Gaddafi son seeking plane to Hague: NTC official

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Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam pauses during an interview with Reuters in Tripoli, March 10, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Chris Helgren

By Samia Nakhoul

DUBAI | Fri Oct 28, 2011 3:39am EDT

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, fearing for his life if captured in Libya, has tried to arrange for an aircraft to fly him out of his desert refuge and into the custody of The Hague war crimes court, a senior Libyan official said.

Details were sketchy but a picture has built up since his father's killing while in the hands of ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) fighters a week ago that suggests Muammar Gaddafi's 39-year-old heir-apparent has taken refuge among Sahara nomads and is seeking a safe haven abroad.

The NTC official said Saif al-Islam had crossed into Niger but had not yet found a way to hand himself in to the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

"There is a contact with Mali and with South Africa and with another neighboring country to organize his exit ... He hasn't got confirmation yet, he's still waiting," said the official, who declined to be named.

There was no independent verification of his comments.

Even if Saif can still draw on some of the vast fortune the Gaddafi clan built up abroad during 42 years in control of North Africa's main oilfields, his indictment by the ICC over his part in trying to crush this year's revolt limits his options.

That may explain an apparent willingness, in communications monitored by intelligence services and shared with Libya's interim rulers, to discuss a surrender to the ICC, whereas his mother and surviving siblings simply fled to Algeria and Niger.

ICC CHECKING

The ICC, which relies on signatory states to hand over suspects, said it was trying to confirm the whereabouts and intentions of Saif al-Islam and former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, the third man indicted along with Muammar Gaddafi.

A source with the NTC, which drove the Gaddafis from power in Tripoli in August, told Reuters the two surviving indictees were together, protected by Tuareg nomads.

"Saif is concerned about his safety," the source said. "He believes handing himself over is the best option for him."

Saif al-Islam, once seen as a potential liberal reformer but who adopted a belligerent, win-or-die persona at his father's side this year, was looking for help from abroad to fly out and take his chances at The Hague, where there is no death penalty.

"He wants to be sent an aircraft. He wants assurances," the NTC source said by telephone from Libya.

Some observers question the accuracy of NTC information, given frequent lapses in intelligence recently.

Rhissa Ag Boula, a former Tuareg rebel leader who is now a presidential adviser in Niger, told Reuters: "I confirm that Abdullah al-Senussi is now in northern Mali. He crossed Niger north of Arlit escorted by Malian Tuareg as well as some from Niger. They were well protected, which is to say armed.

"As for Saif, he is hesitant and is indeed in Niger. He is trying to decide whether to continue to Mali or stay in Niger."

A member of the Malian parliament who has been in charge of relations with Libya's NTC discounted some reports that Gaddafi and Senussi had crossed Algeria or Niger into Mali.

AFRICAN GRUMBLES

Some observers suggest surrendering to the ICC may be only one option for Saif al-Islam, who may hope for a welcome in one of the African states on which his father lavished gifts.

The African Union, and powerful members like South Africa, grumble about the nine-year-old ICC's focus so far on Africans and some of them may prove sympathetic.

Even if arrested on charges relating to his role in attacks on protesters in February and March, Saif could make defense arguments that might limit any sentence, lawyers said.

NTC forces, which overran Gaddafi's last bastions of Bani Walid and Sirte this month, lack the resources to hunt and capture fugitives deep in the desert, the NTC source said.

NATO, whose air power turned the civil war in the rebels' favor, could help, he said.

But NATO, which will end its Libya operations at the end of the month, stresses its mission is to protect civilians, not target individuals - though it was a NATO air strike that halted Muammar Gaddafi's flight last week.

A captured pro-Gaddafi fighter at Bani Walid told Reuters that the London-educated Saif al-Islam had been in that town, south of Tripoli until it fell earlier this month.

The man, one of Saif al-Islam's bodyguards, said the younger Gaddafi was "confused" and in fear for his life when he escaped Bani Walid. If he has seen the gruesome video footage of his father's capture, he knows how he may be treated if he remains in Libya.

Asked what the NTC was doing to cooperate with the ICC, the vice chairman of the Council, Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, said Libyans still hoped to try the suspects themselves.

"There aren't any special arrangements by the NTC. If Abdullah al-Senussi and Saif al-Islam are arrested inside Libya they will be tried and judged based on Libyan law," said Ghoga.

