KOMPAS.com - Embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has enlisted the help of his glamorous only daughter in his fight to retain power in the war-ravaged country.
Aisha Gaddafi, a 34-year-old lawyer who has represented Saddam Hussein and the IRA, was photographed in the capital Tripoli, dressed in a veil and waving her father's green flag from a vehicle, London's Daily Mail reported.
Mobbed by supporters, her modest appearance was a far cry from the eye-catching designer outfits and voluminous blonde hair that earned her the nickname "the Claudia Schiffer of North Africa".
She told the crowd at the Bab Al Azizia compound that her father was a "great man and leader".
Her appearance came as Gaddafi's troops bombarded the oil terminal town of Ras Lanuf, east of Tripoli, and the United States fired missiles over Taiura, the suburb where the Libyan leader maintains a home.
Ms Gaddafi, her father's only daughter, was named as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador in 2009 but was stripped of the honour in February because of her support of Gaddafi's regime. As a lawyer she volunteered on the defence team that worked for Saddam Hussein before his trial and hanging in 2006.
When London's Telegraph asked Ms Gaddafi what she thought of Iraqis who claimed her client murdered thousands of their countrymen, she replied: "It is only normal that some people are against you and some people are with you. You are bound to meet people who may be against your policies".
According to CNN, she also defended the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoe at former US president George W. Bush. Ms Gaddafi married her cousin, army general Ahmed al-Gaddafi al-Qahsi, in 2006. The couple have three children.
The newspaper also wrote that she is resentful towards the West after the death of her adopted sister, Hana, who was killed when Ms Gaddafi was nine, during a US raid on Tripoli.
"I woke to the thunder of bombs and the screams of my sister, with blood splattered all over me," she is reported as saying at the time.
During a rare interview with the Telegraph last October she said people "generally gasp" when they find out who she is.
"... and then they become very friendly, and take the chance to send greeting to my father," she said.
"No one has ever reacted badly".
Ms Gaddafi reportedly tried to leave Libya for Malta in January but was turned back when the aircraft was denied permission to land, according to Al Jazeera and the Telegraph.
She denied the reports and told the Libyan public: "I am steadfastly here".
