A day after rebel forces overran his Tripoli headquarters and trashed the symbols of his 42-year dictatorship, rocket and machinegun fire from pockets of loyalists kept the irregular fighters at bay as they tried to hunt down Gadhafi and his sons.
Western leaders who backed the revolt with Nato air power remained wary of declaring outright victory while the 69-year-old Gadhafi is at large. He issued a rambling but defiant audio message overnight to remaining bastions of his supporters, some of whom may be tempted to mount an Iraq-style insurgency.
Handover
But the international powers and the rebel government-in-waiting in the eastern city of Benghazi lost no time in making arrangements for a handover of Libya’s substantial foreign assets. Funds will be required to bring relief to war-battered towns and to develop oil reserves that can make Libya rich.
France was working with Britain and other allies to draft a new United Nations resolution intended to ease sanctions and asset freezes imposed on Libya when Gadhafi was in charge. Rebels also spoke of restarting oil export facilities soon. Washington was about to submit a UN resolution to release an immediate $1.5 billion for humanitarian needs.
In Benghazi, the chairman of the National Council gave a sense of urgency to finding Gadhafi, who the rebels believe may still be in or around Tripoli, having left his Bab al-Aziziya compound in the capital before it fell on Tuesday.
Dead or alive
Mustafa Abdel Jalil, who was himself one of Gadhafi’s ministers before defecting in February, said the incoming administration would offer amnesty to any remaining member of Gadhafi’s entourage who killed or captured him.
A local businessman, he added, was offering two million dinars — or about $1.3 million — to anyone who caught him.
“To any of his inner circle who kill Gadhafi or capture him, society will give amnesty or pardon for any crime he has committed,” Abdel Jalil told a news conference in Benghazi.
Abdel Salam Jalloud, a close ally of Gadhafi who switched sides in the past week, told Al Jazeera that the veteran leader had had a plan to drop out of sight before launching a guerrilla campaign once Nato air forces had been called off.
