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Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi says the Mediterranean has been turned into a battlefield after Western air strikes yesterday and says he has opened arms depots for his people to defend the country.

Gaddafi, in a brief audio message broadcast on state television, condemned the allied Western attacks on Libya as ‘‘barbaric, unjustified Crusaders’ aggression.’

He vowed to retaliate with military and civilian targets in the Mediterranean, warning that the interests of Mediterranean and North African countries were now ‘‘in danger.’’

‘‘The Mediterranean region has become a real battlefield,’’ he said. ‘‘Arms depots have been opened and all the Libyan people are being armed’’ to defend the country against Western forces.

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