TRIPOLI: Moamer Qaddafi’s son Saadi was under guard in the Niger capital on Wednesday after fleeing Libya over the weekend but NATO acknowledged it has no idea where his fugitive father is holed up.
The alliance stressed that the toppled strongman was not a target in the daily bombing campaign it has kept up against his remaining forces as the World Bank formally recognized Libya’s new leaders and pledged to play a major role in their post-war reconstruction efforts.
Saadi Qaddafi, 38, the third of Qaddafi’s seven sons, is among 32 officials of the ousted regime, three of them top generals, who have fled through the desert to neighboring Niger this month.
He was flown into the capital Niamey late on Tuesday after being put on an air force Hercules C-130 transport plane from the northwestern town of Agadez, Nigerien officials said.
He had been put up in the governor’s residence in the desert town with eight close associates of his father after they crossed into Niger on Sunday.
Washington accepted Niamey’s assurances that Saadi Qaddafi, who commanded an elite army unit after a brief career as a professional footballer in Italy, was in the custody of Nigerien security forces.
"Our understanding is, like the others, he’s being detained in a state guest house," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
"It’s essentially a house arrest in this government facility, is our understanding," she added.
NATO said it had no idea whether Qaddafi himself had also fled his country.
Colonel Roland Lavoie, spokesman for NATO’s Libya mission, said the alliance had received, at "various points" in the conflict, intelligence confirming that Qaddafi was still in Libya, but that his whereabouts were now a mystery.
"To be frank we don’t know if he has left the country," Lavoie told reporters on Tuesday.
"He has not made public appearances in the country for a while and this raises questions about his whereabouts. But we don’t have sure information about where he is at this time."
Qaddafi has only been heard from in audio recordings broadcast by a friendly channel, Syria-based Arrai television. And his most recent statement was read out by the channel’s owner on Monday.
Lavoie stressed that it was not NATO’s mission to hunt down the fugitive former strongman.
"We are not in the business of targeting or chasing Qaddafi," he said.
But the Canadian colonel said Qaddafi’s options were increasingly limited as forces loyal to Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) close in on his remaining strongholds,
"Essentially the area of operation of Qaddafi is shrinking."
Lavoie said advances by rebel forces in the past two days had cut pro-Qaddafi forces in the strip of territory between his hometown of Sirte on the Mediterranean coast and the desert town of Bani Walid from those in the southern oases of Waddan and Sabha with their access to Libya’s desert border.
The NTC was on Wednesday seeking the surrender of Qaddafi diehards who have continued to mount attacks against its fighters as they move in on the enclaves, after a deadline for them to surrender expired at the weekend.
NATO said on Wednesday that its aircraft had hit nine targets around Sirte, seven around Waddan and one around Zillah, another oasis town to its east, in its latest raids.
A trickle of civilians fleeing Sirte arrived in the NTC-held town of Sadada to its west on Wednesday, an AFP correspondent reported.
"They know war is coming towards Sirte so they are looking for a safe place," said NTC commander Omran Abdul Salam.
The World Bank on Tuesday became the latest international organization to recognize the victorious rebels’ NTC but South Africa said that the African Union had yet to decide on whether to give it Libya’s seat in the continental bloc.
"The AU as an organization has not recognized the NTC," South African President Jacob Zuma told parliament ahead of a meeting in Pretoria Wednesday of the bloc’s panel on Libya.
South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said that Wednesday’s meeting of panel — which also includes the leaders of Uganda, Mauritania, Mali and Congo-Brazzaville — would focus on the AU’s calls for an inclusive government in Tripoli.
She said the AU believes "that the NTC is an opportunity to create an all-inclusive interim government to prepare for a democratic government through a democratic election, preceded by an interim constitution."
The World Bank said its decision to recognize the NTC was based on "evolving events in Libya and the views of member countries."
It pledged a major rebuilding role after the seven-month insurrection that ousted Qaddafi.
"We are ready to support the people in Libya. Our experts have started coordinating with their partners already and we are moving fast to begin work," said World Bank managing director Sri Mulyani Indrawati.
