Tripoli, 20 October:
The Qaddafi regime’s media spokesman, Moussa . . .[restrict]Ibrahim, has been reported as captured in Bani Walid and is now being held at Mitiga airbase in Tripoli. He was said to have been flown to Tripoli from Misrata this afternoon.
Around 30 other Qaddafi figures are also said to have been caught in the past 24 hours in and around the town, both as a result of fighting there and when the national army entered it early today.
The names of several have been mentioned, including those of General Abdurrahman Al-Sid, Muftah Kaayiba, the onetime Secretary of the General People’s Congress, and Ramadan Bashir.
At least one other top Qaddafi figure, Colonel Milad Al-Faqhi, was also reported to have been captured shortly after midday while escaping the besieged town in a four-wheel vehicle. Qaddafi’s military spokesman and the man accused of being responsible for the siege and assault on Zawia last year, Faqhi is said to have also been taken to Mitiga airbase in Tripoli.
He was reported killed in May last year when a NATO strike hit an intelligence headquarters in Tripoli.
Car horns in the capital were being hooted during the afternoon as news spread of the captures However, there was no official confirmation of any names.
“We know that Moussa Ibrahim was in Bani Walid,” said one Western ambassador in Tripoli today. “We also know that as many as 30 Qaddafi supporters have been captured in the town”, he added but did not know their identities.
According to official reports, the capture of numerous former regime officials and commanders followed the national army’ entry into Bani Walid from the east side at sunrise this morning. Sources said that it was being helped in its house-to-house searches by local residents. However, the Libya Herald’s George Grant was in Sufageen Valley to the east of Bani Walid this morning and saw no sign of any military activity.
There is also a degree of scepticism in Tripoli that such a large number of former regime figures could so conveniently be captured on the first anniversary of Qaddafi’s death.
However, it is claimed that the fighting in Bani Walid today has been intense. Earlier this afternoon, it was reported that up to that point 10 Misratan men had been wounded during the day.
The whereabouts of Moussa Ibrahim, whose constant aggressive denial of reality last year made him only marginally less hated than Qaddafi and his family, has been a mystery ever since the regime finally fell. There were reports of him being in Bani Walid, in Algeria, in Egypt and even in Germany: his wife is German.
There are also persistent reports that Khamis Qaddafi is or until a couple of days ago was in Bani Walid. One report today has Ibrahim in hospital in Misrata “confirming” that the dictator’s youngest son was in Bani Walid. Anther rumour is that he was lifted out of the town by helicopter some days ago.
Like Faqhi, Khamis was supposed to have been killed last year. However, lack of evidence has fuelled the rumour mill that he was still alive. What has been reported today, however, is that various military equipment belonging to Qaddafi supporters was seized in Bani Walid this morning including large numbers of weapons, a T92 tank and an air defence system belonging to Qaddafi’s 32nd Brigade, better known as the Khamis Brigade.
Many families have been leaving the town over the past 24 hours. According to soldiers manning the checkpoint on the road to Sirte, as many as 150 families left last night. This morning they reported just four or five.
Among those today was a small boy whom the soldiers say would not stop crying. People tried to comfort him to no avail. Eventually he did stop and was then asked why he had been crying. “They shot my father in front of me”, was his reply according to one of the soliders. The story, if true, would seem to back up reports that Bani Walid forces have been trying to prevent ordinary civilians from leaving in the hope of using them as hostages and human shields.
[/restrict]
