MUAMMAR GADAFY’S foreign minister Abdelati Obeidi was arrested yesterday at his farm in Janzour, a suburb west of Tripoli, according to a Reuters correspondent who witnessed the arrest.
Forces for the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) shouted “Allahu Akbar” or “God is greatest” as they arrested Mr Obeidi, who was wearing traditional Libyan clothes. NTC said its forces had also arrested Abdallah al-Hijazi, a close associate of Col Gadafy in Tripoli.
Meanwhile, Libyans gathered in their thousands at Tripoli’s seafront Martyrs’ Square yesterday to mark the first post-Gadafy celebration of Eid al-Fitr, the festival that marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
They prayed together at dawn, assembled in long lines on huge green carpets in the wide plaza where Col Gadafy had delivered defiant speeches in recent months as the revolt against his 42-year regime gathered pace.
Later in the day, hawkers set up stalls on the square selling revolutionary tat, including keyrings, badges, caps and balloons. Men sipped espressos on outdoor tables down a nearby alley. On Martyrs’ Square, as Gadafy’s Green Square has been renamed since Tripoli fell to the rebels over a week ago, huge metal structures loomed overhead, apparently erected in recent weeks to support a huge portrait of Gadafy to mark the 42nd anniversary today of the coup that brought him to power.
The night before Eid, thousands of men, women and children flocked to Martyrs’ Square to celebrate the rebels’ victory. Rebel fighters maintained positions at intersections around the square, and on the ancient walls that overlook it. A wall covered in cartoons of Gadafy drew dozens of smiling onlookers. Every so often, the air rang with a burst of celebratory gunfire, despite notices around the square demanding that such displays cease.
From a stage in the middle of the square, Ali Tarhouni, Libya’s de facto deputy prime minister now that the NTC is considered its interim government, addressed the crowds. This Eid, he said, was an Eid al-Istiklal, or festival of independence. “Where are you Gadafy,” he taunted the missing leader to loud cheers before leading the crowd in a rendition of Libya’s old national anthem.
There are fears that Gadafy loyalists may chose today’s anniversary of his 1969 coup to strike back in Tripoli or elsewhere to avenge their routing by rebel forces in the capital last week.
Col Gadafy’s entourage has been hit by numerous high-profile defections, arrests and killings since the uprising that has ended his 42-year rule of the country.
On Monday the NTC said it believed its fighters had killed Col Gadafy’s son Khamis and his intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi in clashes. Col Gadafy’s wife and three of his children fled to Algeria on Monday.
Yesterday Libyan forces backed by Nato bombers struck at loyalist troops dug in around Col Gadafy’s home town, and refugees streamed out of the besieged bastion, fearing a bloody showdown in the coming days.
A week after they overran the capital, forcing Col Gadafy into hiding, the irregular troops of the new ruling council have paused in a drive to take Sirte and Gadafy strongholds in the desert, giving defenders of his native city until Saturday to surrender. But clashes continued, as did air strikes.
Anxious to aid – and steer – the new rulers of the oil-rich North African state, and to consolidate their own victory over a man who has baffled and infuriated them for 42 years, western governments will hold a “Friends of Libya” meeting in Paris today. – (Additional reporting Reuters)