Deadly clashes in ex-Gaddafi bastion, confusion over arrest

Clashes in a former bastion of Muammar Gaddafi killed at least 26 people as confusion surrounded the fate of one of his most-wanted former aides a year after the dictator's death.  

The government had announced on Friday that Mussa Ibrahim, mouthpiece of the toppled regime, had been captured in the town of Tarhuna, between Bani Walid and Tripoli.

But later a government spokesman said there was no confirmation of the capture and an audio tape surfaced purportedly with Ibrahim himself denying the news.

As fighting around ex-Gaddafi stronghold Bani Walid killed at least 26 people and left 200 wounded on Saturday, according to an agency tally, Mohammed Megaryef, president of the national assembly, gave a sombre assessment of the post-Gaddafi period.

Not all areas had been successfully "liberated", he said, adding that Bani Walid was sheltering criminal elements and die-hard loyalists of the former regime.

Megaryef, Libya's de facto head of state, warned that loyalists, particularly those sheltered in Bani Walid, continued to pose a threat to the country.

"The campaign to liberate the country has not been fully completed... Bani Walid's misfortune is that it has become a sanctuary for a large number of outlaws and anti-revolutionaries and mercenaries," he said.

A few hours after his speech, the office of the prime minister announced the arrest of Ibrahim.

But there was confusion after the later government denial and the posting on Facebook of an audiotape purportedly from Ibrahim, in which he also paid hommage to fallen dictator Gaddafi, who was killed on 20^th October, 2011.

"On the subject of my arrest today... it is an attempt to draw attention away from the crimes committed by NATO's rebels against our people in Bani Walid," said the man identifying himself as Ibrahim.

The authenticity of the report could not be immediately confirmed.

Forces linked to the army, most of them former rebels, have this month encircled the hilltop town of Bani Walid in a bid to bring to justice the men who kidnapped and allegedly tortured Omran Shaaban, an ex-rebel credited with capturing Gaddafi.

Fierce fighting erupted on Friday as pro-government forces pushed closer to Bani Walid's centre in a bid to snuff out diehard former regime loyalists, said Colonel Ali al-Sheikhi, spokesman of the chief of staff.