Libyan rebel chief: third Gadhafi son captured

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Libyan rebel chief: third Gadhafi son captured

AP – 3 hrs ago.

BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — Libya's opposition leader says rebels captured another of

Moammar Gadhafi's sons — raising to three the number of the Libyan leader's

children in custody.

Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, head of the National Transitional Council, told the

Associated Press on Monday that rebels detained al-Saadi Gadhafi on Sunday night

along with his brother Seif al-Islam.

Gadhafi's sons and a daughter have all played roles in their father's regime,

some in diplomatic or business roles. Al-Saadi and his brothers Mutassim and

Khamis all headed military brigades.

The International Criminal Court has confirmed the capture of Seif al-Islam, who

along with his father faces charges of crimes against humanity. Another son,

Mohammed, was under house arrest.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's

earlier story is below.

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Libyan rebels claimed to be in control of most of the

Libyan capital on Monday after their lightning advance on Tripoli heralded the

fall of Moammar Gadhafi's nearly 42-year regime. Scattered battles erupted, and

the mercurial leader's whereabouts remained unknown.

The international community called on Gadhafi to step down and moved ahead with

post-war planning as euphoric residents celebrated in the Green Square, the

symbolic heart of the Gadhafi regime. Colleagues warned he wouldn't go easily.

Two of his sons were captured late Sunday.

" The real moment of victory is when Gadhafi is captured, " the head of the

opposition's National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, said at a news

conference in the eastern city of Benghazi.

NATO promised to maintain its air campaign until all pro-Gadhafi forces

surrender or return to barracks. NATO warplanes have hit at least 40 targets in

and around Tripoli in the past two days — the highest number on a single

geographic location since the bombing started more than five months ago, the

alliance said.

" We came out today to feel a bit of freedom, " Ashraf Halaby, a 30-year-old

Tripoli resident, said as he and four of his friends watched several hundred

people celebrating at Green Square. " We still don't believe that this is

happening. "

Revelers flashed the " V'' for victory sign and motorists circled the square's

central median honking their horns and waving rebel flags.

The rest of the city, a metropolis of some 2 million people on the Mediterranean

coast, was on edge, with most stores shuttered and large areas appeared

lifeless, without even a sign of the thousands of rebels now in the city.

Signs of tension emerged between rebels and residents at a gas station in the

neighborhood of Gourji, with heated arguments over who should fill up first

after rebels cut in line. Rebel leaders urged people to protect public property,

and no looting was reported.

The rapid rebel advance into Tripoli in an hours-long blitz showcased the

evolution of the opposition fighters who first rose against the regime six

months ago, swiftly capturing the eastern part of the vast, oil-rich North

African nation but failing to advance westward toward Tripoli even with the help

of months of NATO airstrikes.

For months, the rebels — mainly civilian volunteers who took up arms and had

little military training — were judged to be big on zeal but short on

organization and discipline, but their stunning success in Tripoli showed a high

level of planning, coordination and discipline.

The U.S. and other nations have recognized the National Transitional Council as

Libya's legitimate government, but the rebel movement consists of Islamists as

well as former government insiders and Western-leaning intellectuals, raising

concern about whether the factions can unite in a post-Gadhafi Libya.

Abdel-Jalil sought to allay those worries at a news conference in the rebel

capital of Benghazi, saying the opposition wanted a nation built on the

principles of " freedom, equality and transparency. "

In London, British Prime Minister Cameron said frozen Libyan assets would

soon be released to help the country's rebels establish order, saying Gadhafi's

regime was " falling apart and in full retreat. "

Rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdel-Rahman, who was in Tripoli, warned of pockets of

resistance and said as long as Gadhafi remains on the run the " danger is still

there. "

Clashes broke out early Monday at Gadhafi's longtime command center known as Bab

al-Aziziya early Monday when government tanks emerged from the complex and

opened fire at rebels trying to get in, according to Abdel-Rahman and a

neighbor. An AP reporter at the nearby Rixos Hotel where foreign journalists

stay heard gunfire and loud explosions from the direction of the complex.

Moammar al-Warfali, whose family home is next to the Gadhafi compound, said

there appeared to be only a few tanks belonging to the remaining Gadhafi forces

that have not fled or surrendered.

" When I climb the stairs and look at it from the roof, I see nothing at Bab

al-Aziziya, " he said. " NATO has demolished it all and nothing remains. "

The Rixos hotel where foreign journalists are staying also remained under the

control of Gadhafi forces, with two trucks loaded with anti-aircraft machine

guns and pro-regime fighters and snipers posted behind trees. Rebels and Tripoli

residents set up checkpoints elsewhere in the city.

Britain's Defense Secretary Liam Fox said resistance was coming mainly from

foreign mercenaries, rather than Libyans still loyal to Gadhafi. " There is a

certain amount of violence still occurring, we also know that a lot of the

resistance from the pro-Gadhafi forces has in fact come from mercenary

elements, " he told BBC radio.

