The seventh and youngest son of the Libyan slain strongman Muammar al-Qaddafi has been declared dead after his capture on Saturday, sources told Al Arabiya. The sources said that Khamis al-Qaddafi, who was a military commander in charge of the Khamis Brigade of the Libyan Army, was severely wounded when arrested.
Hiteen Brigade, belonging to the Military Revolutionary Council in the northwestern city of Misrata, arrested Qaddafi’s son, exactly a year after the dictator’s death, the sources added.
However, Mohammed Maqrif, Head of the Libyan National Congress, told Al Arabiya that Qaddafi’s son was killed during the Bani Walid clashes on Saturday.
There were conflicting reports about Qaddafi’s son whereabouts, some mulled that he fled to Niger.
Capture of Qaddafi’s spokesman
In the same day, Libyan militias captured Qaddafi’s former spokesman, while leader Mohammed Magarief said some areas of the country still needed to be fully “liberated.”
Despite Libya was declared “liberated” a few days after Qaddafi’s capture and its new rulers have led the nation to elections, they have struggled to impose their authority on a country awash with weapons.
Moussa Ibrahim, who was the mouthpiece of the Qaddafi regime during last year’s war, was caught in the town of Tarhouna, 70 km (40 miles) south of Tripoli.
“Moussa Ibrahim has been arrested by forces belonging to the Libyan government in the town of Tarhouna and he is being transferred to Tripoli to begin interrogation,” a statement from the prime minister’s office said.
The government has previously made false claims regarding the capture of Qaddafi loyalists, and produced no photographs on Saturday showing Ibrahim in detention.
His whereabouts have been unknown since the fall of the capital in August 2011. The government claimed to have caught him last October but he called Reuters to deny the report.
Fluent in English, Ibrahim would hold regular press conferences in the luxury Tripoli hotel were journalists stayed during last year’s war.
Former revolutionary fighters have maintained Qaddafi loyalists have used the town of Bani Walid as a safe haven, protected by the large Warfala tribe which has historically been loyal to Qaddafi’s tribe.
Clashes in ex-Qaddafi bastion
Clashes between Libyan pro-government forces and fighters of Bani Walid, a former bastion of Qaddafi, killed nine people on Saturday and wounded more than 100 others, AFP reported a medical official as saying.
“The hospital has received nine people killed and 122 wounded,” from the fighting, said the medical official in the city of Misrata, northeast of Bani Walid, where pro-government forces are being treated.
“Most of the injuries were caused by light weapons, suggesting close-quarter fighting, and some were hurt by shrapnel,” the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Witnesses said that Misrata’s main hospital was packed with the wounded and their distraught relatives and that ambulances were constantly arriving with more casualties from the battlefront.
The fighting erupted as pro-government forces pushed into the center Bani Walid to snuff out criminals and diehard former regime loyalists who found shelter there, Colonel Ali al-Sheikhi, spokesman of the chief of staff, said.
The violence comes exactly one year after Qaddafi was captured and killed in his hometown Sirte, which was the last city to fall to NATO-backed rebels in the 2011 conflict that ousted his regime.
Confusion over Gaddafi spokesman’s capture
Conflicting reports surround the whereabouts of Moussa Ibrahim, who served as the last spokesman for deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The prime minister’s office had reported the arrest of Ibrahim just outside of Bani Walid, in a town southwest of the capital Tripoli.
But a government spokesman has since denied that Ibrahim is being held in custody.
Mustafa Abu Shagur, Libya’s deputy prime minister, on Saturday posted the following on microblogging site Twitter: “Criminal Moussa Ibrahim was arrested and he is now on his way to Tripoli.”
A brief statement sent to journalists after rumours that Ibrahim had been detained spread on social networking sites said: “Moussa Ibrahim was arrested at a checkpoint in the town of Tarhuna.
“[He] is being taken to Tripoli where he will be handed over to the pertinent authorities to begin questioning.”
Al Jazeera’s Omar al-Saleh, reporting from Tripoli, said that the town of Bani Walid has been the scene of deadly clashes in recent days.
“The town of Bani Walid has been besieged for the last three weeks. Government forces and former rebels are trying to enter the city to capture wanted Gaddafi loyalists,” he said.
“The town has a reputation of being a safe haven for Gaddafi loyalists.”
At least 26 people have been killed and many others injured in the fighting, according to reports.
Rumours of Ibrahim’s arrest and that of other personalities of the former regime said to be fleeing from Bani Walid had swirled since Saturday morning but officials were unable to provide immediate confirmation.
There are also reports that the former leader’s youngest son Khamis Gaddafi has been captured or killed in the fighting in Bani Walid.
‘State of tension’
The report of Ibrahim’s arrest came just hours after Libya’s de facto head of state said that not all areas of the country had been liberated.
“The campaign to liberate the country has not been fully completed,” Mohamed al-Magarief said on state television on Saturday in remarks on the first anniversary of Gaddafi’s death.
He singled out Bani Walid, which was one of the final strongholds of Gaddafi’s regime during the war that overthrew and killed him.
Rebel fighters captured Gaddafi in his hometown, Sirte, but exactly how Gaddafi was killed on October 20, 2011, remains a point of contention.
“Bani Walid’s misfortune is that it has become a sanctuary for a large number of outlaws and anti-revolutionaries and mercenaries,” Magarief said.
Magarief, the president of the democratically elected General National Congress, also noted “delays and negligence” in the formation of a professional army and police force, and the failure to disarm and integrate former rebels.
He also said delays in reactivating and reforming the judiciary had hampered national reconciliation.
“This situation has created a state of discontent and tension among different segments of society and contributed to the spread of chaos, disorder, corruption and weakness in the performance of various government agencies,” he said.
Source: Alarabiya.net & Aljazeera.com
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