Earlier this week, an NTC official said Saif had acquired a passport in a false name and was lying low south of Ghat, a border crossing with Algeria through which his mother, sister and two of his surviving brothers fled in August.

Algeria is not a signatory to the Rome treaty which set up the ICC, but might face strong diplomatic pressure to hand over indicted suspects. The NTC has also been pressing Algiers to hand over the other Gaddafi relatives.

Niger, an impoverished former French colony, has said it would honor its commitments to the ICC. The mayor of the northern Niger town of Agadez, a transit point for other fleeing Gaddafi allies, told Reuters Saif al-Islam would be extradited to The Hague if he showed up.

Tunisia, to where other Gaddafi loyalists have fled, is also a signatory to the ICC's conventions.

(Additional reporting by Giles Elgood, Peter Apps and Alastair Macdonald in London, Aaron Gray-Block in Amsterdam, Mark John in Dakar, Nicholas Vinocur in Paris, Waleed Ibrahim and Jim Loney in Baghdad, Brian Rohan in Benghazi, Barry Malone and Maria Golovnina in Tripoli and Ibrahim Diallo in Agadez, Niger; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Tim Pearce and Ralph Gowling)

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Gaddafi 'buried in Libya desert'

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25 October 2011 Last updated at 18:23 GMT Footage apparently showing the Gaddafi bodies being prepared for burial has been released

The bodies of ex-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, his son Mutassim and a top aide have been buried in secret in the desert, Libyan officials say.

A National Transitional Council (NTC) official told the BBC the bodies were buried at dawn in an unknown location.

This follows days of apparent uncertainty among the new leadership about what to do with the bodies.

Gaddafi's family wanted them buried outside the former leader's hometown of Sirte.

NTC leaders had expressed a preference for a secret burial.

Late on Tuesday, Dubai-based TV channel al-A'an broadcast footage it said showed Gaddafi's funeral.

The footage, which was filmed at night, shows a group of men dressed in civilian clothes walking around three wooden coffins.

A man is seen tucking in the traditional white cloth used to wrap bodies according to Islamic burial custom.

The pictures have not been independently verified.

Bound by Fatwa

Officials have given few details of the ceremony.

They say it took place early on Tuesday. A few relatives and officials were in attendance and Islamic prayers were read.

Continue reading the main story Gabriel Gatehouse BBC News, Misrata

The tussle over the body was between the Misratan military brigades who captured and killed Col Gaddafi on Thursday and the politicians - the National Transitional Council - who are now trying to take charge of the whole of this country.

The body of Col Gaddafi was the number-one war trophy after eight months of civil war.

The tussle over it was all part of a behind-the-scenes positioning for power in the new Libya that we'll probably see the aftershocks of reverberating out in the weeks and months to come.

Libya's Minister for Information Mahmoud Shammam said the NTC was following a fatwa, or religious ruling.

"It says that his body should not be buried in Muslim cemeteries and should not be buried in a known place to avoid any sedition," Mr Shammam said.

An NTC official had earlier told Reuters news agency that Col Gaddafi would be buried in a "simple" ceremony with "sheikhs attending" on Tuesday.

"It will be an unknown location in the open desert," he said, adding that a burial was needed because decomposition of the body had reached the point where the "corpse cannot last any longer".

Gaddafi, Mutassim and former Defence Minister Abu Bakr Younis Jabr were killed on Thursday following the fall of Sirte, the last major pro-Gaddafi bastion.

Witnesses said the bodies had been removed late on Monday from the meat storage warehouse in Misrata where they had been on display.

The BBC was told prayers were said over the bodies before they were driven away.

"Our job is finished," a security guard at the warehouse, Salem al Mohandes, told the Arabic television station al-Jazeera. "[Gaddafi] was transferred and the military council of Misrata took him away to an unknown location."

Shrine fears

The BBC's Katya Adler in Tripoli says the question of how to dispose of Gaddafi's body has been a political minefield for the new Libyan leadership, and is the reason why it has taken four days for a decision to be taken.

Islamic tradition dictates a burial should happen within a day of the death.

But the NTC leadership was concerned that any public grave could become a shrine for Gaddafi loyalists or a target of hatred for those who opposed his regime, our correspondent says.

In the end, she adds, the decomposition of the body meant the NTC had to act.

Questions have been raised over the former leader's death after video footage showed him alive at the time of capture. Officials said he had been killed subsequently in a crossfire.

