Gaddafi family 'flees to Algeria'
Members of ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s family have entered Algeria, reports say.
Algeria’s state news agency cited the Foreign Affairs Ministry as saying the family entered the neighbouring country today.
It did not immediately provide additional details or say whether Gaddafi himself was with the family.
Despite effectively ending his rule, the rebels have yet to find Gaddafi or his family members - something that has cast a pall of lingering uncertainty over the opposition's victory.
The Egyptian news agency MENA, quoting unidentified rebel fighters, had reported from Tripoli over the weekend that six armoured Mercedes sedans, possibly carrying Gaddafi’s sons or other top regime figures, had crossed the border at the south-western Libyan town of Ghadamis into Algeria. Algeria’s Foreign Ministry had denied that report.
Ahmed Jibril, an aid to rebel National Transitional Council head Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, said if the report of Gaddafi relatives in Algeria is true, “we will demand that Algerian authorities hand them over to Libya to be tried before Libyan courts.”
Ahmed Bani, military spokesman of the council, said he was unsurprised to hear Algeria had welcomed Gaddafi relatives. Throughout the six-month Libyan uprising, rebels have accused Algeria of providing Gaddafi with mercenaries to curb the revolution.
Earlier, Abdul-Jalil told senior Nato envoys meeting in the Gulf Arab nation of Qatar that Gaddafi can still cause trouble.
“Gaddafi is still capable of doing something awful in the last moments,” Abdul-Jalil told military chiefs of staff and other key defence officials from Nato nations including France, Italy and Turkey.
“Even after the fighting ends, we still need logistical and military support from Nato,” he added. Nato has been bombing Gaddafi’s forces since March under a United Nations mandate to protect Libyan civilians.
