Libya will descend into conflict in weeks, predicts captured Saif as 'hero' tribesman claims he forsook a million euros to betray Colonel Gaddafi's son

* Former playboy, 39, speaks out as country unveils new government
* Military commander whose troops captured Saif is rewarded with role as nation's new defence minister
* Libya can try ousted leader's son at home, but International Criminal Court insists its judges must be involved


Colonel Gaddafi’s captured son Saif predicted Libya would slide back into conflict within weeks.

The 39-year-old former playboy spoke out as the country unveiled its new government last night.

The key job of defence minister went to an obscure army commander from Zintan – the remote mountain town where Saif was captured on Saturday.

Leaders in the area had refused to hand over their trophy prisoner for trial unless they received a top post in the new cabinet.

None of the cabinet positions announced last night went to prominent Islamists, which will come as a relief to David Cameron and his Western allies who helped oust Colonel Gaddafi.

But the defence appointment of Osama Jueili from Zintan, a town with 16,000 inhabitants, was a major surprise.

His appointment means Islamist Abdul Hakim Belhaj, the former Guantanamo Bay inmate who plans to sue MI6 over torture claims, has been cut out of the secularist government.

Mr Jueili denied he won the job as a reward for catching Saif. He said: ‘It is an insult to suggest a deal was done.’

Saif remains at a secret location in custody in a private house in the town. In a ranting video message, he said that ‘in a couple of months or maximum one year’ regions that banded together to oust his family would turn on one another.

He is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, but the ICC conceded he would be tried in Libya. It means he will almost certainly face the death penalty if convicted.

Secret location: Saif Gaddafi, seated, shown in a released video with his Libyan captors. The son of former leader Muammar Gaddafi has been reportedly arguing with fighters loyal to the National Transitional Council.Injuries: The footage shows the bandages still on the thumb and two fingers of Saif's right hand - injuries that Saif claims were sustained during an allied attack.In pain: The footage shows Saif grimacing while sitting in his chair. It is unclear whether he is reactive from his injuries or his general predicament

In Tripoli, Nato chief hails ‘free Libya’

Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen listens to journalists questions during a Nato conference in Budapest on November 19, 2009


Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen yesterday hailed the end of the alliance’s military intervention in Libya, which helped bring about the death of deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi.

“It’s great to be in Libya, free Libya,” Rasmussen told a news conference in the capital Tripoli. “We acted to protect you. Together we succeeded. Libya is finally free, from Benghazi to Brega, from Misrata to the Western Mountains and to Tripoli.”

He said he was proud of the part Nato had played in the seven-month insurgency against Gaddafi, in which Nato planes and ships turned their firepower on his forces.

Shortly after Rasmussen spoke, members of the ruling National Transitional Council elected a new interim prime minister, whose predecessor resigned after Libya was officially declared liberated.




“At midnight tonight a successful chapter in Nato history will come to an end. You have already started writing a new chapter in Libya’s history. Our commanders were very careful to make sure we did not harm you or your families,” he said.

Despite Rasmussen’s depiction of the mission, the Nato intervention caused sharp rifts in the alliance and lasted much longer than Western nations had expected or wanted.

Nato stuck to its decision to end the operation despite NTC calls for it to stay engaged longer and says it does not expect to play a major post-war role, though it could assist the transition to democracy by helping with security sector reform.

Nato took over the mission on March 31, based on a United Nations mandate that set a no-fly zone over Libya and permitted foreign military forces, including Nato, to use “all necessary measures” to protect Libyan civilians.

That mandate was terminated last Thursday, despite a request for the UN Security Council to wait for the NTC to decide if it wanted Nato help to secure its borders.

The mission was criticised by some countries, notably Russia and China, which, after co-sponsoring the UN resolution authorising intervention in Libya, accused Nato of overstepping its mandate to protect civilians.

“TRUE ALLIANCE EFFORT”

Nato allies have been keen to see a quick conclusion to a costly effort that has involved more than 26,000 air sorties and round-the-clock naval patrols at a time when budgets are under severe strain because of the global economic crisis.

But Nato officials said members of the alliance are free to give further security aid to Libya individually.

The NTC officially announced Libya’s liberation on October 23, days after the capture and killing of Gaddafi. Nato commanders have said they believe the interim administration is able to take care of the country’s security.

In a sign that the NTC is pressing ahead with rebuilding the administration, Tripoli academic Abdul al-Raheem al-Qeeb was elected interim prime minister on Monday in a vote conducted by NTC members in front of reporters.

The previous interim prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, fulfilled a promise to resign after Libya was declared officially “liberated” after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s home town Sirte and his subsequent killing.

The NTC has promised to hold elections after eight months for a national assembly that will spend a year drawing up a new constitution before a parliamentary poll.

Libya has been the first Nato operation in which the United States sought to step back from a leading role and prompted some sharp criticism from Washington of the capabilities of allies after they failed to secure the quick results hoped for.

The US ambassador to Nato, Ivo Daalder, and the alliance’s top operations commander, US Admiral James Stavridis, hailed the success of the mission yesterday in a commentary in the New York Times, but reiterated the need for allies to address the shortcomings in capabilities it revealed.

While calling it a “true alliance effort” in which non-US allies flew 75 per cent of the air missions, they said the United States played a leading role in destroying Libya’s air defence system and providing crucial resources, including the vast majority of intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and the aerial refuelling assets.

Fourteen Nato members and four other states provided naval and air forces, but only eight Nato nations took part in combat missions. Some big Nato states, notably Germany, had opposed the intervention.

Daalder and Stavridis said US planes flew a quarter of all sorties over Libya, France and Britain a third of all missions — most of them strike operations — and the remaining participants flew roughly 40 per cent.

