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1 of 18. Libyans celebrate after hearing the capture of Muammar Gaddafi's son Mo'tassim, at Martyrs square in Tripoli October 12, 2011. Three officials representing Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) told Reuters on Wednesday that Mo'tassim was captured in Sirte on Tuesday, trying to escape the town in a car with a family.
Credit: Reuters/Suhaib SalemBy Ahmed Seif and Rania El Gamal
TRIPOLI/SIRTE, Libya | Thu Oct 13, 2011 6:14am EDT
TRIPOLI/SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan government fighters have captured Muammar Gaddafi's son Mo'tassim as he tried to escape the battle-torn city of Sirte, National Transitional Council (NTC) officials told Reuters.
The capture of the deposed leader's national security adviser, and the first member of the Gaddafi family, is a big boost to Libya's new rulers whose forces are still battling pro-Gaddafi fighters in his home town of Sirte.
"He was arrested today in Sirte," Colonel Abdullah Naker told Reuters Wednesday. Other NTC sources said Mo'tassim was taken to Benghazi where he was questioned at the Boatneh military camp where he is being held. He was uninjured but exhausted.
Hundreds of NTC fighters took to the streets in several Libyan cities and fired shots in the air in celebration.
Gaddafi loyalists have fought tenaciously for weeks in Sirte, one of just two major towns where they still have footholds, two months after rebels seized the capital Tripoli.
NTC foot soldiers cleaned their weapons and began to move up to the front line in Sirte Thursday while tanks and rocket launchers bombarded the remaining small pockets of resistance.
It was not yet clear whether resistance would crumble from the Gaddafi loyalist side now that Mo'tassim had been captured, or whether his remaining troops would fight on, or whether they were even aware of the news.
Mo'tassim belonged to a conservative camp -- rooted in the military and security forces -- which resisted his brother Saif al-Islam's reform attempts, analysts said.
A senior NTC military official told Reuters that Mo'tassim had cut his usually long hair shorter to disguise himself.
Gaddafi and his most politically prominent son, Saif Al-Islam, have been on the run since the fall of Tripoli in August. Gaddafi himself is believed to be hiding somewhere far to the south in the vast Libyan desert.
His daughter Aisha, her brothers Hannibal and Mohammed, their mother Safi and several other family members fled to Algeria in August and have lived their since. Another son, Saadi, is in Niger.
NTC field commanders say more than 80 percent of Sirte is now under their control. Gaddafi's men are still in parts of the "Number Two" and the 'Dollar' neighborhoods," they say.
Green flags, the symbol of Gaddafi's 42 years in power, still fly above many of the buildings in the neighborhoods.
In the "Number Two" neighborhood, government forces found 25 corpses wrapped in plastic sheets. They accused pro-Gaddafi militias of carrying out execution-style killings.
Five corpses shown to a Reuters team wore civilian clothes and had their hands tied behind their backs and gunshot wounds to the head.
"There are about 25 innocent people with their hands tied. There is no humanity. It's sad," said NTC commander Salem al Fitouri standing besides the corpses, which he said had been there for at least five days.
Medical workers at a hospital outside Sirte said four NTC fighters were killed and 43 others were wounded Wednesday.
The NTC has said it will start the process of rebuilding Libya as a democracy only after the capture of Sirte, a former fishing village transformed by Gaddafi into a showpiece replete with lavish conference halls and hotels.
(Additional reporting by Tim Gaynor in Sirte, and Barry Malone and Joseph Logan in Tripoli; Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by Giles Elgood)
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