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No trace of Gaddafi, sons in compound

24 August 2011 01:41 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Libyan revolutionary forces who captured the Bab al-Aziziya compound of the country’s ruler Muammar Gaddafi say they have found no trace of the embattled or his sons, APA reports quoting Press TV.

"Bab al-Aziziya is fully under our control now. Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and his sons were not there; there is nobody," Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani said on Tuesday, AFP reported.

However, Fathi Terbel, a member of the Transitional National Council expressed certainty that the dictator is not in the capital, adding that with fighters in Tripoli â€œit is now a matter of time to capture Gaddafi.â€

Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam who had reportedly been detained made a sudden appearance in Tripoli on Tuesday morning told and said that his father and the whole family were in the capital.

Speaking to reporters at the Rixos Hotel where many foreign journalists are housed, Seif al-Islam added that the regime had intentionally let fighters enter Tripoli as a â€œtrickâ€ without providing further details.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo who had reported Seif al-Islam’s arrest on Monday, later said that the TNC had not confirmed the detention officially.

"Different answers were given [by the TNC]. That was a little ambiguous," said a spokesman, Fadi el-Abdallah. The prosecutor’s office has not yet responded for comment.

Gaddafi’s other son, Muhammad, put under house arrest on the early hours of Monday reportedly managed to escape later in the day.

Revolutionary forces overran Gaddafi’s fortified compound on Tuesday, raising their flag and cutting the head off the long-time ruler’s statue in the residence.

The streets of Tripoli were filled with jubilation after the news of the compound’s capture went around the city.