" It does appear that a lot of the Libyan forces themselves inside Tripoli either

stayed at home or put down their arms — and that may bode well for a diminishing

level of violence during the transitional period, " he said.

The rebels' top diplomat in London, Mahmud Nacua, said opposition forces

controlled 95 percent of Tripoli. He vowed " the fighters will turn over every

stone to find " Gadhafi and make sure he faced justice.

A rebel field commander said reinforcements were arriving in Tripoli by sea from

the north, south and southeast.

" Our fighters are coming from all directions and, God willing, today we will

liberate the whole city, " the commander, Suleiman Sifaw, told The Associated

Press.

State TV broadcast bitter audio pleas by Gadhafi for Libyans to defend his

regime as the rebels advanced on Sunday, although the station was off the air by

Monday afternoon amid reports that the rebels had seized its main offices.

Opposition fighters captured Gadhafi's son and one-time heir apparent, Seif

al-Islam, who along with his father faces charges of crimes against humanity at

the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands. Another son, Mohammed, was

under house arrest.

Abdel-Jalil, the rebel chief, vowed Monday to give Gadhafi a " fair trial with

all legal guarantees " when captured.

But Gadhafi's defiant audio messages raised the possibility of a last-ditch

fight over the capital, home to 2 million people. Gadhafi, who was not shown,

called on supporters to march in the streets of the capital and " purify it " of

" the rats. "

Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim also claimed the regime has " thousands and

thousands of fighters " and vowed: " We will fight. We have whole cities on our

sides. They are coming en masse to protect Tripoli to join the fight. "

Gadhafi's former right-hand man, who defected last week to Italy, said the

longtime leader would not go easily.

" I think it's impossible that he'll surrender, " Abdel-Salam Jalloud said in an

interview broadcast on Italian RAI state radio, adding that " He doesn't have the

courage, like Hitler, to kill himself. "

Jalloud, who was Gadhafi's closest aide for decades before falling out with the

leader in the 1990s, fled Tripoli on Friday, according to rebels.

The startling rebel breakthrough, after a long deadlock in Libya's 6-month-old

civil war, was the culmination of a closely coordinated plan by rebels, NATO and

anti-Gadhafi residents inside Tripoli, rebel leaders said. Rebel fighters from

the west swept over 20 miles (30 kilometers) in a matter of hours Sunday, taking

town after town and overwhelming a major military base as residents poured out

to cheer them. At the same time, Tripoli residents secretly armed by rebels rose

up.

When rebels reached the gates of Tripoli, the special battalion entrusted by

Gadhafi with guarding the capital promptly surrendered. The reason: Its

commander, whose brother had been executed by Gadhafi years ago, was secretly

loyal to the rebellion, a senior rebel official, Fathi al-Baja, told The

Associated Press.

On Monday, rebels erected checkpoints on the western approaches to the city,

handing out candy to passengers and inquiring about their destination. Cars

leaving the city were subjected to more rigorous checks.

President Barack Obama said Libya is " slipping from the grasp of a tyrant " and

urged Gadhafi to relinquish power to prevent more bloodshed.

" The future of Libya is now in the hands of the Libyan people, " Obama said in a

statement from Martha's Vineyard, where he's vacationing. He promised to work

closely with rebels.

South Africa, which led failed African Union efforts to mediate between the

rebels and Gadhafi, refused to offer support to the rebels on Monday, saying it

wants to see a unity government put in place as a transitional authority.

The uprising against Gadhafi broke out in mid-February, inspired by successful

revolts in Egypt and Tunisia, Libya's neighbors to the east and west

respectively. A brutal regime crackdown quickly transformed the protests into an

armed rebellion. Rebels seized Libya's east, setting up an internationally

recognized transitional government there, and two pockets in the west, the port

city of Misrata and the Nafusa mountain range.

Gadhafi clung to the remaining territory, and for months neither side had been

able to break the other.

In early August, however, rebels launched an offensive from the Nafusa

Mountains, then fought their way down to the Mediterranean coastal plain, backed

by NATO airstrikes, and captured the strategic city of Zawiya.

Gadhafi is the Arab world's longest-ruling, most erratic, most grimly

fascinating leader — presiding over this North African desert nation with vast

oil reserves and just 6 million people.

For years, he was an international pariah blamed for the 1988 bombing of a Pan

Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people. After years of

denial, Gadhafi's Libya acknowledged responsibility, agreed to pay up to $10

million to relatives of each victim, and the Libyan rule declared he would

dismantle his weapons of mass destruction program. That eased him back into the

international community.

___

Associated Press writers Stringer in London and Slobodan Lekic in Brussels

contributed to this report.