NATO concludes Libya mission after seven months

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen speaks at a news conference after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Chancellery in Berlin on October 27, 2011.

NATO ends its military operation in Libya at midnight today, seven months after launching an air and sea campaign that helped bring the overthrow and death of Muammar Gaddafi.

In announcing the decision last week, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called it “one of the most successful” operations in the history of the 62-year-old alliance.

Rasmussen will mark the end of the mission by visiting Libya today, where he will meet Libya’s National Transitional Council and members of civil society, the alliance said.

Despite Rasmussen’s depiction of the mission, the NATO intervention caused sharp rifts in the alliance and went on much longer than Western nations had expected or wanted.



NATO stuck to its decision to end the operation despite NTC calls for it to stay engaged longer and says it does not expect to play a major post-war role, although it could assist the transition to democracy by helping with security sector reform.

NATO took over the mission on March 31, based on a United Nations mandate that set a no-fly zone over Libya and permitted foreign military forces, including NATO, to use “all necessary measures” to protect Libyan civilians.

That mandate was terminated last Thursday, despite a request for the UN Security Council to wait for the NTC to decide if it wants NATO help to secure its borders.

NATO allies have been keen to see a quick conclusion to a costly effort that has involved more than 26,000 air sorties and round-the-clock naval patrols at a time when budgets are under severe strain due to the global economic crisis.

But NATO officials said members of the alliance are free to give further security aid to Libya individually.

The NTC officially announced Libya’s liberation on October 23, days after the capture and death of Gaddafi. NATO commanders have said they believe the interim administration is able to take care of the country’s security.

Libya has been the first NATO operation in which the United States sought to step back from a leading role and prompted some sharp criticism from Washington of the capabilities of allies after they failed to secure the quick results hoped for.

The US ambassador to NATO, Ivo Daalder, and the alliance’s top operations commander, US Admiral James Stavridis, hailed the success of the mission today in a commentary in the New York Times, but reiterated the need for allies to address the shortcomings in capabilities it revealed.

While calling it a “true alliance effort” in which non-US allies flew 75 per cent of the air missions, they said the United States played a leading role in destroying Libya’s air defence system and providing critical resources, including the vast majority of intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and the aerial refuelling assets.

Fourteen NATO members and four other states provided naval and air forces, but only eight NATO nations took part in combat missions. Some big NATO states, notably Germany, had opposed the intervention.

Daalder and Stavridis said US planes flew a quarter of all sorties over Libya, France and Britain a third of all missions ― most of them strike operations ― and the remaining participants flew roughly 40 percent.

Video of Gaddafi killed Saddam Hussein hanging execution and dictators death.

The world's infamous dictators and how they met their violent ends

Cut down in the cross-fire between loyalists and rebels, then flung in a truck and executed in front of a baying mob, Gaddafi’s final moments were as brutal as his crimes.

Covered in blood and dirt, he had pleaded for his life - the answer was a bullet to the temple.

So how does it compare to the grisly deaths of other ruthless dictators such as Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Nicolae Ceausescu and Rafael Trujillo? The circumstances varied, but the cold and bloody nature of their final seconds did not.

The end: Saddam Hussein was hanged by vengeful countrymen after overseeing a brutal regime - his death signalled by a loud crack of his neck
'Caught like a rat': Saddam Hussein after being tracked down by U.S. forces
The body of Saddam Hussein in an undated image obtained by the Associated Press from an Arab language web site. Seemingly shot on a camera phone, the image appears to show the former Iraqi leader's corpse, with a gaping neck wound

Charred remains: A soldier of the U.S occupation forces looks over Adolf Hitler's bed

Declared dead: Ceausescu's body is examined after he was executed by firing squad

Cold: An officer makes sure that Ion Antonescu and his fellow politicians are dead by firing into their heads with a pistol

Terminated: The car in which Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo was ambushed - it was riddled with about 60 bullet holes

Mown down: Ceaucescu and his wife Elena died in a hail of bullets

Paraded in front of the cameras: Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were put on a show trial before their execution

Reviled: The bodies of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, centre, his mistress, Clara Petacci, right, and Achille Starace, former secretary of the Fascist Party, hang by their heels in Milan

Brutal: Antonescu lies dead after being shot by firing squad alongside key members of his regime

No mercy: The Ceausescus were led away to be shot as they screamed in protest

Bombed: The remains of Hitler's bunker, where the dictator was found dead

Suicide: Adolf Hitler is thought to have shot himself in the temple in his Berlin bunker

SADDAM HUSSEIN, December 30, 2006

Seven coils and pre-boiled to take out any stretch. One thing the U.S. and Iraq do have in common is their style of hangman’s noose.

Saddam Hussein, deposed dictator of Iraq, would have had little time to dwell on such trivia as he stood on the gallows to finally face justice.

Like Muammar Gaddafi, he too had been found cowering in a grubby bolt-hole, in December 2003.

As one U.S. military commander said, he was ‘caught like a rat’.

Holed up in an underground chamber little bigger than a coffin, he surrendered without a fight when allied troops cornered him in a farm near Tikrit, his birthplace.

Bearded, thin and exhausted, he had been on the run for 250 days.

On November 5, 2006, he was finally found guilty of crimes against humanity by the Iraqi Special Tribunal. He was then sentenced to be hanged until dead.

Three months later in Baghdad - at 6am on December 30 – he was led to a platform in a concrete chamber by masked men.

Wearing a white shirt and dark overcoat, he refused a hood and shouted ‘God is great’.

Soldiers taunted him with insults until a judge demanded silence.