A post-mortem examination carried out on the 69-year-old's body on Sunday showed he had received a bullet wound to the head, medical sources said.

Acting Libyan leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil said the NTC had formed a committee to investigate the circumstances surrounding his death.

Meanwhile another of Gaddafi's sons, Saif al-Islam, remains at large. He is believed to have fled towards the desert border with Niger.

A Niger official said Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was travelling with ethnic Tuaregs - who were among Gaddafi's supporters.

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Quote: Libya's New Leaders Declare Liberation from Gaddafi

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Libyan celebrate after the Muslim Friday prayer at Martyrs Square in Tripoli, Libya, Friday Oct. 21, 2011.

Francois Mori / AP

"This is the humiliating end that God wanted to set as example for anyone who practices the worst forms of injustice ... against their people."

--SALEH EL GHAZAL, a Libyan official, declared his nation's liberation from the tyranny of Gaddafi on Sunday. Tens of thousands gathered in Benghazi for the announcement. Ghazal paid tribute to the fighters who died in the conflict. (via MSNBC)

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Libyan PM says wishes Gaddafi had not been killed

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Libya's de facto Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mahmoud Jibril gestures at a news conference in New York in this September 23, 2011 file photo.

Credit: Reuters/Chip East/Files

LONDON | Sat Oct 22, 2011 6:53pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Libya's Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said in an interview with the BBC on Saturday he wished former dictator Muammar Gaddafi had not been killed and instead had been put on trial for his crimes.

Gaddafi's body remained on public display in Libya on Saturday, bearing wounds assumed to have been inflicted by fighters who hauled him from a drain in his hometown Sirte.

"To be honest with you at the personal level I wish he was alive. I want to know why he did this to the Libyan people," the BBC quoted Jibril as saying in remarks made available ahead of broadcast early on Sunday.

"I wish I were his prosecutor in his trial, you know," he added. "Because this is the question which is in everybody's mind: Why? Did the Libyan people deserve what he did throughout 42 years of oppression, of killing, of everything?"

UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay has called for an investigation of the killing. Asked whether he would conduct a full investigation and allow an international team to monitor it, Jibril said:

"Yes, that would be absolutely okay with us you know, but for the body when it's buried, you know, according to Islamic rule ... when it's buried, it's buried.

"We got the coroner's report, I saw the body myself. I can testify that there were no bruises on his face or on his body."

Jibril acknowledged there had been "some limited violations of human rights" in Libya's revolution.

He also suggested Libya's interim authorities might welcome continued support from NATO beyond the end of October, when it plans to conclude its air campaign.

"I don't think there will be a need for that, but just in case," he said.

(Writing by Andrew Roche; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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Libyans urged to unite after death of Gaddafi

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1 of 31. Chairman of the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) Mustafa Abdel Jalil (C) visits fighters, injured during fighting in Sirte, in Benghazi Medical Center October 22, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Esam Al-Fetori

By Brian Rohan and Yasmine Saleh

BENGHAZI, Libya | Sat Oct 22, 2011 8:50pm EDT

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Libya is to declare its bitter eight-month civil war against Muammar Gaddafi's 42 years of eccentric one-man rule over Sunday and embark on building a democracy with the country's first free elections next year.

Tens of thousands are expected to pack into the central square in the second city Benghazi, the cradle of the uprising against Gaddafi, to witness interim government leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil announce the "liberation" of Libya.

With huge oil and gas resources and a relatively small population of some six million, Libya has the potential to become a prosperous country, but regional and tribal rivalries fostered by Gaddafi could erupt into yet more violence.

Libya's new leaders have a "very limited opportunity" to put aside their differences, said interim prime minister Mahmoud Jibril as he announced he was stepping down Saturday.

Jibril said progress for Libya would need great resolution, both by interim leaders on the National Transitional Council and by six million war-weary people: "First," he said, "What kind of resolve the NTC will show in the next few days?

"And the other thing depends mainly on the Libyan people - whether they differentiate between the past and the future."

He added: "I am counting on them to look ahead and remember the kind of agony they went through in the last 42 years.

REGIONAL INFIGHTING

The loosely disciplined militias that sprang up in each town to topple the dictator with the help of NATO airpower are still armed and the places they represent will want a greater say in the country's future, particularly the second and third cities Benghazi and Misrata who were starved of investment by Gaddafi.

