Friday 2 September 2011

Rebels discover Gaddafi’s hideout •Raise the alarm over his plan to fight back •World leaders discuss Libya after Gaddafi

A Libyan military chief, Abdel Majid Mlegta, on Thursday, said that the deposed dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, has been discovered to be hiding in a desert town, Bani Walid, where he is planning a fight back.
Meanwhile, world leaders, on Thursday, gathered in Paris, France, to discuss the future of Libya after Gaddafi, at “Friends of Libya” meeting hosted by the British Prime Minister, David Cameron and his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy.
Officials at the meeting expected the National Transitional Council (NTC) leader, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, who was also in attendance, to draw an 18-month plan aimed at creating a new constitution and holding elections in Libya.
But while the meeting was going on, Mlegta, who is the coordinator of the Tripoli military operations room, told Reuters that “someone we trust” had said Gaddafi fled to Bani Walid, 150 km southeast of the capital, with his son Saif al-Islam and intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Senussi, three days after Tripoli fell last week.
All three fugitives are already on the wanted list of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity.
The security chief said Gaddafi and his men "wanted to set up an operations room there and conduct aggressive operations against us.
"We have talked to notables from Bani Walid to arrest him and hand him over. They haven't responded. We are assessing our position."
Mlegta told Reuters that Ali al-Ahwal, Gaddafi's coordinator for tribes, was also in Bani Walid, a stronghold of the powerful Warfalla tribe, said to be Libya's biggest, at about a million strong among a population of six million and  which is said to be solidly pro-Gaddafi.
"In four days, we will come with up a solution. We are capable of ending the crisis but military action is out of the question right now.
"We cannot attack this tribe, because many of our brigades in Benghazi and Zintan are from Bani Walid. The sons of Bani Walid hold the key to the solution," Mlegta said.
Reuters reported that “fighters of Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) said this week that they were 30 kilometres from Bani Walid. The council has given pro-Gaddafi forces in the coastal city of Sirte until Saturday to surrender or face force.”
Libya at present is a country already torn apart by 42 years of Gaddafi’s dictatorial rule and six months of civil war.

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