As he clutched a copy of the Koran, a noose was placed around his neck – nicely waxed to guarantee a clean slide of the knots.

The trapdoor was released and a loud crack was heard and his neck broke.

Left to swing for several minutes, a doctor was called to listen for a heartbeat.
Saddam was dead.


ADOLF HITLER, April 30, 1945


Blood dripped onto the carpet and the smell of burnt almonds filled the air.

Hitler’s valet was the first on the scene after the sound of a single gunshot was heard coming from the Fuhrer’s study.

Holed up in a Berlin bunker, the date was April 30, 1945.

One of the leader’s most trusted commanders, Field Marshall Keitel, had just told him the soldiers protecting the city would run out of ammunition that night.

Two days earlier, Hitler had married Eva Braun – and she too would take her life as the Russians edged ever closer.

Knowing the end was near, he had meticulously prepared for death, even testing cyanide pills on a dog and her puppies to make sure they worked.

Before retiring to his study, he said farewell to his inner circle.

Then, at around 3.30 that afternoon, the man who had survived numerous assassination attempts took out his Walther PPK pistol and shot himself in the head.

He is said to have sat, sunken on a sofa, with blood oozing from his right temple. According to other accounts, his head was slumped on a table.

Braun chose cyanide (which produces a burned almond smell) and was discovered dead in the same room with her legs drawn up.

In accordance with Hitler’s instructions, SS officers took the corpses outside, poured petrol over them and set them alight.

Eyewitness claim it took two hours for the blaze to consume them.

Their remains were hidden under the soil in a bomb crater.

(Mystery shrouds the exact circumstances of Hitler’s death, with some claiming he in fact survived the battle for Berlin.)

NICOLAE CEAUSESCU, December 25, 1989

So many soldiers volunteered to shoot Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena that a lottery was held to allocate places.

And on Christmas Day, 1989, after a brief show trial in Bucharest, the couple faced the firing squad of elite paratroopers.

With Communism crumbling around him, the self-proclaimed ‘Genius of the Carpathians’ realised that his days as ruler of a brutally oppressive regime were over.

He had attempted to flee the country with his wife but they were soon captured by rebel soldiers.

Their trial was held in a bare room, where they were treated with cold contempt.

Accused of crimes ranging from illegal gathering of wealth to genocide, he stood frightened in the dock.

Within 90 minutes, he and Elena were sentenced to death.

At first, they were told they would be shot separately, but they begged to die together – and their final wish was granted.

After the trial they had their hands tied behind their backs with rope, with such force that Elena complained that her arms were breaking.

The soldiers took no pity on them. ‘Nobody will help you now,’ one said.

They were led outside, shouting ‘shame, shame’.

The firing squad were ordered to set their guns to automatic fire.

One paratrooper describes how the first bullets hit Nicolae in the knees, then in his chest, with the next thumping into Elena.

Within seconds they lay dead on the floor, blood flowing along the ground from Elena’s head.




BENITO MUSSOLINI, April 28, 1945

Mussolini made a desperate bid to escape to Switzerland with his mistress Clara Petacci and his fascist entourage, numbering about 15, on April 27, 1945.

But he was stopped by Communist officials and soldiers, despite trying to disguise himself in a German military uniform.

He was shot the following day in the village of Giulino di Mezzegra, along with those travelling with him.

Defiant to the last, the deluded leader screamed at the soldier sent to execute him: ‘Shoot me in the chest!’

The soldier wasted no time in firing.

It's believed Mussolini slumped to the floor in agony, still breathing, so the soldier strode up to him and shot him in the chest again.

His body, along with that of his wife and other executed fascists, was taken to Milan and dumped unceremoniously on the ground outside a petrol station in the middle of the night.

There Italians, reviled by the former leader’s regime, took the opportunity to vent their anger on him.

Even in death, they had no respect for him at all.

For hours they spat on him, kicked him, stoned him and battered his body with whatever they could lay their hands on.

The attack was so violent that the dictator’s head was left misshapen.

Bloodied, dishevelled, and bearing agonised grimaces, Mussolini, Clara and other executed fascist were then hung upside down with meat hooks.

Had they been innocents, Italians would have been horrified by what they saw – but this sight was met with jubilation.

They’d lived a life of luxury and wielded enormous power – now their honour was mercilessly torn away from them.


ION ANTONESCU, June 1, 1946

It’s often said that dictators are deluded, tinged with madness – Ion Antonescu then, was perhaps no different, because even while staring down the barrel of a gun, he held his hat aloft.

He had been Romania’s war-time leader and was said to be responsible for the deaths of 400,000 people.

But justice was eventually served in 1946 when he was prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against the peace, and treason.

The sentence was death, and he was dispatched ruthlessly in a field along with three members of his hated regime.

They were dressed in suits and hats but there was nothing respectful about their deaths.

The firing squad unleashed their shots and the four men crumpled in a split second.

To make sure they were dead an officer steps up to each corpse and shoots it several times.

Cold and brutal, just like Antonescu himself.


RAFAEL TRUJILLO, May 30, 1961

Like a scene from a Chicago gangster film, Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo was gunned down as his chauffeur drove him along a dark road.

The first shot didn’t kill him though - he fought back. But the seven men, assigned to take him out on the orders of the nation’s wealthy elite, were determined and quickly overwhelmed him.

Trujillo, also known as El Jefe (The Boss), had presided over a murderous regime for 30 years between 1930 and 1961.

His political weapons were torture and murder.

Several thousand Haitians, for instance, were massacred in 1937 on his say so.

But as history shows, there is only so much the people will take.

His killers blocked his car with theirs and a fierce gun battle ensued.

The armed chauffeur let loose with a volley of shots and Trujillo, despite being hit, carried on firing back.

