(AFP) A Libyan military convoy with Moamer Kadhafi rumoured aboard has crossed into Niger, a military source said, as new regime fighters were poised to strike at the toppled leader’s last bastions.
Kadhafi’s spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, however insisted the fugitive dictator is in top health and planning his country’s defence, and that he and his sons are still in Libya and ready to fight to the death.
“I saw an exceptionally large and rare convoy of several dozen vehicles enter Agadez from Arlit… and go towards Niamey” late Monday, the Niger military source said, referring to the northern Niger city of Agadez.
“There are persistent rumours that Kadhafi or one of his sons are travelling in the convoy,” the source added.
A journalist from a private radio station in Agadez said he saw “a convoy of several dozen vehicles crossing the city and heading towards Niamey”, the Niger capital.
Another Nigerien government source earlier said prominent regime officials had fled across the border on Sunday. They included Kadhafi’s internal security chief Mansour Daw, who was earlier reported to be in the loyalist stronghold Bani Walid with at least two of Kadhafi’s sons.
Anti-Kadhafi fighters were ready on Tuesday to strike at Bani Walid, an oasis town southeast of Tripoli, at the slightest provocation.
Kamal Hodeisa, a Libyan defence ministry official, told AFP in Tripoli that rebel fighters would “move if there is an act of aggression by Kadhafi’s forces against our rebels inside Bani Walid or if they attack civilians”
However, Abusif Ghnyah, media coordinator for the National Transitional Council — Libya’s new leaders — was optimistic fighting could be avoided.
“We are expecting a delegation of tribal leaders and we are hoping for good news,” Ghnyah said in Shishan, near the frontline, which he said was about 17 kilometres (10 miles) from Bani Walid.
“What has changed in Bani Walid is that people are serious about the search for a bloodless and bulletless solution,” Ghnyah said.
Abdullah Kenshil, the chief negotiator for Libya’s new government, said civilians were being held hostage in the centre of Bani Walid, in administrative buildings and in five or six nearby villages.
“Kadhafi’s soldiers have also closed the gates of the town and are not letting families leave,” he said. “That worries us, we don’t want to kill civilians in the attack.”
Kadhafi spokesman Ibrahim insisted that the fugitive leader was still in Libya and was busy planning to re-take Libya.
Kadhafi is “in excellent health and planning and organising Libya’s defence,” Ibrahim told Syria’s Arrai television channel on Monday. “He is in place that those scums did not reach. He is fighting inside Libya.
“We are still powerful,” he said, adding that the sons of the fugitive dictator “had assumed their role in the defence of and sacrifice for” their country. He however did not name them.
Pledging “a fight to the death or until victory,” Ibrahim, who is thought to be in Bani Walid, said: “We will fight and resist for Libya and for all Arabs.”
Local officials said most senior figures had fled Bani Walid with Kadhafi’s most prominent son, Seif al-Islam, who according to Naduri left a few days before for Sabha, further south, that is still in the hands of regime loyalists.
Two other sons of Kadhafi, Saadi and Mutassim, were also reported to be in Bani Walid and it is suspected that the strongman himself crossed through the oasis town although it is unclear when.
No clashes were reported on Monday in Kadhafi’s hometown of Sirte or the southern oases of Sabha and Al-Jufra.
However, NATO said its warplanes had on Monday bombed a military radar site, a command and control bunker, four armed vehicles, for surface to air missile systems and two “military settlements” at Sirte.
In Auckland, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday the UN is ready to provide significant assistance to Libya’s new authorities, ranging from police support to drafting a new constitution.
Ban said the first priority in Libya was restoring the rule of law following almost seven months of conflict to oust Kadhafi.
“A lot of people have been killed, (left) homeless. Infrastructure and social planning systems have been destroyed,” Ban said in a speech at Auckland University in New Zealand, where he is attending the Pacific Islands Forum.
“We have to help them to recover… we have to first of all restore the rule of law and public security. We have to protect human rights, we have to provide social planning support and physical infrastructure.”
The UN Security Council is on Friday to discuss the launch of a wide-ranging mission to Libya, a UN diplomat told AFP.
