Libya official says pro-Gadhafi bastion ready to switch sides
Source: Agencies |
September 4, 2011, Sunday
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LIBYA'S provisional government said it was closing in on bastions of support for Moammar Gadhafi yesterday and planned to resume oil production at key fields within days.
Offering Libyans some hope of an end to conflict and a more prosperous future after 42 years of Gadhafi's personal rule, Ali Tarhouni, the interim oil minister said, in Tripoli that he had been told by commanders that the pro-Gadhafi bastion of Bani Walid may have changed sides.
A senior military source in the forces of the National Transitional Council had said earlier that NTC leaders were close to reaching agreement with tribal leaders in Bani Walid on their imminent peaceful surrender. Tarhouni reaffirmed assurances by the former rebels that Gadhafi's capture was near - "we know where he is," he said.
And he announced that oil production would start in about 10 days. "Production will begin in the Sarir and Misla fields on the 12th or 13th of this month," he said.
With only six million people scattered across vast tracts of desert on the southern shore of the Mediterranean, Libyans hope Africa's biggest oil reserves can make them rich. NTC leaders, many of whom remain in the eastern city of Benghazi where the uprising began in February, say the conflict will only be over when Gadhafi is found, dead or alive.
Last week, a senior NTC commander said he believed the 69-year-old fugitive was around Bani Walid, a tribal stronghold some 150 kilometers southeast of the capital, along with his son Saif al-Islam, long seen as the heir apparent. Both men have made broadcasts this week declaring plans to fight back.
Their spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, speaking from hiding, said on Friday that Saif al-Islam was in suburbs south of Tripoli. A source with links to Bani Walid said tribal leaders in the town were hoping to negotiate a peaceful entry to the area by NTC forces - they were seeking assurances that former pro-Gadhafi fighters would not face reprisals.
Tarhouni said yesterday: "The military council in Tripoli has just informed me a few minutes ago that there's a possibility that Bani Walid will join the revolutionaries and it's under the control of the revolutionaries."
Offering Libyans some hope of an end to conflict and a more prosperous future after 42 years of Gadhafi's personal rule, Ali Tarhouni, the interim oil minister said, in Tripoli that he had been told by commanders that the pro-Gadhafi bastion of Bani Walid may have changed sides.
A senior military source in the forces of the National Transitional Council had said earlier that NTC leaders were close to reaching agreement with tribal leaders in Bani Walid on their imminent peaceful surrender. Tarhouni reaffirmed assurances by the former rebels that Gadhafi's capture was near - "we know where he is," he said.
And he announced that oil production would start in about 10 days. "Production will begin in the Sarir and Misla fields on the 12th or 13th of this month," he said.
With only six million people scattered across vast tracts of desert on the southern shore of the Mediterranean, Libyans hope Africa's biggest oil reserves can make them rich. NTC leaders, many of whom remain in the eastern city of Benghazi where the uprising began in February, say the conflict will only be over when Gadhafi is found, dead or alive.
Last week, a senior NTC commander said he believed the 69-year-old fugitive was around Bani Walid, a tribal stronghold some 150 kilometers southeast of the capital, along with his son Saif al-Islam, long seen as the heir apparent. Both men have made broadcasts this week declaring plans to fight back.
Their spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, speaking from hiding, said on Friday that Saif al-Islam was in suburbs south of Tripoli. A source with links to Bani Walid said tribal leaders in the town were hoping to negotiate a peaceful entry to the area by NTC forces - they were seeking assurances that former pro-Gadhafi fighters would not face reprisals.
Tarhouni said yesterday: "The military council in Tripoli has just informed me a few minutes ago that there's a possibility that Bani Walid will join the revolutionaries and it's under the control of the revolutionaries."
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