They were eventually overpowered - the car was left with 60 bullet holes in it - and left lying dead on the road.


AND THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY...
JOSEPH STALIN

The Russian ruler died in his bed at home near Moscow on March 5, 1953, at the age of 74. He suffered a stroke and had spent four days bedridden before passing away.

Through purges, famine and gulags he is estimated to have been responsible for the deaths of over 20million. Some historians have suggested he could be responsible for over 60million deaths.

The reality - with so few records kept - is no one knows how much damage this dictator truly inflicted on his people.

It is thought that around 14.5million needlessly starved to death and 9.5million were executed in cold blood for opposing his politics.

Stalin was such a ruthless dictator that all of his enemies were murdered. Throughout the 1930s the 'enemies of the people' were murdered - with thousands executed. The purges weakened the army heading into World War II.

The murder of Sergey Kirov, Stalin's rival, in 1934 was the pretext for the fierce repression of Stalin's enemies.

As he grew old, Stalin became increasingly paranoid but he was never himself the victim of the tough 'justice' he meted out.

Gaddafi met a merciless and brutal death

In the end Muammar Gaddafi's death was as violent as his life, gunned down without mercy in the crumbling ruins of his home town - wounded and begging for his life while cowering in a drain pipe.

His love of comic-opera uniforms, exotic female bodyguards and Bedouin tents provided a theatrical backdrop for 42 years of bloody repression that, in the end, could not withstand a determined uprising backed by NATO air power.

Chased out of Tripoli by rebel forces, Gaddafi disappeared - some said into the empty desert spaces in the south of his vast country.

In tandem with his eccentricity, Gaddafi had a charisma which initially at least won him support among many ordinary Libyans. His readiness to take on Western powers and Israel, both with rhetoric and action, earned him a certain cachet with some in other Arab states who felt their own leaders were too supine.

While leaders of neighbouring Arab states folded quickly in the face of popular uprisings, Gaddafi put up a bloody fight, taking on NATO as well as local insurgents who quickly seized half the country.



Together: Nurse Galyna was always close by.Gaddafi's female bodyguards seemed to prove that he ran Libya almost on a whim.Eccentric style: Gaddafi was known for his love of over-the-top military-style uniforms, variously seen in different colours and with a vast array of military awards and medals.Synonymous with terrorism: A young Gaddafi, right, is seen in an undated photo with notorious Ugandan leader Idi Amin.Shunned by the West: Links to revolutionaries , such as Cuba's Fidel Castro, made Gaddafi many enemies around the world

For most of his 42-year rule, he held a prominent position in the West's gallery of international rogues, while maintaining tight control at home by eliminating dissidents and refusing to anoint a successor.

Gaddafi effected a successful rapprochement with the West by renouncing his weapons of mass destruction programme in return for an end to sanctions. But he could not avoid the tide of popular revolution sweeping through the Arab world.




n retrospect, his time had come when he turned his guns on protesters and sent his army to cleanse Benghazi, prompting Western powers and NATO to open up a campaign of aerial bombing that allowed rebel forces eventually to oust him.

As his oil-producing North African desert country descended into civil war, Gaddafi's military responded with the deadly force that he had never been afraid to use, despite the showman image that captivated many abroad.

When the insurgency began in mid-February, protesters were gunned down in their hundreds. As his troops advanced on Benghazi he famously warned rebels there would be 'no mercy, no pity' They would be hunted down 'alley by alley, house by house, room by room'.

Those words may have been his undoing. Days later the United Nations passed a resolution clearing the way for a NATO air campaign that knocked out his air force, tanks and heavy guns.

Raids also targeted his own headquarters in Tripoli. One raid killed his youngest son and three grandchildren. It was not the first time that the West had killed a Gaddafi family member.

In televised addresses in response to the rebellion in the east earlier this year, Gaddafi blamed the unrest on rats and mercenaries and said they were brainwashed by Osama bin Laden and under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs used to spike their coffee.

As the weeks passed, there was repeated speculation that Gaddafi has either been killed or wounded in NATO air raids, but he made carefully choreographed television appearances in response to the rumours.

In May, Gaddafi taunted NATO, saying its bombers could not find him, saying: 'I am telling the coward crusaders that I am at a place you cannot reach and kill me.'

One of the world's longest serving national leaders, Gaddafi had no official government function and was known as the 'Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution'.

He strove for influence in Africa, showering his poorer neighbours with the largesse that Libya's vast oil wealth allowed and styling himself the continent's "King of Kings".

His love of grand gestures was on display on foreign visits when he slept in a Bedouin tent guarded by dozens of female bodyguards.

U.S. diplomatic cables released by the WikiLeaks website shed further light on the Libyan leader's tastes.

One cable posted by The New York Times describes Gaddafi's insistence on staying on the ground floor when he visited New York for a 2009 meeting at the United Nations and his reported refusal or inability to climb more than 35 steps.

Gaddafi was also said to rely heavily on his staff of four Ukrainian nurses, including one woman described as a 'voluptuous blonde'. The cable speculated about a romantic relationship but the nurse, Halyna Kolotnytska, 38, fled Libya after the fighting started.

