Libya — Algeria said Monday that it had allowed a two-vehicle caravan of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s relatives, including his second wife and three of his children, into the country. The flight of his relatives provided powerful new evidence of surrender by the Qaddafi clan as rebels consolidated their hold on Tripoli, the capital.
Rebel leaders responded angrily to the Algerian move, according to news reports, saying the decision was “an aggressive act against the Libyan people’s wish.”
Mahmoud Shammam, the rebel information minister, said the insurgents wanted the family members sent back to Libya.
“We are determined to arrest and try the whole Qaddafi family, including Qaddafi himself, » Mr. Shammam said late Monday night, The Associated Press reported. “We’d like to see those people coming back to Libya.”
Mr. Qaddafi’s wife Safiya, daughter Aisha, and two of his sons, Mohammed and Hannibal, all crossed into Algeria, said Mourad Benmehidi, the Algerian permanent representative to the United Nations. The spouses of Colonel Qaddafi’s children and their children arrived as well, he said.
The announcement was the first official word on the whereabouts of any members of the Qaddafi family since the colonel was routed from his Tripoli fortress by rebel forces a week ago, a decisive turn in the Libyan conflict.
Throughout Tripoli on Monday, there were signs of a transition under way. In streets freshly decorated with rebel flags, residents preparing to celebrate the end of Ramadan ventured from their homes and visited shops as they reopened. Young men breezily waved cars through checkpoints, which the rebels said they were starting to dismantle because of improving security.
Radio stations that had recently featured songs lauding Colonel Qaddafi now played the revolution’s anthems, over and over.
The colonel’s family members entered Algeria through one of the more southerly crossings in the Sahara, arriving in a Mercedes and a bus at 8:45 a.m., Mr. Benmehidi said. The exact number of people in the party was unclear, Mr. Benmehidi said, but there were “many children.”
While they were fleeing, one of the women in the party gave birth near the border without any medical equipment, the ambassador said. He said Colonel Qaddafi was not with the group. “He was not there, and there is no indication of his intending to go to Algeria,” Mr. Benmehidi said.
The family was allowed in on “humanitarian grounds,” he said, and the Algerian government informed the head of the Transitional National Council, the rebel government in Libya, of its decision. There was no official request from the rebels for their return, Mr. Benmehidi said.
The whereabouts of Colonel Qaddafi remained unknown, along with those of his other sons, most notably Seif al-Islam, his second-in-command; Khamis, the head of an elite paramilitary brigade; and Muatassim, a militia commander and Colonel Qaddafi’s national security adviser. A rebel spokesman said Sunday that Khamis al-Qaddafi might have been killed on Saturday, but that no positive identification had been made.
On Monday, new hints emerged about the locations of the family and members of its inner circle. A former associate of the Qaddafi government spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, said that Mr. Ibrahim had sought refuge in Surt, his hometown. Colonel Qaddafi is also from Surt, which remains under the control of his loyalists.
The associate said that the Qaddafis had stashed large sums of cash around the country to support themselves and to continue paying loyal fighters. Another person who has spoken with family members in the last week said they had indicated they were still in Tripoli. Rebels have said they were exploring the possibility that the Qaddafis were hiding in farms on the city’s outskirts.
The rebels have said they would not consider their victory complete until they capture or kill the colonel, who ruled Libya for nearly 42 years.
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