Libya: Rebels negotiate Sirte surrender

While fighting continues in the last pockets of resistance in Tripoli, Libyan rebels are negotiating a ceasefire with tribal elders in Sirte, Muammar al-Gaddafi’s hometown east of the capital.

The Christian Science Monitor reports that a brigade of rebel fighters originally from Sirte have been sent in to convince town leaders to stop fighting and hand the city over to the rebels.

“These are sons talking to their fathers,” rebel fighter Bashir Budufira, leader of the Ajdabiyah Martyrs Brigade, told the newspaper.

“I think 75 percent of the people there want a peaceful solution, but there are some people from Gaddafi’s tribe and they’re not going to surrender," he said. "They have committed murder, so they’re afraid they’re going to be punished if they give up.”

Western forces have helped bring Sirte residents to the negotiating table. On Thursday, NATO planes destroyed 29 armed vehicles belonging to Gaddafi loyalists and, overnight, British Tornado jets attacked a command bunker in Sirte.

(More from GlobalPost: British forces bomb bunker in Gaddafi's hometown)

The rebels have successfully taken over the oil towns of Brega and Ras Lanuf in recent days.

As the rebels’ victories add up, they are consolidating their power. On Friday, Abdel Hakim Belhadj, the top rebel commander in Tripoli, told the media that Libya's disparate rebel fighter groups have been brought under the command of the rebel military council, Reuters reports.

"It is evident that there is momentum on the side of the rebels as they continue to make advances and as they continue in their efforts to set up a new government in Libya," President Barack Obama’s Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest told CNN.

The rebels’ National Transitional Council has yet to receive a stamp of approval from the African Union, however, CNN reports. While 57 countries have recognized the NTC as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people, the Peace and Security Council of the African Union declined to recognize the group as Libya’s new leaders at a meeting Friday.