Gaddafi Dictator Mad Dog begs for his life after being dragged from a drain. Seconds later he was summarily executed

# Gaddafi tried to flee in a convoy hit by American drone
# Vehicles were also shelled by Nato fighter jets...
# ... before being driven back to his compound in Sirte
# Gaddafi in final attempt to flee before final push by rebels
# 'Found in a hole' wearing military-style clothing, shouting 'Don't shoot'
# Rebel forces executed him in front of a baying mob
# His body was paraded through the streets of the city
# Eldest son Saif shot in leg in Sirte day before - some reports say he is dead
# Other son Mutassim confirmed killed in Sirte
# Barack Obama hails 'momentous day' in history of Libya


Pleading: Muammar Gaddafi begged with his captors for his life after he was found cowering in a storm drain.Paraded: Gaddafi struggled with his captors in video footage taken by rebel fighters after he was captured.Chaotic: Gaddafi was pushed around by rebel fighters, one of whom filmed the incident on a mobile telephone.Fear: Becoming increasingly desperate, Gaddafi asked a rebel fighter 'What did I ever do to you'.Terrified: Moments after he begged for his life Gaddafi was shot dead by rebel fighters.Struggle: Video footage shows Gaddafi being hauled off a rebel fighter truck minutes after his capture.Manhandled: Rebel fighters pictured being taken off a truck shortly after he was detained.Arguing: Gaddafi pictured in chaotic video footage minutes before he was killed

Libyan Forces Seize Key Locations in Sirte After Intense Battles

Libyan forces from Misrata said they wrested control of key buildings in Muammar Qaddafi's hometown of Sirte from his supporters, after several days of intense street fighting that left scores dead and ...

Libya NTC forces expect to take Sirte in 48 hours

Smoke is seen rising over the city of Sirte on October 4, 2011, during clashes between anti-Gaddafi fighters and Gaddafi forces.

Forces with Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) now control more than half of Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte and believe they will have the city under their complete control within two days, a local NTC commander told Reuters today.

“More than half of the city is under the control of the rebels,” said the commander, Adel Al-Hasi. “In two days, God willing, Sirte will be free.”

Gaddafi determined to avoid Saddam Hussein’s fate

When Muammar Gaddafi ponders his future from his hideout somewhere in Libya, he will probably recall the fate of another fallen Arab autocrat, Saddam Hussein, pulled bedraggled from a hole in the ground.

With that precedent in mind, Gaddafi will be adamant, say people who know him, about two things: he will not give up the fight against Libya’s new rulers and, if the end comes, he will not allow himself to be captured alive.

“Gaddafi will not stop fighting,” said Fathi Ben Shatwan, who served under the former Libyan leader as minister for energy and industry until five years ago. “He will not stop unless he is stopped.”

Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC), almost certainly with help from Western intelligence services, has mounted a manhunt to find Gaddafi that is focusing on the Sahara desert near the borders with Niger and Algeria.



The outcome of the hunt for Gaddafi also depends, at least in part, on the state of mind of the prey, and what he chooses to do with the dwindling options in front of him.

No surrender?

For the moment, all the signs suggest that, despite the odds stacked against him, he still believes he can take back power.

The last time the outside world heard from him, in a speech broadcast on September 20 on a Syria-based television station, he said his system of rule was based on the will of the people and it was “impossible that this system be removed.”

That confidence is unsurprising in a man who ruled Libya for 42 years and crushed several coup attempts and uprisings, though none ever on the scale of this rebellion.

“He will not give up and he will not lay down his weapons until the end,” said Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, who was Gaddafi’s prime minister until a few weeks ago and is now in neighbouring Tunisia.

That view was echoed by Soad Salem, a Libyan writer. “Gaddafi will continue believing the illusion that he is still in power and can defeat the NTC forces. He will never acknowledge that he lost power,” she said.

Salem has an explanation for this. “He is crazy,” she said.

For all his eccentricity, Gaddafi is a pragmatist. He may believe he has identified a way back to power: a targeted insurgent campaign that would undermine the new government by hitting it at its weakest spot.

Libya depends on crude exports for its survival and this in turn needs foreign oil executives and engineers to operate the oil fields. A few carefully chosen kidnappings or bomb attacks would keep the foreigners away and dent oil production.

It is a strategy that does not require control of territory or major military resources, just money — which Gaddafi is thought to have in large quantities — a few weapons and some organisation.

“It is vital for the NTC: they need the foreign specialists,” said Alan Fraser, Middle East analyst with AKE, a security and risk consultancy.

“One way for the Gaddafi loyalists to prevent that is to carry out a couple of attacks. It’s about the propaganda coup that would give them in terms of preventing foreign companies from coming back in,” he said.

“I am sure there will be Gaddafi elements that will evade capture and attempt to disrupt development, particularly in the oil sector.”

Holding his nerve

An important question is whether Gaddafi, who was born in 1942, will have the nerve and physical stamina to stay on the run for a long time. If cornered, he may in the end choose to surrender quietly.

Asked about his state of mind, a former colonel in the External Security Organisation, Gaddafi’s foreign intelligence service, said: “He will be afraid.

“In fact he’s always been a bit afraid. He mistrusts his own people. You look at the tunnels he built under our country and our city (Tripoli). He did this to enable him to escape and hide,” said the source, who did not want to be identified because of the sensitive nature of his past work.

However, Gaddafi is on familiar ground. His early years were spent leading a Bedouin existence, living in tents in the desert.

Even once in power he stuck to a spartan lifestyle, preferring to pitch a tent when visiting foreign capitals instead of staying in a hotel or the Libyan embassy.

“You should know that Gaddafi is used to living in tough conditions,” said Ben Shatwan, the former energy minister.

“He is accustomed, since his childhood, to living in hot areas, cold areas, going hungry. He is used to that ... He is able to stay hiding unless he is discovered.”

End game

What though will Gaddafi do if his pursuers are closing in on him and there is no longer any prospect of carrying on the fight?

Fleeing to a neighbouring country is not an attractive option for him. One of his sons, Saadi, escaped across the border into Niger, where the authorities say they are keeping him under surveillance.

