Tripoli, Sep 6(ANI): Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's sons have fled from their stronghold town Bani Walid, and ordered Libyan troops to defend it by using residents as human shields.
Seif al-Islam and Mutassim Gaddafi were said to have been present in the town, as recently as last week, the Telegraph reports.
Rebel military leaders said the Bani Walid residents revealed both sons had fled, leaving behind a contingent of about 100 loyalist troops and local allies, who have taken up positions in private houses in the wake of rebels threatening to attack the town.
"The main Gaddafi brigade left with Saif al-Islam.We think there are 70 troops left there in the town, but there are other people with them," rebels' chief negotiator Abdullah Kenshil said.
"Some of them [Gaddafi forces] are hiding in local families they are using as human shields. We're afraid for the families in the town," rebel forces Deputy Commmander Abdulrazzaq al-Nadouri said.
The National Transitional Council has been trying to negotiate a peaceful end to the Libyan conflict with Gaddafi regime's Chief Spokesperson Moussa Ibrahim, who, according to Kenshil, was still living in the town.
Rebels believe that the Gaddafi clan members are headed for Bani Walid after being driven out of Tripoli, while Gaaddafi himself is thought to have retreated further south.
Colonel Gaddafi's Internal Security Chief Mansour Daw reportedly passed through Bani Walid and later crossed into Niger, escorted by Toureg tribesmen who are loyal to the Gaddafi regime. ebel spokesmen in Benghazi fear the stand-off at Bani Walid was deliberately orchestrated to give the family time to escape to the porous desert borders. (ANI)
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