The International Criminal Court in The Hague today issued an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

The court also issued a warrant for Gadhafi's son and intelligence chief.

The charges cover alleged crimes since the latest popular uprising, the Associated Press reports.

Among the charges against Gadhafi: orchestrating the killing, injuring, arrest and imprisonment of hundreds of civilians during the first 12 days of the uprising and for trying to cover up the alleged crimes.

The warrants could complicate attempts to pressure Gadhafi to give up power and leave the country, the AP says.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who investigated the case against Gadhafi and called for the arrest warrants, said in May that Gadhafi's forces were imprisoning and torturing dissidents before making them "disappear."

"These are not just crimes against Libyans, they are crimes against humanity as a whole," he said.

Al-Jazeera TV notes that the action by the ICC is only the second time in its nine-year history that it has issued an arrest warrant for a sitting head of state. The first, for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in 2009, has yet to be enforced.