Possibly anticipating where he will end up next, Saadi has retained as his lawyer Nick Kaufman. He specialises in international tribunal cases and past clients have included a Cambodian Khmer Rouge prison commander and the Rwandan leader of a group accused of mass rapes and killings.

Oliver Miles, a former British ambassador to Libya, said Gaddafi will not opt for that fate, but will instead want to leave the stage on his own terms.

“It seems to me he would he would have very clearly in his mind what happened to Saddam Hussein, being caught in a hole, wearing a dirty shirt,” said Miles.

After he was found hiding underground on a farm in northern Iraq in 2003, Saddam Hussein was put on trial and executed by hanging.

“I have a kind of personal hunch if you like, which is not more than that, and that is the best way to preserve his (Gaddafi’s) legacy is just to disappear.”

Miles said Gaddafi could do that by putting on a disguise, smuggling himself into a neighbouring country and then going to ground for the rest of his life. The risk of detection though, would be high.

“Another way would be to retreat into some army bunker and blow himself up,” said Miles. —

Cameron, Sarkozy hailed in Libya, offer help

France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy (left), National Transitional Council (NTC) head Mustafa Abdul Jalil (centre) and Prime Minister David Cameron (right) join hands in Benghazi on September 15, 2011.

Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron landed in Libya to a heroes’ welcome yesterday, promising help for the new rulers that French and British air power helped to install and being told the favour may be repaid in business contracts.

Just three weeks after rebels backed by Nato bombers overran the capital, French President Sarkozy and the British prime minister promised in Tripoli to help hunt down Muammar Gaddafi and to hand his frozen assets to his successors.

The forces of the National Transitional Council (NTC) later said they had stormed Gaddafi’s home town of Sirte, one of three main urban areas still beyond the interim government’s control.

NTC fighters were facing strong resistance from loyalist fighters, especially snipers, a military spokesman said.

In Benghazi, seat of the uprising which early intervention by French and British jets helped to save from Gaddafi’s army in March, Sarkozy and Cameron were treated to a rowdy welcome on “Freedom Square,” shouting to be heard over a cheering crowd of hundreds — many in the city were unaware of their arrival.



“It’s great to be here in free Benghazi and in free Libya,” said Cameron as he strained, rock-star hoarse, above the chants in televised scenes both men will hope play well back home.

The French president, struggling for re-election next year, beamed at grateful chants of “One, two, three; Merci Sarkozy!” while the two leaders, flanking NTC chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil, held his arms aloft like a victorious boxer.

“France, Great Britain, Europe, will always stand by the side of the Libyan people,” said Sarkozy, whom many Libyans credit with making a decisive gamble, pulling in a hesitant United States and securing UN backing for Nato air strikes to halt Gaddafi’s tanks as they closed in to crush Benghazi.

“Your city was an inspiration to the world as you threw off a dictator and chose freedom,” Cameron said, clearly enjoying the relative security to speak outdoors in Benghazi after a tight lockdown in tense Tripoli. “Colonel Gaddafi said he would hunt you down like rats but you showed the courage of lions.”

Hajja, a 70-year-old swathed in the rebel tricolour, watched the two leaders with a rapture they rarely experience at home: “If we could give them anything, we would — our lives, our souls ... But for them, we would be history.”

Support offered

In Tripoli, Libyan interim premier Mahmoud Jibril spoke at a news conference of “our thanks for this historic stance” taken by France and Britain to launch the West into a war that did not always look set to end well for the rebels.

Both countries offered continued military support against Gaddafi loyalists holding substantial parts of Libya as well as in hunting the former strongman and others wanted for crimes against humanity. Sarkozy said he would raise the issue with neighbouring Niger, a former French colony where some of Gaddafi’s senior aides and one of his sons have sought refuge.

“This is not over,” Cameron said. “There are still parts of Libya that are under Gaddafi’s control. Gaddafi is still at large and we must make sure that this work is completed.”

In a sign of progress for the NTC, a spokesman said its forces had entered Sirte, Gaddafi’s sprawling home town between Tripoli and Benghazi. But like in other loyalist cities, Libyan fighters were met with strong resistance.

“They have now entered the city. There was a coordinated push from the south, east and west and from along the coast,” NTC military spokesman Abdulrahman Busin told Reuters.

“They are coming under heavy fire. There is a particular problem with snipers.”

Inland, at Bani Walid, residents were still trying to leave the besieged loyalist stronghold, and reported that others were trapped by gunmen. Deep in the desert, the southern city of Sabha is also still controlled by forces loyal to Gaddafi.

Cameron said a Franco-British move at the United Nations today could mean London alone unfreezing US$19 billon (RM57 billion) of assets, while help with healthcare and disarmament was also ready.

With an eye on public opinion at home, he drew attention to the case of a boy wounded by a grenade at his school who would be treated by British specialists, while Sarkozy rebuffed suggestions of self-interest in the war, declaring: “We did what we did because we thought it was just.”

Remembering “friends”

Although Sarkozy hotly denied talk among Arabs of “under the table deals for Libya’s riches,” interim Libyan leader Abdel Jalil said key allies could expect preferential treatment in return for their help in ending 42 years of Gaddafi’s rule.

“As a faithful Muslim people,” he told reporters in Tripoli, “we will appreciate these efforts and they will have priority within a framework of transparency.”

Other states which did business with Gaddafi, notably China and Russia, have been concerned that their lukewarm attitude to the NTC may cost them economically. While Abdel Jalil stressed a desire to allocate contracts on the best terms for Libya, and to honour existing contracts, he said some could be reviewed.

Those deals signed by Gaddafi which were skewed by personal corruption could be cancelled, he said, noting that he had served as a minister under the old regime and knew its secrets.

