Tuesday 23 August 2011

What IS going on in Libya? Day after his 'arrest', son of Gaddafi walks into a Tripoli hotel... and claims his father is safe and STILL in the capital

  • Gaddafi's son arrives in armoured vehicle at hotel before greeting crowds
  • Saif al-Islam claims his father is safe and still in Tripoli
  • Insists that pro-Gaddafi forces have 'broken the backbone of the rebels'
  • 5,000 wounded and 1,300 killed after day of intense fighting
  • Rocket and mortar fire continues in capital today
  • Medical 'disaster' as supplies at city's only hospital run dangerously low
  • Saif could expose Britain's 'murky' ties with the country
  • Tony Blair, Prince Andrew and Peter Mandelson all involved


  • Dramatic return: Colonel Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam was pictured on the streets of Tripoli late last night, embarrassing the International Criminal Court who said he had been arrested on Sunday


    Saif al-Islam, the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, gestures as he greets supporters in Tripoli


    The man who could expose Britain’s tangled relationship with Colonel Gaddafi embarrassed Nato allies as he made a dramatic return to the heart of Tripoli last night.
    The appearance of Libyan leader’s son Saif al-Islam, at the hotel used by foreign journalists, made a mockery of claims by rebel forces and the International Criminal Court that he had been captured.
    The 39-year-old, second eldest of the dictator's sons, said the rebels had been drawn into a trap, loyalists could still win the war and that his father was alive somewhere in the city.
    Wearing casual clothes and looking relaxed and confident, Saif beamed as he reached out to touch hands in the crowd and declared: ‘To hell with ICC.’
    It is not clear if Saif had been captured and escaped, been freed or had never actually been in custody at all.
    And as fighting continued on the ground today outside the compound where Gaddafi is accused of 'hiding like a rat', the rebels' claim to have captured a huge percentage of Tripoli was beginning to look rather dubious.
    Meanwhile, there is a potential crisis looming at the last hospital operating in the city, which is overrun with wounded patients and running out of doctors and equipment.


    Read more: HERE

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