Posted on Fri, Aug. 26, 2011
Gadhafi issued his message from hiding while rebels were hunting him with intelligence help from NATO. In an audiotape broadcast by Syria-based Al Oruba TV, he asked Muslim clerics to incite Libyans for "jihad" against his enemies.
Rebel fighters surrounded a complex in Tripoli, the capital, where they suspected that the longtime Libyan dictator was hiding, the rebel Transitional National Council's defense spokesman, Col. Ahmed Bani, said by phone.
About 1,000 rebels streamed into the Abu Salim neighborhood, next to Gadhafi's captured compound. A battle ensued with heavy gunfire and an explosion, and corpses from both sides lay in the streets by nightfall, the Associated Press reported.
With no evidence of Gadhafi, Bani acknowledged that his presence there "could be a rumor."
Since entering Tripoli this week, after breaking a stalemate in a six-month effort backed by NATO air strikes, rebel leaders are taking steps to begin a transition. The transitional council officially transferred its headquarters Wednesday from Benghazi in the east to Tripoli, council Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said during a visit to Italy.
"The only thing left is for Gadhafi to be captured or killed at the hands of the revolutionaries," Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, vice chairman of the council, said by phone late Wednesday from Benghazi.
Amid the fighting in parts of Tripoli, medical staff were unable to reach hospitals to treat the injured, though areas of the city secured by the opposition were calm and had water and electricity, Robin Waudo of the International Committee of the Red Cross said from the capital.
"Some of the medical establishment has been overwhelmed by casualties coming in," and the Red Cross is providing help, Waudo said. He said he had no figures yet for the dead or wounded.
To the east of Tripoli, rebel fighters pushed toward Gadhafi's hometown of Surt. They were negotiating with tribal leaders to enter the city without violence, Bani said from Benghazi. Fighting continued in the southern city of Sabha between Gadhafi loyalists and the rebels.
NATO warplanes carried out raids during the night near Tripoli and Surt, the alliance said in a statement.
NATO special forces are now based in Misrata; from there, they call in air strikes and advise opposition fighters, a rebel officer from the city said. Two teams, one British and one French, have been controlling alliance warplanes in attacking government targets around the city for several weeks, said Mohammed Subka, a communications specialist in the Al Watum, or My Home, brigade.
"NATO is providing intelligence and reconnaissance assets" to the rebels "to help them track down Col. Gadhafi and other remnants of the regime," British Defense Secretary Liam Fox told Sky News.
The rebel council is asking for $6.5 billion from the Libyan funds frozen abroad to meet urgent requirements such as keeping hospitals functioning and maintaining fuel and food supplies, its representative in the United Arab Emirates, Aref Ali Nayed, said Wednesday.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, at a news conference Wednesday with Jibril, called for an international conference to be held in Paris next Thursday with the aim of releasing frozen Libya funds. About $170 billion in Libyan government assets has been frozen worldwide, according to Jibril.
The Security Council action opens the way for the United States to provide $1.5 billion, a fraction of $30 billion in Libyan assets that is held in the United States and that has been beyond the reach of the rebels.
The $1.5 billion is meant to be disbursed in three $500 million installments: for emergency aid, for fuel to provide electricity and operate desalinization plants, and for Libyans' health and education needs.
Jibril has warned that stability and security were at risk if rebel salaries, unpaid for four months, weren't delivered. Among other urgent priorities, he said, were collecting weapons, rebuilding a justice system and national army, caring for the wounded in Libya and abroad, and rebuilding power stations.
Italy has freed $505 million in Libyan assets, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said. Germany, which holds about $10.5 billion of Libyan assets, is lending $140 million to the Transitional National Council as an advance.
In the coming days, Rome-based Eni SpA will begin supplying the council with gasoline and diesel fuel that will eventually be paid for with crude oil, chief executive officer Paolo Scaroni said after meeting with Jibril. Eni, Libya's biggest foreign investor, has seen most of its production halted by the conflict.
Libya, which has the largest proven reserves of any African country, has seen its oil exports all but stopped. Output dropped to 100,000 barrels a day in July, down from 1.6 million barrels pumped before the uprising started.
Also Thursday, Amnesty International charged that pro-Gadhafi guards had raped child detainees and that Libyan rebels were abusing children and holding foreign mercenaries as prisoners.
The rights group said it gathered testimony from prisoners and survivors of the conflict in Tripoli. It called on both sides to respect prisoners.
'Leezza' Rice: Gadhafi Crush?
Libyan rebels who took control of Moammar Gadhafi's compound made a surprising discovery in one of the buildings: a photo album with pictures of Condoleezza Rice.
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