Tripoli, August 25: Libya’s new masters offered a million-dollar bounty for the fugitive Muammar Qaddafi on Wednesday, after he urged his men to carry on a battle that kept the capital in a state of fear.
A day after rebel forces overran his Tripoli headquarters and trashed the symbols of his 42-year dictatorship, rocket and machinegun fire from pockets of loyalists kept the irregular fighters at bay as they tried to hunt down Qaddafi and his sons.
Western leaders who backed the revolt with NATO air power remained wary of declaring outright victory while the 69-year-old Qaddafi is at large. He issued a rambling but defiant audio message overnight to remaining bastions of his supporters, some of whom may be tempted to mount an Iraq-style insurgency.
But the international powers and the rebel government-in-waiting in the eastern city of Benghazi lost no time in making arrangements for a handover of Libya’s substantial foreign assets. Funds will be required to bring relief to war-battered towns and to develop oil reserves that can make Libya rich.
France was working with Britain and other allies to draft a new United Nations resolution intended to ease sanctions and asset freezes imposed on Libya when Qaddafi was in charge. Rebels also spoke of restarting oil export facilities soon.
Washington was about to submit a UN resolution to release an immediate $1.5 billion for humanitarian needs.
In Benghazi, the chairman of the National Council gave a sense of urgency to finding Qaddafi, who the rebels believe may still be in or around Tripoli, having left his Bab Al-Aziziya compound in the capital before it fell on Tuesday.
Mustafa Abdel Jalil, who was himself one of Qaddafi’s ministers before defecting in February, said the incoming administration would offer amnesty to any remaining member of Qaddafi’s entourage who killed or captured him.
A local businessman, he added, was offering two million dinars or about $1.3 million to anyone who caught him.
“To any of his inner circle who kill Qaddafi or capture him, society will give amnesty or pardon for any crime he has committed,” Abdel Jalil told a news conference in Benghazi.
Abdel Salam Jalloud, a close ally of Qaddafi who switched sides in the past week, told Al Jazeera that the veteran leader had had a plan to drop out of sight before launching a guerrilla campaign once NATO air forces had been called off.
“I believe he is in Tripoli,’ Jalloud said. “The rebels must open the roads, after they open the roads, he may dress in women’s clothes and leave Tripoli to Algeria’s borders or Chad.
“He is sick with power,” he added. “He believes he can gather his supporters and carry out attacks … He is delusional. He thinks he can return to power.”
US officials also believe Qaddafi is still in Libya.
-Agencies