It was fighters from Misrata who emerged from a lengthy and bloody siege to play the biggest part in taking Tripoli and they who caught Gaddafi cowering in a drainage pipe outside Sirte.

And it was back to Misrata those fighters brought Gaddafi's body to put it on display for two days in a cold storage container for Libyans to see with their own eyes that the hated leader truly was dead.

"There are other brigades from all over the country who fought to defeat Gaddafi. But it's true the Misrata freedom fighters were mostly responsible for taking Tripoli and for capturing Gaddafi," a Tripoli-based interim government official, who did not want to be named for fear of prejudicing delicate negotiations about posts in the new government, told Reuters.

"The city will have to be rewarded for that and I think that it will be," he said.

But a field commander in Misrata worried that trouble was brewing:

"The fear now is what is going to happen next," he said, speaking to Reuters privately, as ordinary Libyans, some taking pictures for family albums, filed in under armed guard to see for themselves that the man they feared was truly dead.

"There is going to be regional in-fighting. You have Zintan and Misrata on one side and then Benghazi and the east," the guerrilla said. "There is in-fighting even inside the army."

NEW DEMOCRACY

There is some unease abroad over what many believe was a summary execution and UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay has called for an investigation into the killing, but very few Libyans share any of those concerns.

Arguments have arisen though between Libya's factions about what to do with the corpse which has not been accorded the swift burial required by Islamic law and is already beginning to decompose. Those viewing the body Saturday were obliged to cover their faces with surgical masks.

Gaddafi's surviving family, in exile, want his body and that of his son Mo'tassim to be handed over to tribal kinsmen from Sirte. NTC officials said they were trying to arrange a secret resting place to avoid loyalist supporters making it a shrine. Misrata does not want it under its soil.

The disputes within the NTC have delayed the announcement of an end to the war several times.

But such worries are unlikely to be paramount in the minds of many Libyans Sunday as they celebrate the beginning of a new era in their country's history.

It will set a clock ticking on a plan for a new government and constitutional assembly leading to full democracy in 2013.

"We hope we will have an elected democratic government with broad participation," said student Ali Abu Shufa. Gaddafi promoted tribalism to keep the country divided, he said. "But now Gaddafi is dead, all the tribes will be united."

(Additional reporting by Taha Zargoun in Sirte, Barry Malone and Jessica Donati in Tripoli, Rania El Gamal and Tim Gaynor in Misrata, Christian Lowe and Andrew Hammond in Tunis, Samia Nakhoul in Amman, Tom Pfeiffer at Dead Sea, Jordan; Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by Andrew Roche)

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Gaddafi gunmen, government forces clash in Libyan capital

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Smoke rises over the western side of Tripoli, October 14, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Suhaib Salem

By Barry Malone

TRIPOLI | Fri Oct 14, 2011 6:24pm EDT

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Gunbattles between supporters of deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi and forces of the National Transitional Council (NTC) shook the Libyan capital on Friday, raising fears of an insurgency against the country's new rulers.

The clashes appeared to be isolated and involve only dozens of pro-Gaddafi fighters, but it was the first sign of armed resistance to the NTC in Tripoli since its rebel brigades seized the city and ended Gaddafi's 42-year rule in August.

Hundreds of NTC fighters in pick-up trucks shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) careered toward the Abu Salim neighborhood, a repository of support for Gaddafi, and the two sides exchanged automatic and heavy machinegun fire.

The fighting in Tripoli coincided with prolonged battles in Sirte, where NTC forces are battling pro-Gaddafi fighters holed up in a small area of Gaddafi's home town.

Local people in Tripoli told Reuters that a group of up to 50 armed men had appeared in the Abu Salim district earlier in the day and chanted pro-Gaddafi slogans. NTC men said fighting also broke out in three nearby neighborhoods.

"Gaddafi told them in a message last night to rise up after Friday prayers," said one NTC fighter, Abdullah. "That's why these few people have come out and are causing this problem."

Since he went into hiding after rebel forces captured Tripoli on August 23, Gaddafi has released a number of audio recordings calling on loyalists to fight back.

Two Gaddafi supporters and one NTC fighter were killed in Friday's violence in Tripoli, NTC official Abdel Razak al Oraidi said during a press conference in the capital.

"Orders were issued to raise the state of alert to the maximum," Oraidi said. "Gaddafi supporters should give up their weapons. Those who do not do so will be considered terrorists."

