Fallen dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam said yesterday that he was still in Tripoli and that the fight against rebels who captured the capital last week would go on.
Denting the festive mood as Libyans celebrated their first end of Ramadan feast in 42 years free of Col Gaddafi’s yoke, Seif al-Islam said his father was fine and was still fighting.
But his message of defiance, aired just hours before world powers were to open a major conference on Libya in Paris, came as another Col Gaddafi’s son, Saadi, expressed readiness to surrender and the rebels announced the capture of Col Gaddafi’s foreign minister Abdelati al-Obeidi.
“We are fine. The leadership is fine and the leader is fine,” Seif al-Islam told the Damascus-based Al-Rai television station in an audio message.
“We are happy, we are drinking coffee and tea with our companions and we are fighting.
“I am talking to you from a suburb of Tripoli. We want to reassure the Libyan people that we are still here. The resistance continues and victory is near.”
Seif al-Islam warned the rebels against any attack on his father’s hometown of Sirte, the last major centre in loyalist hands.
“They’re welcome if they think the battle of Sirte will be a walkover.
“Twenty thousand armed men are in the town and ready” to fight, he told Al-Rai.
The television station 10 days ago broadcast messages from Col Gaddafi himself, after Libyan state television fell into rebel hands with their capture of the capital.
There has been no firm word on the fugitive strongman’s whereabouts since then, although there has been speculation that he is holed up in Sirte on the Mediterranean coast, in Bani Walid, a desert town to its southwest, or in the outskirts of the capital.
“The information I have is this: it is 80 per cent certain that Gaddafi is still in Libya,” Omar Hariri, head of the rebels’ military affairs, said.
He said rebels suspected he was hiding either in Bani Walid or in the capital’s outskirts.
“We think he is in Libya,” said Ahmed Darrad, who is charged with overseeing the interior ministry until a new government is elected.
“It is our right to kill him,” Mr Darrad said late on Tuesday.
“He is killing us. He is a criminal and an outlaw. All over the world if the criminal does not surrender, it is the right of law enforcers to kill him.”
Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chief of the rebels’ National Transitional Council (NTC), said in an interview published yesterday by Egypt’s state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper he wanted Col Gaddafi arrested alive so he could face justice.
Rebels clashed sporadically with loyalists yesterday on the road from Zliten to Bani Walid.
Nato said in an operations update that its warplanes had hit a command and control facilities, armour and radar at Sirte, and a munitions dump, military facilities and weapons at Bani Walid.
The rebels gave few details on how Col Gaddafi’s foreign minister was captured.
“Yes, Abdelati al-Obeidi was arrested today,” Mahdi al-Harati, vice chairman of the rebel military council, told journalists in the capital without elaborating.
“We’ve heard that he was arrested today, near Janzur,” a suburb situated west of Tripoli, Mohammed Elkish, a media liaison official for the NTC, said.
Mr al-Obeidi had met Maltese Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi in a short meeting late on the evening of April 4 at the Auberge de Castille in Valletta. Dr Gonzi had told Mr al-Obeidi that Libya had to observe all UN resolutions and insisted on an immediate ceasefire and a process that would enable the Libyan people to make their own democratic choices.
But Mr Harati did confirm that negotiations had been opened on the surrender of another, much less powerful Gaddafi son, Saadi.
There were “negotiations with Saadi until yesterday at 2000 GMT,” he said.
“He is reluctant but, if he wants to surrender, his life will be safe, God willing. If there is an agreement, there will be no problems.”
Earlier, Saadi Gaddafi told the Al-Arabiya channel in an audio interview that he had “no problem” with the rebels ruling Libya.
“We have no problem if they are in power, the rebels are our brothers,” he said. “If my surrender stops the spilling of blood, I am ready to give myself up tonight.”
Rebel military spokesman Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani told a news conference in Libya’s second city Benghazi that his forces were “ready for a final military battle,” describing Saturday as “zero hour.”
“We have been given no indication of a peaceful surrender... We continue to seek a peaceful solution, but on Saturday we will use different methods against these criminals,” he said.
The rebels’ fledgling new administration received a major boost to its finances with clearance from a UN sanctions committee for Britain to release $1.6 billion in seized regime assets to pay for emergency relief.
Thursday’s conference in Paris, which is to be attended by some 60 countries, including for the first time Russia, is expected to discuss funding for Libya as well as police training and diplomatic recognition for its new rulers.
It will also see talks between UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, his post-conflict planner Ian Martin and rebel chief Abdel Jalil.
And the European Union is expected to approve the lifting of sanctions against Libya’s ports and 22 economic entities including a clutch of oil companies.
The EU reached an agreement in principle yesterday to remove the six port authorities from its sanctions list as well as 22 other entities, the diplomats said. Three or four oil companies will be de-listed, they said.
“Once the new regime is well established, there’s no reason to maintain the sanctions,” EU president Herman Van Rompuy told the French-language LCI television channel, without confirming the imminent lifting of the measures.
“We must give every chance to the transitional government,” he stressed, adding that a decision would be made on Thursday.
An EU mission arrived in Tripoli yesterday to assess Libya’s aid needs for reconstruction, the EU’s foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said.
“We are there to support the people of Libya during the period of transition. The European Union is ready to provide assistance under the leadership of the United Nations and the NTC,” she added.