly considered military action against the Kadafi regime.

In Syria, state-run Damascus radio said that President Hafez Assad discussed with Kadafi late Saturday the “necessity of confronting the possible offensive” by the United States against Libya. Syria on Friday promised to support Libya with all its military might in the event of a U.S. assault.

Kadafi, speaking to reporters on a state-owned farm 35 miles west of Tripoli, defended the airport attacks but denied that Libya gave support to the Palestinian terrorist faction believed responsible.

After tilling a field atop a Massey-Ferguson tractor, Kadafi said he met in Libya with Abu Nidal within the last year, but he denied that the terrorist lived in Libya or that Libya provided training bases for Abu Nidal’s group.

The Libyan leader, his head wrapped in a linen cloth, was protected by about a dozen guards with machine guns as he spoke.

“If America can hit any place--these aircraft carriers and strategic bombers--then we can reach any place, not through aircraft carriers or bombers but through suicide groups,” he said. “We would act inside American streets, but I think it is a dangerous turn--madness.”

Kadafi said the attacks were “not directed against America but essentially against the Israelis.”

On Friday, the U.S. aircraft carrier Coral Sea left Naples, Italy, on a course that will take it near the Libyan coast, Navy planes arrived at a base in Sicily and U.S warplanes in Britain were reportedly put on alert.

“We thought this was a state of war,” Kadafi said. “Therefore, we put the air force, air defenses and navy on full alert. . . . America is playing a dangerous game.

“We will fight,” the official news agency quoted him as saying. “We will destroy the enemy with all the means we have available. And if they destroy us, it is better than living under terror. Our response will be violent and total.”

But he also said, “I think it’s best to understand each other and disengage.”