TRIPOLI - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi Monday called upon his supporters to gear up for a campaign to liberate rebel-held towns.

Gaddafi made the call amid rumors that he was about to leave the country for exile and allegations that rebels fighting to topple him had captured a strategic town west of the capital.

The North African country has been embroiled for months in the deadliest of a spate of turbulence sweeping West Asia and North Africa. Some Western and Arab powers militarily intervened in March under the name of a UN resolution adopted to protect Libyan civilians, and NATO took over control of the mission weeks later.