Cameron appeared keen to avoid public triumphalism. “I’m proud of our role,” he said. “But this was your revolution, not our revolution.” And with an eye on events in Syria and elsewhere, he said Libyans could inspire others: “This is a moment when the Arab Spring could become a summer and we see democracy advance in other countries too.”

The need for Sarkozy and Cameron to visit Benghazi as well as Tripoli is a sign of the obstacles Libya still faces in transforming itself into a peaceful, unified democracy. The NTC has not yet been able to establish a government safely in a capital still bristling with militiamen from disparate groups.

Cameron offered Jibril and Abdel Jalil a personal vote of confidence, saying they “continually proved the sceptics wrong.” But the country is deeply divided. Many of its new rulers hail from Benghazi in the east, while the fighters who won the battle for Tripoli mostly come the west.

Sarkozy got a big cheer in Benghazi when he called for a “united Libya” and “a new courage, that of forgiveness.”

Anti-Gaddafi forces storm desert stronghold

Anti-Gaddafi fighters head to the front line, north of the besieged city of Bani Walid September 16, 2011. Columns of anti-Gaddafi forces sped towards Bani Walid on Friday after their position came under attack and one of their number said they were planning to take the town, one of the last bastions of support for the ousted Libyan leader.

Forces loyal to Libya’s new rulers surged into the desert town of Bani Walid today in a fierce attack on one of the last strongholds still in the hands of Muammar Gaddafi loyalists that could prove a major turning point in the war.

Explosions and gunfire echoed over the hills surrounding the town, which has been under siege for two weeks, with hundreds of die-hard supporters of the country’s fugitive former ruler concentrated around its centre.







There was also a report, on Al-Jazeera television, of fierce fighting at Gaddafi’s home town of Sirte on the coast, a day after interim government forces announced a breakthrough.

Turkey’s prime minister was expected in Tripoli, a day after the French and British leaders won a hero’s welcome there for helping to overthrow Gaddafi. Turkish TV said Tayyip Erdogan had arrived in mid-morning.

Erdogan, on a North African tour to assert Ankara’s regional influence, will be hoping to reap political and economic dividends from Libya’s new rulers for his country’s help in their struggle to end Gaddafi’s 42-year grip on power.

After nearly seven months of fighting, anti-Gaddafi forces backed by NATO air power control most of Libya, including oil-producing centres and the capital, which they seized last month.

But they have met fierce resistance in a handful of pro-Gaddafi bastions such as the desert town of Bani Walid, the southern outpost of Sabha and Sirte, Gaddafi’s birthplace 450km east of Tripoli.

Today, truckloads of anti-Gaddafi troops shouting “Let’s go! Bani Walid!” and columns of pickup trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns hurtled towards the town, 180km south of Tripoli, kicking up clouds of dust in the desert.

“We are going in. We finally have the orders. God is greatest. God willing, Bani Walid will be free today,” fighter Mohammed Ahmed said, his rifle sticking out of his car window.

A short time later, the sound of heavy fighting could be heard from within the town.

Fighters loyal to the National Transitional Council (NTC) were also said to have moved into Sirte yesterday.

“They have now entered the city. There was a coordinated push from the south, east and west and from along the coast. I’m not sure how far they have been able to enter,” Abdulrahman Busin, a military spokesman for the NTC, said yesterday.

“They are coming under heavy fire. There is a particular problem with snipers.”

Gaddafi’s spokesman said he had thousands of supporters.

“We are telling you that as of tomorrow there will be atrocious attacks by NATO and their agents on the ground on the resisting towns of Sirte, Bani Walid and Sabha,” Moussa Ibrahim told Syrian-based Arrai television late yesterday.

The television said 16 people had been killed in Sirte, including women and children, as a result of NATO bombing, and that Gaddafi forces had destroyed a NATO warship and several vehicles. None of the reports could be independently verified.

France and Britain spearheaded the air campaign that ousted Gaddafi, but Turkey – which had contracts worth US$15 billion in Libya – backed it reluctantly and was slow to recognise those now leading the oil-rich north African state.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron were told their support may be repaid in business contracts with the oil-rich North African state.

A Turkish ship did play a key role in evacuating civilians from the coastal town of Misrata while it was besieged by Gaddafi forces, and Ankara has recently been vocal in supporting the NTC and provided it with US$300 million in cash, loans and other aid.

Turkish companies with business in Libya are hoping the Council will honour pending payments once assets are unfrozen, and Energy Minister Taner Yildiz has said he wants state-owned oil and gas exploration company TPAO to resume oil exploration and production work in Libya if security is established.

That depends to a large extent on the fate of Gaddafi who, wanted by the International Criminal Court, is rumoured to be hiding in one of the loyalist strongholds.

In Benghazi, seat of the uprising which early intervention by French and British jets helped to save from Gaddafi’s army in March, Sarkozy and Cameron were treated to a rowdy welcome yesterday, shouting over a cheering crowd.

“It’s great to be here in free Benghazi and in free Libya,” said Cameron as he strained to be heard above the chants in scenes from the former rebel stronghold televised live across the globe.

The French president, struggling for re-election next year, beamed at grateful chants of “One, two, three; Merci Sarkozy!” while the two leaders, flanking NTC chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil, held his arms aloft like a victorious boxer.

Although Sarkozy denied talk among Arabs of “under the table deals for Libya’s riches”, Jalil said key allies could expect preferential treatment in return for their help in ending Gaddafi’s rule.

Erdogan, who has visited Egypt and Tunisia this week, has been holding up Turkey’s blend of Islam and democracy as a model for the movements that have toppled longtime Arab rulers in Tunis, Cairo and Tripoli.