NTC fighters dragged one man out of an apartment block in Abu Salim, a traditional bastion of support for Gaddafi. As he was kicked and punched, one NTC man tried twice to stab the prisoner only to be blocked each time by another NTC man.

The captured man had been armed with a rocket-propelled grenade, said NTC fighters. The interim government's forces have been criticized by human rights groups for their treatment of prisoners. Reuters saw at least two other captured gunmen taken away in pickup trucks being punched and kicked.

Dominated by apartment blocks, Abu Salim was the last part of the capital to fall to the NTC when its forces took Tripoli on August 23 after six months of civil war.

The NTC fighters were met by volleys of machinegun fire as they went from house to house searching for remaining pro-Gaddafi gunmen. Shooting died down later in the afternoon.

"Some Gaddafi cells came out on the streets with guns today after prayers but, as you can see, our forces have the situation under control," said a senior NTC official at the scene under heavy protection, Mahmoud Abdul Aziz.

"All families are safe. If Gaddafi is still at large we won't see peace but we will slay that beast."

A spokesman for the NTC in the eastern city of Benghazi dismissed Gaddafi's armed supporters in Tripoli as a "fifth column" trying to destabilize the country.

"The other thing I hear that is disturbing is that the fifth column has been doing some drive-by shootings around Tripoli today. These are loyalists trying to wreak havoc," he said.

Diplomats told Reuters that there were also drive-by shootings near the Radisson hotel, where some senior NTC officials and Western diplomats are staying.

SIRTE STILL HOLDING OUT

Gaddafi supporters are still holding out in Sirte, Gaddafi's Mediterranean coastal hometown in the center of the country, where a small pocket is battling on after weeks of fighting, and Bani Walid, a town south of Tripoli.

Government forces pushed tanks deep into Sirte on Friday to try to smash resistance by pro-Gaddafi fighters.

The mostly untrained NTC militia army has gradually tightened its stranglehold around Sirte in a chaotic struggle that has cost scores of lives and left thousands homeless.

The failure to seize the final Gaddafi bastions has also held up the attempt by Libya's new leaders to try to build a democratic government, a process they say will begin only after Sirte is captured.

NTC commanders say Gaddafi's diehard loyalists now only control an area measuring about 700 meters (yards) north to south, and around 1.5 km (a mile) east to west in a residential neighborhood comprising mostly apartment blocks.

"We are going to engage them with tanks and heavy artillery first. After that we will send in the pick-up trucks with anti-aircraft guns, then the infantry," said NTC commander Abdul Hadi Doghman.

The biggest obstacle to taking the town has been Gaddafi's snipers hunkered down in buildings.

Green flags, the banner of Gaddafi's rule, still fly above many of the buildings in Sirte. An occasional sniper shot zipped past government forces cleaning their weapons.

Gaddafi's encircled forces in Sirte have little hope of victory, but still fight on, inflicting casualties with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and small arms.

Gaddafi himself is believed to be hiding somewhere in the vast desert of southern Libya.

FEAR OF REPRISALS

One NTC commander said Gaddafi's forces were no longer using heavier weapons and appeared to have lost their cohesion.

"We've noticed now they are fighting every man for himself," said Baloun al-Sharie, a field commander. "We tried to tell them it's enough and to give themselves up, but they would not."

NTC officers say Gaddafi loyalists fear reprisals if they surrender -- some captured fighters have been abused.

A Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) doctor at Sirte's Ibn Sina hospital estimated there are still some 10,000 people marooned by the fighting in the city of 75,000 residents. Many of those trapped are women or children and some need medical care.

"In the past few days, the patients haven't been able to receive proper medical care, due to a shortage of doctors and due to the lack of water," said Gabriele Rossi. "The wounds of some patients are really bad and very infected."

Amnesty International issued a report on Wednesday saying Libya's new rulers were in danger of repeating human rights abuses commonplace under Gaddafi. The NTC said it would look into the report.

(Additional reporting by Rania El Gamal and Tim Gaynor in Sirte; Brian Rohan in Benghazi and Ali Shuaid and Yasmine Saleh in Cairo; Writing by Joseph Nasr and Jon Hemming; Editing by Alastair Macdonald, Peter Graff and Mark Heinrich)

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Heavy fighting in Gaddafi bastion

September 27 2011-11: 05 GMT state anti-Gaddafi forces against the fortress in the Gulf of Sirte for the first time on Monday it has heavy fighting in the Libyan Sirte, where armed supporters of the transitional authorities strong resistance Gaddafi loyalists are exposed.

