Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saadi was under guard in the Niger capital on
Wednesday after fleeing Libya over the weekend but NATO acknowledged it
has no idea where his fugitive father is holed up.
The alliance stressed that the toppled strongman was not a target in
the daily bombing campaign it has kept up against his remaining forces
as the World Bank formally recognised Libya’s new leaders and pledged to
play a major role in their post-war reconstruction efforts.
Saadi Gaddafi, 38, the third of Gaddafi’s seven sons, is among 32
officials of the ousted regime, three of them top generals, who have
fled through the desert to neighbouring Niger this month.
He was flown into the capital Niamey late on Tuesday after being put
on an air force Hercules C-130 transport plane from the northwestern
town of Agadez, Nigerien officials said.
He had been put up in the governor’s residence in the desert town
with eight close associates of his father after they crossed into Niger
on Sunday.
Washington accepted Niamey’s assurances that Saadi Gaddafi, who
commanded an elite army unit after a brief career as a professional
footballer in Italy, was in the custody of Nigerien security forces.
“Our understanding is, like the others, he’s being detained in a
state guest house,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
“It’s essentially a house arrest in this government facility, is our understanding,” she added.
NATO said it had no idea whether Gaddafi himself had also fled his country.
Colonel Roland Lavoie, spokesman for NATO’s Libya mission, said the
alliance had received, at “various points” in the conflict, intelligence
confirming that Gaddafi was still in Libya, but that his whereabouts
were now a mystery.
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