LIBYAN rebels, on Wednesday, announced a £1 million ransom as reward for whoever knows the whereabouts of Libya’s embattled leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, insisting he must be found dead or alive.
As the hunt for Gaddafi is being intensified, the rebels, who on Monday captured his palace in Tripoli, invaded private rooms and were alreadylaying hold to Gaddafi’s personal effects.
The opposition council, which announced the reward in Benghazi, hopes that the sum would tempt members of Gaddafi’s inner circle to give him away.
It is being speculated that the rebels would be able to pay the money to whoever releases the information leading to Gaddafi’s arrest when Libyan assets are unfrozen.
Britain, on Monday, was the first country to say it would help Libyan rebels unfreeze Libyan accounts.
Since traces of Gaddafi were not found in his palace in Tripoli, it is believed that he might have escaped through a2,000-mile network of secret vaults under the capital, which lead to key buildings, airports and military bases.
But the United States (US) said Gaddafi is still in Tripoli.
Pentagon spokesman, Colonel Dave Lapan, who, on Wednesday, refuted the claim that Gaddafi had fled the country, said “he is still in Libya.”
One of the underground tunnels is known to surface at the Rixos Hotel, 1.5km away, where 35 international journalists were trapped. Another tunnelleads to the coastline, while a third comes up at Mitiga Airport, seven kilometres away.
Blockades and checkpoints had been set up around the capital, but if Gaddafi was able to leave Tripoli, he could find a safe haven 500km away in the east in his home town of Sirte, from which scud missiles were fired at rebels on Tuesday.
Gaddafi could also head 775km south to Sabha, his ancestral home, where he was reported to have built nuclear bunkers in the 1980s.
The tunnels were built by Western companies. However, it was said that few people had knowledge of the full extent of the network.
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