A BBC correspondent on the outskirts of the city says that the two sides have Exchange was machine gun fire, rockets and artillery shells.

Many thousands of civilians remain in Sirte, East of the capital Tripoli.

Aid agencies expressed concern about the conditions facing you.

Sirte is still one of the last strongholds of supporters of the beleaguered Colonel with Bani Walid 250 km (155 miles) to the West which hold only other big city.

Sniper

Hundreds of National Transitional Council (NTC) troops are in Sirte, but snipers they kept a step forward in the center of the city, Reuters news agency reported.

For a second day, forces at a roundabout anti-Gaddafi were 2 km (1.5 km) from the city centre, it fixed said.

"Forces have put a lot of snipers around the roundabout to Gaddafi and it is not easy for us to promote us, until we get rid of the snipers," said Ahmed Saleh, a NTC fighter, told of Reuters.

The Agency said explosions, artillery rounds and exchanges of small arms fire heard and NATO aircraft were flying overhead.

There were also clashes in the port.

Humanitarian agencies warn that Walid asked civilians in Sirte and Bani have to help, say, medical supplies and food are scarce.

As soon as the fighting under way and both sides create front lines will, says it is a good indicator whether Sirte will fall quickly or whether it urban will sink warfare into dangerous which kill and injure many civilians and soldiers, the BBC's Alastair Leithead in the city.

The firepower and determination of the new Government Libyan army be Col Gaddafi he says hometown, but with propaganda, which say that the rebels want revenge, defence Sirte to fight until death, who think they have nothing to lose.

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Libyan NTC forces thrust deep into Gaddafi home town

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1 of 7. Forces loyal to Libya's interim rulers fire heavy machine guns as smoke rises from Muammar Gaddafi's hometown Sirte September 24, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Anis Mili

By Alexander Dziadosz

SIRTE, Libya | Sat Sep 24, 2011 9:32pm EDT

SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan interim government forces backed by NATO warplanes have mounted their deepest thrust into Muammar Gaddafi's home town of Sirte, getting as close as half a kilometer from the center of the deposed leader's coastal stronghold.

Gunfire could be heard coming from the town center and black smoke rose as National Transitional Council (NTC) forces massed in Zafran Square on Saturday and moved up tanks and mortars. Pick-up trucks mounted with machineguns and loaded with fighters raced in.

Field medics said two NTC soldiers had been killed and more than 20 wounded in the fighting against pro-Gaddafi forces.

"They have snipers above the mosques, above the buildings. They're using the houses and public buildings," NTC fighter El-Tohamy Abuzein told Reuters from his position in Zafran Square.

The NTC assault plan has divided Sirte into three zones. "They took area number one and they are fighting in area number two and they are holding there until morning," NTC commander Fathi Bafhaaga told Reuters.

Reuters journalists at the scene said it was the deepest NTC fighters had got into Sirte, but it was not possible to verify whether the NTC was holding onto its gains overnight.

Taking Sirte would be a huge boost for the NTC as it tries to establish credibility as a government, and a devastating blow for Gaddafi, widely believed to be on the run inside Libya.

NATO, whose warplanes played a vital role in the six-month war that toppled Gaddafi, said its planes had hit a number of targets in Sirte in the previous 24 hours, including an ammunition depot and an anti-aircraft gun.

It said in a statement the air attacks had been mounted to protect civilians from Gaddafi forces inside the town.

"Among the reports emerging from Sirte are executions, hostage-taking, and the calculated targeting of individuals, families, and communities within the city," NATO said.

Previously, NTC forces have retreated from Sirte and the other final Gaddafi stronghold, Bani Walid, after poorly organized assaults met fierce resistance from his loyalists.

Though NTC forces have tightened their grip in the past few days on southern oasis towns that sided with Gaddafi, that progress has been overshadowed by unsuccessful efforts to take the last strongholds.

NTC commanders say their advance on Sirte has been hampered by the presence of large numbers of civilians, many of whom have fled in the past week.

A Gaddafi spokesman has accused NATO of killing several hundred civilians in strikes on Sirte. Communications have been largely cut off since the fall of the capital Tripoli last month.

