Irish mercenaries join David Cameron’s anti-riot army, Gaddafi claims

A report on Libyan state television, controlled by bonkers but still there Col Gadaffi, has claimed that Irish mercenaries are among those deployed to quell rioting in England.

Libyan TV ran with the story that British government-controlled forces have been joined by a Irish soldiers for hire in order to quell the rioting that has blighted London and a number of other English cities for the last week.

"The rebels of Britain approach Liverpool in hit-and-run battles with Cameron's brigades and mercenaries from Ireland and Scotland. God is Greatest," said a breaking news caption on Libyan TV's morning programme.

The programme provides a bit of breakfast-time propaganda for the under-pressure and under fire Libyan leader who faces continued pressure from Nato-backed opposition forces who have been battling Gaddafi since the Libyan element of the 'Arab Spring' uprisings in February.

The taunt was part of a report that aimed to score points against a country that is part of the Nato task force seeking Gaddafi to stand down and to draw support from the Libyan people for the regime that has held power there for 41 years.

"These [riots in English cities] are not protests fomented by foreign intelligence services," said the show's host, contrasting the turmoil in Britain with what Gaddafi's supporters in Tripoli claim is a foreign-hatched plot to unseat Libya's lawful government .

On Friday, the Libyan government used the unrest in England as an opportunity to turn Western rhetoric back on the British Prime Minister, saying that David Cameron "has lost his legitimacy and must go" - a formulation that London, Washington and Paris have used to demand that Gaddafi gives up power.

At least 1,500 people have been arrested around England and more than 500 charged since a protest in the north London suburb of Tottenham last Saturday evening sparked widespread looting and rioting that lasted several nights and resulted in five deaths.