Libya rebels put $2M bounty on Gadhafi

Libyan rebel leaders offered a $2-million bounty for the death or capture of Moammar Gadhafi on Wednesday, as the largely deserted capital city, Tripoli, was the site of sporadic gun battles.

Rebel fighters, who controlled most of Gadhafi's captured Bab al-Azizya compound by Wednesday afternoon, were using it as staging area for operations, loading huge trucks with ammunition and discussing deployments. Buildings in the city were covered in pro-rebel graffiti, the shredded remains of Gadhafi's green flags are scattered across the city, and the homes of several of Gadhafi's children have been ransacked.

But the rebels still faced repeated loyalist attacks Wednesday, with pro-Gadhafi snipers firing on the fighters from tall buildings in the adjacent Abu Salim neighbourhood,  home to the country's most notorious prison and scene of a 1996 massacre of protesting political prisoners. Rebels have been unable to infiltrate the neighbourhood.

Elsewhere, pro-regime gunmen had cut off the road to the airport. Four Italian journalists were kidnapped on the highway to Tripoli, and residents of the port town of Zwara, about 113 kilometres west of the capital, said they had suffered through four days of shelling.

There was still no sign of Gadhafi.

Mohammed al-Herizi, an opposition official, said a group of Tripoli businessmen had announced a $2-million reward for the arrest or killing of Gadhafi. But rebel spokesman Col. Ahmed Bani said the rebels themselves had only offered amnesty for anyone who kills him or hands him over.

"The biggest prize is to offer amnesty, not to give money," he said.

Despite the pockets of resistance, most signs pointed to the regime's continued collapse.  

Al Arabiya News reported that Libya's deputy intelligence chief has relinquished his post and declared allegiance to the rebels, and the rebel National Transitional Council had begun to move members from their stronghold in Benghazi to the capital to set up a new government.

The council believes it is only a matter of time before Gadhafi is arrested.

"He might have left the capital towards the south," NTC spokesman Ahmed Jabril said. "Gadhafi, in our view, is no longer the leader of the country. He must be arrested as soon as possible."

BBC reporter Wyre Davies said the inner part of Gadhafi's compound is thought to include a complex of tunnels and bunkers, but reported that Gadhafi is not believed to be inside it.

The White House said there was no indication Gadhafi had left the country.

In a radio interview broadcast earlier Wednesday, Gadhafi said he retreated from his Tripoli compound in a "tactical move." He is reported to have also called on Libyans to sweep through Tripoli and comb it for traitors.

Hospitals struggling with wounded

Dr. Mansour Bendago, a Libyan-Canadian physician who travelled from Canada to Libya to help treat the wounded, told CBC News that his hospital in the coastal city of Zawiyah is overwhelmed with patients and in "dire need of pain medication."

"We need help physician-wise, antibiotics, narcotics, orthopedics," Bendago said.

The doctor said hospital workers in Zawiyah are exhausted or too intimidated to come to work, while some who are helping have no medical training.

"We have no nurses," he says. "We need nurses badly."

Zawiyah is 50 kilometres west of Tripoli. It was captured by rebel forces four days ago.

Diplomatic efforts

While fighting continued in Tripoli, diplomatic efforts were underway in France, where French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with Mahmoud Jibril, head of the rebels' acting cabinet.

Journalists kidnapped

The Italian government said four Italian journalists were kidnapped by pro-Gadhafi forces Wednesday while they were driving towards Tripoli. Their driver was killed.

The Italian foreign ministry said two of the newspaper journalists are from the Milan daily Corriere della Sera, one is from Turin's La Stampa and one is from Avvenire, a national Catholic daily.

In Tripoli, about 40 foreign journalists were finally released Wednesday after being prevented from leaving a luxury hotel for several days by armed Gadhafi loyalists.

"We have been holed up together for what seems like an eternity," CNN reporter Matthew Chance said in a tweet.

Prior to the journalists' release, supplies of food and water at the hotel had been reported to be running low.

Chance earlier said that five journalists had tried to enter the hotel, but gunmen turned them away.

France will continue to participate in NATO missions in Libya "as long as our Libyan friends need us," BBC quoted Sarkozy as telling journalists.

He also said a conference to discuss the future of Libya will be held Sept. 1.

Both Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron also invited Libyan rebels to attend the conference in Paris.

The meeting would be an opportunity to set out how "the international community can help [the rebels] on the path to establishing a free, democratic and inclusive Libya," a statement from Cameron's office said.

Rebel officials are eager to prove they can bring a stable political future for Libya, and that their movement is more than an often-fractious collection of tribes, ethnicities and semiautonomous militias.

Jibril said rebel officials were forming a cabinet and that a national congress would also be created to represent the country's cities. That congress will form a committee to write a new constitution, and a council to oversee elections. Parliamentary elections will come first he said, with presidential elections to follow later.

A new national army will also be created out of the rebel movement, Jibril said. As the focus began shifting to Libya's post-Gadhafi era, a NATO official told The Associated Press that the group is looking at a role in supporting a future United Nations mission to stabilize the country.

The United Nations Security Council was expected to vote later this week on a resolution to unfreeze billions of dollars in Libyan assets. France, the United Kingdom and the United States are pushing for a quick release of the money so the NTC can use it to pay government salaries, reconstitute the police and army, and rebuild the economy.

"We are engaged at the United Nations and elsewhere to pave the way for the unfreezing of assets, the assets that have been frozen for five months but which ultimately belong to the Libyan people," British Foreign Secretary William Hague told journalists.

Allegiance shift

At the Libyan Embassy in Manila, diplomats and students smashed portraits of Gadhafi. They pulled down Gadhafi's green flag and raised the flag of the rebels.

Libyan consul Faraj Zarroug said about 85 per cent of Libya's 165 diplomatic missions around the world are now recognizing the rebels as the country's leadership.

"It's game over for Mr. Gadhafi!," Zarroug told The Associated Press. "Probably in a few days, everything will be over, hopefully. I'm very happy."

Libya's diplomatic missions in Japan and Ethiopia changed their allegiances earlier this week, while the mission in London, England put out a new welcome mat bearing an image of Gadhafi so pedestrians could walk on it.