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| Africa North |
| Qadaffy's eldest son 'unharmed' |
| 2011-08-23 |
| [Al Jazeera] Muammar Qadaffy's ...who is seriously considering going into another line of work about now... eldest son, Mohammad, was also jugged by rebels on Sunday night. "Into the paddy wagon wit' yez, yer excellency!" In an interview with Al Jizz after he surrendered, Mohammad expressed his "sadness" at the fighting in Libya. "I'm just so sad people are kicking us out of the catbird seat!" The interview was interrupted by gunfire. "Duck! [BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!]" "What's happening in Libya is very upsetting. The killing between brothers, between Mohammedans, is something that saddens me," he said, shortly before gunfire rang out in the background. Abdul Jalil said that Qadaffy was unharmed, though there was no way to verify that claim. Mohammad did, however, conduct another interview on air with Al Jizz shortly after the gunfire. His whereabouts are currently unknown. Mohammad was the chairman of Libya's main state-run telecommunications firm, but his role in his father's government was reportedly minimal, far smaller than Saif al-Islam's. Qadaffy, Senussi escaped Tripoli? Other former senior Qadaffy officials remain on the lam, including three of his seven sons. The biggest question is Muammar Qadaffy himself, last heard in a brief audio recording on Sunday night. He called on Libya's tribes to March on the capital. "How can you allow Tripoli to be burned?" he asked. It is unclear whether Qadaffy is still in Tripoli, though that seems increasingly unlikely. Qadaffy, like Saif al-Islam, is wanted by the ICC. Three other Qadaffy sons - Hannibal, Mutasim and Khamis - have not been located. Hannibal had little role in politics, but Khamis headed a feared army unit that took a leading role in suppressing protests. Mutasim was an army officer and a security adviser to his father. The Al-Arabiya news network reported on Monday that Khamis was traveling to central Tripoli with soldiers loyal to him. That report could not be immediately confirmed. Abdullah al-Senussi, Qadaffy's longtime intelligence chief and brother-in-law, also seems to have eluded the rebels. He was last seen at Tripoli's Rixos Hotel on Sunday, when he told foreign journalists that "Western intelligence" was "working alongside al-Qaeda to destroy Libya". There are rumours in Arabic newspapers that Senussi decamped Tripoli, either to southern Libya or to the Tunisian town of Djerba, but those reports cannot be substantiated. Senussi was the third Libyan official charged by the ICC in June. The court accused him of carrying out a campaign of murder, mass arrest and torture. |
| Posted by:Fred |