"FORBIDDEN" WEAPONS FOUND

NTC leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said on Saturday interim government forces had found suspected internationally banned weapons near the towns of Sabha and Wadan, but he gave no details about them.

"There are weapons believed to be internationally forbidden, and they are under our control," he told a news conference at the NTC's headquarters in its eastern Benghazi base.

"We will seek help from local experts and the international community to get rid of these weapons in a suitable way."

The NTC, the political leadership of the rebel movement that rose up against Gaddafi's 42-year-rule and drove him from power with support from the West and several Arab nations, faces a challenge in trying to impose its authority across Libya.

It said last week it would move to Tripoli only after its forces were in full control of Libyan territory, contradicting an earlier pledge to move the interim administration from Benghazi around mid-September.

Raising a new challenge, Abdelraouf al-Kurdi, a representative of fighters from a Tripoli district, said arms seized from sites in the capital had been taken to other parts of Libya by fighters who filled the city to overthrow Gaddafi.

Interim government forces operate in disparate units based on their home towns, with little overall command.

NTC officials have said Gaddafi used mercenaries from sub-Saharan Africa to bolster his ranks during the war.

Tanks were seen moving beyond the gate toward Sirte and Reuters journalists said NTC forces got to within 40 km of the city and were planning to hold that position after nightfall.

"We are coming for you, wild-haired one," fighters chanted, referring to Gaddafi.

On Thursday, the NTC said it had taken full control of Sabha, which was the traditional base for Gaddafi's own tribe. About 800 km (500 miles) south of Tripoli, it had been occupied by fighters loyal to him.

The NTC says it also controls Jufra, to the northeast of Sabha, and the nearby oasis towns of Sokna, Waddan and Houn.

The manhunt for Gaddafi, who has been in hiding for weeks occasionally issuing audio messages through Syrian-based Arrai TV, is drawing closer to its target, NTC officials say.

(Reporting by Goran Tomasevic south of Sirte, Sherine El Madany east of Sirte, William Maclean and Joseph Logan in Tripoli, Emad Omar in Benghazi and John O'Donnell in Brussels; Writing by Barry Malone; Editing by Ralph Gowling)

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Libya NTC faces credibility test at Gaddafi strongholds

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's new government said it had tightened its grip on oasis towns which sided with Muammar Gaddafi, but faced a tough fight to take two remaining strongholds loyal to the ousted leader and bolster its credibility.
Forces of the National Transitional Council (NTC) said they controlled a string of desert towns in Libya's deep south, although they said Gaddafi loyalists were still holding out in pockets of at least one oasis.
So far they have failed to take the two much larger loyalist strongholds far to the north, Bani Walid and Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte, in a series of chaotic offensives which have raised questions about the NTC's ability to control the country.
Until Thursday, some parts of Sabha, the traditional base for Gaddafi's own tribe about 800 km (500 miles) south of Tripoli, had been occupied by fighters loyal to the leader who lost control of the capital and most of the country last month.
"Our revolutionaries are controlling 100 percent of Sabha city, although there are some pockets of resistance by snipers," NTC military spokesman Ahmed Bani said in Tripoli.
"This resistance is hopeless ... They know very well that at the end of the day they will show the white flag or they will die. They are fighting for themselves, not for the tyrant," he told reporters, referring to Gaddafi.
The U.N. atomic agency said on Thursday that Gaddafi's government had stored raw uranium near Sabha, after CNN reported that NTC forces had found a military site containing what appeared to be radioactive material.
In Vienna, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) spokeswoman Gill Tudor said: "We can confirm that there is yellow cake stored in drums at a site near Sabha ... which Libya previously declared to the IAEA."
The NTC says it also controls Jufra, to the northeast of Sabha, and the nearby oasis towns of Sokna, Waddan, and Houn.
A manhunt for Gaddafi, who has been in hiding for weeks although he occasionally issues defiant audio messages, was drawing closer to its target, said Bani.
"We are doing our best looking for the tyrant. There is some news here and there that he ran away from Sabha to another place but it cannot be confirmed," he said.
The NTC, Libya's de facto government since Gaddafi's fall, has been anxious to show that it can establish firm control over a country riven by tribal and regional rivalries.
But, despite support from NATO warplanes, government forces have struggled to capture Sirte, the biggest city outside its control.
This is a complex job because many residents sympathize with Gaddafi. The city typifies the problem the NTC faces in reconciling the significant parts of the country that have tribal loyalties to Gaddafi or did not support the revolution.
A spokesman for Gaddafi, Moussa Ibrahim, said on Thursday that NATO air strikes and interim government forces' shelling of Sirte were killing civilians.
"Between yesterday and this morning, 151 civilians were killed inside their homes as the Grad rockets and other explosives fell upon their heads," he told Reuters by satellite phone from an undisclosed location.
His claims could not be verified as journalists are unable to reach the city. NATO comment was not immediately available.
Rebel fighters near Sirte and residents fleeing the city said pro-Gaddafi forces had been executing people suspected of sympathizing with the NTC.
North of Bani Walid, NTC military forces brought forward tanks and Grad rocket launchers for a renewed attempt to take the town although it was not clear when the attack might begin.
The offensive there has been frustrated by stiff resistance from well-drilled loyalist fighters, and also by a lack of organization among the NTC forces. They operate in disparate units based on their home towns, with little overall command.
Many fighters go into battle wearing flip-flop sandals, T-shirts and jeans and have no military training. "We don't take orders from the NTC. We listen only to our own commander," said Ziyad Al Khemri, a fighter from Zawiyah, just west of Tripoli.
If the NTC cannot swiftly take control of the country and its own forces, this may embarrass Western leaders, especially France's Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain's David Cameron, who took a gamble by backing the anti-Gaddafi leadership.
"We have set up a unified operations room to unite all brigades," said brigade commander Omar Kabout. "The purpose is to increase coordination and end all this chaos because many rebels have arrived without commanders. We need to put them into brigades and stop all this random shooting."
(Reporting by Tarek Amara in Tunis, Emma Farge in Tripoli, Maria Golovnian north of Bani Walid, Sherine El Madany east of Sirte, Alexander Dziadosz west of Sirte and Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers and Dina Zayed in Cairo; Writing by David Stamp; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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Fresh shelling by Gaddafi forces

