Gaddafi’s son prepares to retake Tripoli

Muammar al-Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam has been traveling near Tripoli, meeting tribal leaders and preparing to retake the Libyan capital, his spokesman claims.

In a telephone call to Reuters from what he said was a "southern suburb of Tripoli", Moussa Ibrahim derided the ability of the National Transitional Council to run the country after its rebel fighters forced Gaddafi into hiding, Reuters Africa reports.

Meanwhile, rebels kept advancing on Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte despite extending the deadline for loyalists to surrender.

Reuters reports:

And he mocked "the irony" that NATO was now allied to an Islamist fighter who once had contact with al Qaeda and to whom the new government has given military command of the capital.

Sounding relaxed and speaking English in tones familiar from his many televised news conferences at Tripoli's Rixos hotel during the past months of civil war, Ibrahim declined to be specific about where he was calling from — though it was indeed a Libyan number which appeared on the caller-ID screen.

"I move around a lot and I don't have an Internet connection at the moment," he said, after giving his current location as "a southern suburb of Tripoli".

"Actually," he went on, "Only yesterday, I was with Mr Saif al-Islam. I joined him on a tour circling Tripoli from the south." London-educated Saif, long seen as Gaddafi's heir apparent, had met tribal leaders and other supporters, he said.

"We are still very strong," he added, giving no information on the location or condition of Muammar Gaddafi.

Reuters was unable to verify his comments which, like those broadcast this week by Gaddafi himself and by Saif, serve as a warning to Libyans that the dictator of 42 years remains at large and may pose a threat, at least by means of a guerrilla war, it says.

Rebel fighters pushed closer to Gaddafi's hometown Sirte on Friday, as rebels move their forces into position in case an assault is needed, Associated Press reports.

“Military action will be the last option, because after the fall of the capital, we are not in a hurry,” said Khaled Zintani, a spokesman for the rebels in the remote mountain town of Zintan.

Tribal elders in Sirte had asked that a delegation from Zintan be sent to Sirte to help with negotiations, he said, because of a long history of bad blood with rebels from towns closer to Sirte, AP says.

Despite the extension of a Sirte surrender deadline to Sept. 10, rebel forces have not stopped advancing, said another rebel spokesman, Abdel-Hafiz Ghoga. Rebel brigades have pushed to the town of Wadi Hawarah, just 50 kilometers from Sirte, he said.