Qaddafi's family flees Libya to Algeria

In this Oct. 9, 2010, file photo, Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, right, embraces Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika during the opening session of the Arab League Extraordinary Summit in the Libyan coastal city of Sirte. (AFP/Getty Images)

Anger in the Arab world. TRIPOLI, Libya - Ousted Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi's wife and other relatives fled to Algeria Monday, the Algerian foreign ministry said.

The Algerian government said Qaddafi's wife, daughter, two of his sons and their children entered the neighboring country on Monday. It did not say whether Qaddafi himself was with the family.

It said the U.N. secretary-general and Security Council and the head of Libyan rebel Transitional National Council were informed.

The report came as battles raged on two sides of Sirte, the southern city that is the headquarters of Qaddafi's tribe and his regime's last major bastion. The rebels were consolidating control of Tripoli, the capital.

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Despite effectively ending his rule, the rebels have yet to find Qaddafi or his family members something that has cast a pall of lingering uncertainty over the opposition's victory.

The Egyptian news agency MENA, quoting unidentified rebel fighters, had reported from Tripoli over the weekend that six armored Mercedes sedans, possibly carrying Qaddafi's sons or other top regime figures, had crossed the border at the southwestern Libyan town of Ghadamis into Algeria. Algeria's Foreign Ministry had denied that report.

Ahmed Jibril, an aide to rebel Transitional National Council head Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, said if the report of Qaddafi relatives in Algeria is true, "we will demand that Algerian authorities hand them over to Libya to be tried before Libyan courts."

Ahmed Bani, military spokesman of the council, said he was not surprised to hear Algeria had welcomed Qaddafi relatives. Throughout the six-month Libyan uprising, rebels have accused Algeria of providing Qaddafi with mercenaries to curb the revolution.

Earlier Monday, Abdul-Jalil told senior NATO envoys meeting in the Gulf Arab nation of Qatar that Qaddafi can still cause trouble.

"Qaddafi is still capable of doing something awful in the last moments," Abdul-Jalil told military chiefs of staff and other key defense officials from NATO nations including France, Italy and Turkey.

"Even after the fighting ends, we still need logistical and military support from NATO," he added. NATO has been bombing Qaddafi's forces since March under a United Nations mandate to protect Libyan civilians.

Rebels appear to have secured the capital after a week of fierce fighting in which they captured Qaddafi's compound and then cleared loyalists holed up in the residential neighborhood of Abu Salim nearby.

In Tripoli Monday, the brother of the Libyan man convicted in the Lockerbie bombing said Abdel Baset al-Megrahi should not be returned to prison in the West because he is "between life and death'' at his family's home in the capital.

New York senators on Aug. 22 asked the Libyan rebels' transitional government to hold al-Megrahi fully accountable for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which killed 270 people. Rebel leaders have said they will not extradite him.

The Scottish government released al-Megrahi in 2009, believing he would soon die of cancer. He was greeted as a hero in Libya.

Outside Tripoli, Sirte is still a bastion of support and some have even speculated Qaddafi may have fled there. Rebels have been converging from the east and west on Sirte, 250 miles east of Tripoli, preparing to battle Qaddafi loyalists.

A NATO officer who could not be identified due to alliance rules spoke of fighting 30 miles east of Sirte. He said the regions of Sirte, Bani Walid south of Misrata and Sebha further south are conflict areas where both anti-Qaddafi and pro-Qaddafi forces continue to operate.

However, no fighting in Sirte itself has been reported yet and rebel leaders say they are trying to negotiate a peaceful surrender with local tribes to avoid further bloodshed.

Rebels say they want to take Qaddafi alive so they can try him in Libya.

In the capital, members of the Transitional National Council announced further steps to becoming an effective government. Suleiman Mahmoud al-Obeidi, the rebels' deputy military chief, announced the formation of a 17-member committee to represent the 30 or local military councils he said had been set up in the country's west.

The war was fought by disparate, local groups with only loose coordination. Bringing all local councils and rebel brigades under the council's leadership remains a challenge.

The rebel leadership, based in Benghazi throughout the war, has started to move to Tripoli. France said Monday it was dispatching a team of diplomats to reopen the French embassy there and see how France can aid the city.

The European Union also was seizing a foothold in Tripoli. Kristalina Georgieva, European commissioner for international aid, said Monday the EU has opened a humanitarian office to help distribute medical and other emergency aid in the Libyan capital.