  Shellfire from pro-Gaddafi forces lands at the northern gate of Bani Walid on Sunday Troops loyal to ousted Libyan leader Col Mummar Gaddafi have launched fresh attacks around the town of Bani Walid.

Anti-Gaddafi forces are making slow progress at Sirte

Loyalists are holding strategic high ground and are firing mortars and using snipers to target anti-Gaddafi forces.
Anti-Gaddafi forces are making slow progress at another loyalist stronghold - the coastal town of Sirte.
Meanwhile the National Transitional Council, Libya's interim leadership, said announcement of a new cabinet had been postponed.
The number two in the council, Mahmoud Jibril, said last-minute haggling had "indefinitely" delayed the decision, AFP news agency said.
'Big fight'
Anti-Gaddafi forces had tried to take Bani Walid, 140km (90 miles) south-east of the capital Tripoli, on Friday but were forced to retreat.
Heavy clashes have continued since then.
Reports from Bani Walid say explosions and sustained machine-gun fire were heard on Sunday morning when pro-Gaddafi forces shelled enemy positions on the outskirts of the town.
Mortars targeted a building housing anti-Gaddafi troops, along with the town's northern entrance.
One anti-Gaddafi commander, Absalim Gnuna, told Reuters news agency: "We fought all night. We have surrounded the city from all sides with the range of 40km.
"Most areas north of the central valley are clear. It is a big fight."
Mr Gnuna said he also had orders to try to help families trapped in the town to escape.
Fighters from nearby Tajoura are reported to have arrived to reinforce the anti-Gaddafi units.
At Sirte, anti-Gaddafi forces made some progress but struggled to gain a secure foothold on Saturday.
They regularly sent in gun-mounted pick-up trucks amid heavy exchanges of machine-gun and rocket fire.
The military council in nearby Misrata said 24 anti-Gaddafi fighters were killed and 54 wounded on Saturday.
NTC spokesman Ahmed Bani said its forces had taken control of the airport and a major air base, although one fighter told Agence France-Presse there were still clashes near the airport.
The fighter, Abdul Rauf al-Mansuri, said: "We don't even have 5% of Sirte because we just go in and out."
A teacher fleeing Sirte, Nouri Abu Bakr, told Associated Press conditions there were worsening, with no electricity or medicine and food supplies nearly exhausted.
"Gaddafi gave all the people weapons, but those fighting are the Gaddafi brigade of loyalists," he said.
Col Gaddafi has been in hiding since opposition forces captured the capital Tripoli in August.
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