World crimes court judges have issued arrest warrants for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and two of his closest allies for crimes against humanity.
"The chamber hereby issue a warrant of arrest against Muammar Gaddafi," Judge Sanji Mnasenono Monageng said during a hearing at the Hague-based International Criminal Court.
The court's decision came on the 100th day of NATO operations in Libya, with airstrikes having eased the siege of key rebel cities.
The ICC's prosecution issued warrants for the arrests of Muammar Gaddafi, 69, his son Seif al-Islam, 39, and the head of Libyan intelligence, Abdullah al-Senussi, 62, for murder and persecution since mid-February, when the bloody uprising started.
Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo's investigation follows a referral by the United Nations Security Council on the Libyan conflict on 26 February. The prosecutor's office launched its investigation five days later.
On Sunday, Moreno-Ocampo said the war crimes in Libya will not stop until Gaddafi is arrested.
"Crimes continue today in Libya. To stop the crimes and protect civilians in Libya, Gaddafi must be arrested," he said in a statement.
It will be the second time the ICC's top accuser has a country's head of state in his sights, after an arrest warrant for Sudan's Omar al-Bashir was first issued in March 2009. The warrant is yet to be executed.
In his submission, Moreno-Ocampo said Gaddafi had a personal hand in planning and implementing "a policy of widespread and systematic attacks against civilians and demonstrators and dissidents in particular."
"Gaddafi's plan expressly included the use of lethal force against demonstrators and dissidents," the submission said.
The Libyan strongman also ordered sniping at civilians leaving mosques after evening prayers. His forces carried out a systematic campaign of arrest and detention of alleged dissidents, it said.
"Gaddafi's plans were carried out through his inner circle, which included Seif al-Islam, Gaddafi's de-facto prime minister and his brother-in-law Al-Senussi, considered to be his right-hand man," the submission said.
Established in 2002, the ICC is the world's first permanent, treaty-based court set up to try those accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide if the accused's own country cannot or will not do so.
