Last updated: August 31, 2011
From: NewsCore
August 31, 2011 5:24AM
Battle 'imminent': A rebel fighter stands next to an image representing Libya's leader-in-hiding Muammar Gaddafi at a checkpoint in Tripoli. Picture: AP Source: AP
DECLARING "zero hour is quickly approaching", Libya's rebel leaders have given loyalist towns and soldiers until Saturday to surrender or face a "final military battle."
The insurgents' ultimatum came as Colonel Muammar Gaddafi continued to play cat-and-mouse with the rebels, leaving behind reports of where he may have been but no information on where he is now.
According to Sky News, the dictator, now at the end of his 42-year rule, was in Tripoli as recently as Friday but then fled in the direction of the southern stronghold of Sabha. The report was based on information provided by a captured bodyguard for Gaddafi's son, Khamis.
But the Italian news agency ANSA, citing "authoritative Libyan diplomatic sources," said that Gaddafi and his sons Saadi and Saif al Islam were in the town of Bani Walid south of Tripoli.
Meanwhile, the rebels wasted no time declaring they were ready for the final battle of their six-month uprising.
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"Zero hour is quickly approaching. We would like everyone to know that we are ready for a final military battle," the insurgents' military chief Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani told reporters in Benghazi yesterday.
"So far we have been given no indication of a peaceful surrender. We want everyone to know that we are prepared militarily for the battle that will end the conflict
"We continue to seek a peaceful solution, but on Saturday we will use different methods against these criminals.”
Earlier, National Transitional Council chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil said the rebel government was giving a Saturday ultimatum for surrender, AFP reported.
He said the respite of several days was offered to mark the three-day Eid al Fitr feast, which follows the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
"This window of opportunity will be closed at the end of Eid al-Fitr (Friday in Libya)," Mr Jalil said.
"From Saturday, if no peaceful solution is in sight on the ground, we will resort to military force," he warned.
In another possible blow to the remnants of Col Gaddafi's regime, Col Bani said rebel fighters may have killed Col Gaddafi's intelligence chief, Abdullah al Senussi, when they destroyed two armoured vehicles southeast of Tripoli.
Loyalists reportedly said one of the passengers was Mr Senussi, who is Col Gaddafi's brother-in-law, according to AFP.
Col Gaddafi also faced the possible key death of his son Khamis after their reported meeting Friday.
Khamis' bodyguard said he was killed in a subsequent attack on his armoured vehicle, which was reported by rebels Monday but was not independently confirmed.
His body was not found and Libyan state television denied the report.
The death of Khamis, 28, a military leader, has been prematurely reported several times already.
At the same time as Col Gaddafi fled to his latest lair, his wife, Safiya, and three of his children, Aisha, Hannibal and Mohammed, crossed on Monday from Libya into Algeria.
Aisha, a lawyer, gave birth yesterday in Djanet, Algeria, to a baby girl whom she named after Safiya, AFP reported, quoting the daily Ennahar.
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