$1.7M bounty for Gadhafi

TRIPOLI, Libya—Nato was reported on Thursday to be providing significant support in the hunt for Moammar Gadhafi as rebels sought to cement their control, offering a nearly $2-million bounty for his capture.

The rebels claimed breakthroughs, saying their fighters had started battling for Sabha, another Gadhafi stronghold in the south, and in Zuwarah in the west, where they said they had captured a military base.

Reuters reported that Libyan rebels clashed with Gadhafi troops as the opposition tried to put pressure on the last main bastion of the ousted Libyan leader along the Mediterranean coast.

Rebels were approaching Surt, Gadhafi’s hometown, from two sides and were hoping to negotiate the surrender of its defenders. But the rebels said Gadhafi’s hardcore loyalists have vowed to fight to the death.

On another front, a rebel field commander on Thursday reported that Gadhafi loyalists had ambushed opposition fighters advancing toward the town of Bin Jawad, 560 kilometers southeast of Tripoli, killing at least 20.

The commander, Ahmed Zeleity, told The Associated Press late Wednesday that the pro-Gadhafi forces who staged the ambush had been among those who fled from the oil city of Ras Lanuf after it was captured earlier this week.

That suggests proregime forces retain the ability to strike back even as the rebels tighten their control over the nation’s capital and the longtime Libyan leader is in hiding.

In the eastern city of Benghazi, the base of the rebel uprising, the head of the National Transitional Council told a news conference on Wednesday that Libyan businessmen had contributed two million dinars, about $1.7 million, for the capture of Gadhafi dead or alive.

“We fear a catastrophe because of his behavior,” the rebel leader, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, told reporters there. The rebel leaders in Benghazi also called on loyalists in Surt, more than 300 km east of Tripoli, to join them, and said they had directed rebel fighting units to close in on Surt from Misrata in the west and the port city of Ras Lanuf in the east.

Nato in the hunt

Unusually, Britain’s Defense Secretary, Liam Fox, said publicly on Thursday that Nato was trying to help the rebels locate the elusive and still defiant Gadhafi, apparently breaking from the frequent Western assertion that the alliance’s role is limited under its UN mandate to protecting civilians.

“I can confirm that Nato is providing intelligence and reconnaissance assets” to the insurgents “to help them track down Colonel Gadhafi and other remnants of the regime,” Fox told Sky News.

But he withheld comment on a report in The Daily Telegraph that British special forces on the ground were involved in the hunt for Gadhafi. He also said there were “absolutely no plans” to commit British ground forces to Libya in the future.

Paris Match Magazine on Thursday said that Libyan commandos came close to capturing the 69-year-old Gadhafi when they raided a private home in Tripoli where he appeared to have been hiding.

Citing a source in a unit which it said was coordinating among intelligence services from Arab states and Libyan rebels, the French weekly said on its website that these services believed Gadhafi was still somewhere in the Libyan capital.

Special forces

Gadhafi was gone from the unassuming safe house in central Tripoli when agents arrived about 10 a.m. on Wednesday after a tip-off from a credible source. But, the magazine said, they found evidence that he had spent at least one night there—though it did not say how recently that was.

France has taken a leading military role in the Nato force backing the rebels. Many analysts believe France, Britain and Arab allies, notably Qatar, may have some special forces on the ground in Tripoli working with Libyan commandos.

In diplomatic and financial terms, the rebel cause seemed to be facing a setback after South Africa refused to endorse a US effort at the UN Security Council to unblock frozen Libyan funds worth $1.5 billion for the rebels. The impasse provoked sharp exchanges with the rebels’ Western allies.

In London, Fox himself castigated South Africa on Thursday for failing to show the same solidarity as the world showed to opponents of apartheid.

“I think there will be huge moral pressure on South Africa. They wanted the world at one point to stand with them against apartheid. They now need to stand with the Libyan people,” the British defense secretary said on the BBC.

Rebels’ PM

Efforts to unblocking Libyan government funds, frozen initially to bring pressure on Gadhafi, seemed to be gathering pace on Thursday as Mahmoud Jibril, the de facto rebel prime minister, planned a European tour to seek the release of billions of dollars of assets.

According to news reports, Jibril was set to meet in Milan with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, which has long had close economic ties with Libya, a former colony.

The quest for an injection of cash coincides with reports of ever-increasing shortages of essential supplies in Libya.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday the United Nations should take “urgent” action to unfreeze Libyan assets and said Nato must continue operations until the North African country was fully secured.

Humanitarian situation

Davutoglu’s comments were made during an opening speech at the start of a Libya Contact Group meeting of senior diplomats in Istanbul who are discussing the next steps for the country.

South Africa’s UN ambassador, Baso Sangqu, told reporters that his government was very concerned about the humanitarian situation there but, before agreeing to the release of frozen assets, wanted to await the outcome of an African Union meeting on Thursday to discuss recognition of the fledgling rebel administration, The Associated Press reported.

Many African nations, long the recipients of Gadhafi’s largesse, have not so far recognized the rebels.

South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma, has been at the forefront of African efforts to broker a ceasefire on terms favorable to Gadhafi, but those efforts have produced no visible results, beyond souring relations with the West.

According to South African news reports on Thursday, Kgalema Motlanthe, the deputy president, has gone so far as to suggest that Nato commanders should be investigated for war crimes in the Libyan conflict.

“We know they are attempting to create the impression that the rebels are acting on their own in their attacks in Tripoli,” he was quoted as telling Parliament on Wednesday, “but there are clear links and coordination.”

“The question is whether the International Criminal Court would have the wherewithal to unearth that information and bring those who are responsible to book, including the Nato members or commanders on the ground,” Motlanthe said.

Control of Tripoli uncertain

Sporadic firefights continued in Tripoli on Wednesday, a sign that control of the city could not be claimed by either side.

In a show of strength, the rebels flooded the city’s thoroughfares with the mud-splattered trucks of their fighting brigades.

In another sign of the power shifts under way, Gadhafi’s loyalists abruptly released more than 30 foreign journalists they had held captive in the Rixos Hotel here. Over the weekend, they were taken captive at gunpoint as the rebels advanced on the capital and left in the Rixos.

“Rixos crisis ends. All journalists are out!” Matthew Chance, a CNN correspondent, posted on Twitter as he and the others were allowed to leave the hotel with the aid of Red Cross workers who took them away.

Four Italian journalists taken at gunpoint on Wednesday outside Tripoli by Gadhafi loyalists, who killed their driver, were freed on Thursday in a raid on the house where they were being held. The Italian foreign ministry confirmed that the four were freed, but had no further details.

“It’s a miracle that we are alive … They were the worst moments of my life,” Claudio Monici told the Catholic newspaper Corriere della Sera by telephone afterward. “We risked being lynched,” he said. Reports from AP, AFP, Reuters and New York Times News Service