He has already won plaudits from Libya’s new rulers.

“We expect the world community to follow the wonderful support of Turkey, its leading role and effort. Turkey has done an amazing job,” Aref al-Nayed, a leading figure in the NTC, told a recent international summit on Libya in Istanbul.

Clinton urges Africa to drop Gaddafi, embrace rebels

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today urged African leaders to abandon Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, saying it was time to live up to their pledges to promote democracy across the continent.

Clinton, the first US secretary of state ever to address the 53-member African Union, said unreformed African leaders were themselves at risk from the same tide of democracy sweeping the Middle East, proclaiming “the status quo is broken and the old ways of governing are no longer acceptable.”

“It is true that Gaddafi has played a major role in providing financial support for many African nations and institutions, including the AU,” Clinton said in her speech at the AU’s headquarters in Addis Ababa.

“But it has become clear that we are long past the time when he can remain in power.”



Clinton urged African states — many with longtime diplomatic and financial ties to the oil-rich Libyan strongman — to join the international coalition demanding his exit as the condition for a ceasefire.

She also urged them to close pro-Gaddafi Libyan embassies, expel his diplomats and to build ties with the Benghazi-based rebel National Transitional Council which the United States and its European and Arab allies are promoting as a future interim government for the country.

“Your words and your actions could make the difference in building this situation to finally close and allowing the people of Libya to get to work writing a constitution and rebuilding their country,” Clinton said.

Clinton’s AU speech came at the end of a three-nation Africa tour during which she sought to highlight the Obama administration’s drive to boost trade ties with Africa and encourage better political and economic governance.

Sudan talks

She praised many African countries for implementing reforms and moving away from a tradition of strongman rule. But on a continent where autocrats still rule from Equatorial Guinea to Zimbabwe, Clinton said more needed to be done.

“We know that too many people in Africa live under long-standing rulers — men who care too much about the longevity of their reign and too little about the legacy that should be built for their country’s future,” she said.

Clinton won applause for advocating women’s rights, and for speaking gamely on even as the lights flickered briefly out in the AU’s main meeting hall, leaving delegates in the dark.

US officials say the African Union has played a more constructive role in regional affairs including the political deadlock in Ivory Coast and mustering peacekeepers for other regional crises.

On Libya, US officials have praised several African nations including Senegal and Mauritania for publicly declaring that Gaddafi must go.

But the AU’s position has been murkier and the organisation — long itself the beneficiary of Gaddafi’s largesse — has declined to join calls for Gaddafi’s ouster, instead accusing Western nations of undermining its own efforts to find a solution to the conflict.

Diplomats say the lack of a clear African voice on the Libyan conflict has complicated the Libyan crisis, where Nato has unleashed air strikes to support Libyan rebels demanding Gaddafi’s exit.

Clinton is scheduled to hold meetings in Addis Ababa today on Sudan, where diplomats said President Omar Hassan al-Bashir agreed Sunday to pull troops out of the disputed border region of Abyei before the south secedes — a move which could help reduce tensions.

The two sides have yet to agree on sensitive issues such as where to draw the common border and how to share oil revenues, leaving the potential for further conflict as the South prepares for formal independence on July 9.

Clinton, speaking before her arrival in Addis Ababa during a stop in Tanzania, said the United States supported a proposal to put Ethiopian peacekeepers in the disputed Abyei region and called on Khartoum to withdraw its troops from the area.

At the AU, she repeated her call for both sides to redouble their efforts to resolve the situation “peacefully through negotiations, not violence.”

Long Libya mission to stretch UK force, says navy chief

An extended military campaign in Libya will be challenging for British naval resources and the government may need to prioritise where its assets are focused, the UK’s navy chief said today.

British aircraft and navy ships are playing a leading role in striking at Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s forces. Britain also has about 10,000 troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, the second most after the United States.

Admiral Mark Stanhope said he was “comfortable” within Nato’s new 90-day Libya mission mandate, which runs out at the end of September.

“Beyond that ... we might have to request the government to make some challenging decisions about what priorities they want,” he told reporters at a joint briefing with the head of the US navy in London.

“We have a small scale commitment in Libya ... if we do it for longer than 6 months then we have to reprioritise our forces across the piece — that does not mean we won’t be doing it.”

UK defence chiefs said in May extending the Libya campaign beyond six months would be a challenge for its armed forces.



“If there was a continuation of the need for maritime interdiction operations off Libya, then the government will have a choice as to where they chose to take the platform from — it could be from around home waters,” Stanhope said.

“I am not going to prejudge what that decision would be,” said Stanhope, who is the UK’s First Sea Lord.

British defence chiefs had said last month an aircraft carrier and surveillance planes scrapped as part of defence cuts last year would have helped in the Libya campaign.

Their views are embarrassing for the year-old coalition government which ordered British forces to help in Libya only months after ordering an eight-per cent real-terms cut in defence spending over four years to rein in a budget deficit.

“If we had Ark Royal and the Harriers in the February timeframe, I feel relatively reassured that we would have deployed that capability off Libya to conduct the ground support piece,” Stanhope said today, referring to scrapped assets.

“There is far too much of what could have been as opposed to what is,” he said. “We have got to look forward.”

The United States accused some Nato allies on Friday of failing to pull their weight in the Libyan operation.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the alliance, prosecuting an air campaign against Libyan forces, risked “collective military irrelevance” unless European partners deepened their commitment and spending.

“We in the military I believe are fairly self-critical, so there will be a very good examination of the operations in Libya and we do the same thing regardless of where we are operating,” US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead told reporters at the briefing.