LIBYAN INTERIM government forces who have massed around the town of Bani Walid, where members of Muammar Gadafy’s family were reportedly seen in recent days, last night awaited orders from Tripoli after negotiations aimed at ensuring a peaceful takeover ended unsuccessfully.
Tribal elders had emerged yesterday afternoon from the town, which lies about 140km southeast of the capital, to meet negotiators from the National Transitional Council, which had warned its fighters were poised to attack. The council says the town is divided between pro and anti-Gadafy elements.
The council’s chief negotiator later said efforts to broker a surrender had failed. “As chief negotiator, I have nothing to offer right now. From my side, negotiations are finished,” Abdallah Kanshil said.
“They said they don’t want to talk, they are threatening everyone who moves. They are putting snipers on high-rise buildings and inside olive groves, they have a big fire force. We compromised a lot at the last minute.
“We will leave this for the field commanders to decide, for the NTC [council] to decide what to do next,” he said.
The Associated Press quoted a council representative saying talks with Gadafy’s spokesman Moussa Ibrahim, who is believed to be in Bani Walid, had broken down because Ibrahim wanted the fighters to disarm before entering the town.
In Tripoli, Abdel Hakim Belhaj, head of the Tripoli Military Council, told reporters yesterday rebels in Bani Walid had raised the pre-Gadafy flag, which has been adopted by the interim government forces, and he called on its residents to come into the streets and demonstrate their support for the new dispensation.
Bani Walid, together with Gadafy’s coastal hometown of Sirte, and Sabha, a town located in the Sahara desert, are three of the last main areas to remain under control of forces loyal to the deposed leader.
Thousands of rebel fighters have converged on Bani Walid in recent days.
Nato reported bombing an ammunition storage facility near the town yesterday.
It also struck a military barracks, police camp and several other targets near Sirte on Saturday night, as well as targets near Hun, a possible staging ground in the desert halfway between Sirte and Sabha.
Some council officials have speculated that members of the Gadafy family, even the former Libyan leader himself, may be hiding in Bani Walid.
The town is said to be under increasing strain, with no power or water for a week, food supplies running low and Gadafy loyalists firing in the streets.
Earlier, Col Ahmed Bani, the rebels’ military spokesman based in Benghazi, said he expected members of Libya’s largest tribe, the Warfalla, which dominates Bani Walid, to surrender rather than turn against each other.
“They will give up at the end because they are cousins and they don’t want to spill each others’ blood,” he said, without giving further details.
The million-strong Warfalla constitute one-sixth of Libya’s population.
In a defiant audio message last week, Gadafy said the Warfalla would be among the tribes to defend him to the death.
Meanwhile, council officials claimed Gadafy’s son Khamis, who led the notorious brigade that bore his name, had died in fighting close to Tripoli and had been buried near Bani Walid. No further details were available.
Khamis’s death has been reported at least twice throughout the six-month uprising.