TRIPOLI, LIBYA // A defiant Col Muammar Qaddafi evaded capture for another day yesterday as a reward of two million Libyan dinars (Dh5m) was offered for the fugitive Libyan leader, dead or alive.
Rebels searched Qaddafi strongholds in the capital yesterday and scoured the tunnels underneath his compound for any signs of him.
In pictures: Rebels search Qaddafi compound
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The stepped-up manhunt came hours after Col Qaddafi called on his supporters in an early morning radio address to "cleanse" Tripoli of "rats", and vowed to fight on "until victory or martyrdom".
Col Qaddafi described his abandonment of the Bab Al Aziziya compound, which the rebels have turned into a staging area for their operations, as a "tactical move". The White House said there was no evidence that Col Qaddafi had left Libya.
After an unidentified businessman in Benghazi, the eastern heart of the Libyan uprising, offered the reward, the National Transitional Council head Mohammed Abdel Jalil said any of Col Qaddafi's inner circle who killed or captured him would be given amnesty or pardoned for any crimes.
He also said Libya would hold elections in eight months, and if Col Qaddafi were captured alive he would be tried in Libya.
Colonel Abdallah Abu Afra, a rebel military spokesman, said rebel forces were in control of 95 per cent of Libya.
In Tripoli, however, residents were patrolling every street and alley for fear of a comeback by the regime's loyalists.
Many believed Col Qaddafi was hiding in an underground bunker in the capital.
"You know, Qaddafi is not living here. He lives underground," said a young rebel fighter, speeding away on a pickup truck inside Bab Al Aziziya compound.
"We are scared Qaddafi might come back. We heard his speech on the radio," said Najwa Omar Muhammed, stopping her car on Green Square, the symbol of Col Qaddafi's power. Ms Muhammed had just picked up her mother from her house in Abu Selim, a city neighbourhood.
"They are still fighting there and every 14-year-old kid has a gun," she said.
Forces loyal to Col Qaddafi bombed areas of central Tripoli, even targeting the compound that was once their headquarters.
Fighting was reported in areas of Bab Al Aziziya and near the five-star Rixos hotel, where more than 30 journalists were trapped for several days by armed Qaddafi supporters. They were freed yesterday with the intervention of the International Committee for the Red Cross.
Several dozen rebel fighters congregated in the Corinthia Hotel, where many foreign journalists have been lodged since arriving in recent days.
Around half a dozen young fighters armed with assault rifles and a belt-fed machine gun were checking rooms in the hotel "looking for Saidi Qaddafi", according to one fighter.
Tripoli remained a contested city - dangerous and fearful - where it was difficult to distinguish the sound of celebratory gunfire from the actual fighting.
"We would not be out with guns if we were not scared," said Abdel Nasser Mohammed Ali, a 39-year-old who returned to Libya from Denmark, where he works, to protect his family.
"Nobody is sure Qaddafi is gone. The day we will see him on TV, under arrest, we will relax. Until that day, we won't trust one another, even if we grew up in the same neighbourhood."
Some in Tripoli speculated that Col Qaddafi has fled to Sebha, a southern town reputed to be strong in pro-Qaddafi sentiment.
Fierce fighting was raging in Sebha yesterday, said Ali Idriss Hadar, 30, whose father, Idriss Hadar, was trapped in the town.
"Maybe Qaddafi is in Sebha," said Al Hadar, a translator for a Chinese oil company whose family comes from Sebha. "The cities around there have been bombarded - maybe by Nato - for the last three days."
For at least some Tripoli residents, the rebel forces' ultimate victory was a foregone conclusion.
"Bab Al Aziziya was fundamental. How can Qaddafi return now? Our revolutionaries are everywhere," said Menahil Al Afi, 21, an engineering student out shopping yesterday with her friend, Hind.
"Just the old people think Qaddafi will come back. They believe what they see on state TV," said Ahmed, a young man who was on a patrol on Imam Malik street, a few metres from his house.
He said he wasn't scared, but still declined to give his full name. "Just in case," he said. "I don't want my parents to have problems … if Qaddafi's people come back."
[ jthorne@thenational.ae ]
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
Premier Futsal 2017 Finals
Al Wasl Football Club; six teams, five-a-side
Delhi Dragons: Ronaldinho
Bengaluru Royals: Paul Scholes
Mumbai Warriors: Ryan Giggs
Chennai Ginghams: Hernan Crespo
Telugu Tigers: Deco
Kerala Cobras: Michel Salgado
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
Director: James Wan
Starring: Jason Mamoa, Patrick Wilson, Amber Heard, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II
Rating: 2/5
Indika
Developer: 11 Bit Studios
Publisher: Odd Meter
Console: PlayStation 5, PC and Xbox series X/S
Rating: 4/5
Company profile
Company name: Fasset
Started: 2019
Founders: Mohammad Raafi Hossain, Daniel Ahmed
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $2.45 million
Current number of staff: 86
Investment stage: Pre-series B
Investors: Investcorp, Liberty City Ventures, Fatima Gobi Ventures, Primal Capital, Wealthwell Ventures, FHS Capital, VN2 Capital, local family offices
Company Profile
Company name: Hoopla
Date started: March 2023
Founder: Jacqueline Perrottet
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Investment required: $500,000
TWISTERS
Director:+Lee+Isaac+Chung
Starring:+Glen+Powell,+Daisy+Edgar-Jones,+Anthony+Ramos
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TECH SPECS: APPLE IPHONE 14 PLUS
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Platform: iOS 16
Main camera: Dual 12MP main (f/1.5) + 12MP ultra-wide (f/2.4); 2x optical, 5x digital; Photonic Engine, Deep Fusion, Smart HDR 4, Portrait Lighting
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Front camera: 12MP TrueDepth (f/1.9), Photonic Engine, Deep Fusion, Smart HDR 4; Animoji, Memoji; Portrait Lighting
Front camera video: 4K @ 24/25/3060fps, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps, HD slo-mo @ 120fps; night, time lapse, cinematic, action modes; Dolby Vision, 4K HDR
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Colours: Blue, midnight, purple, starlight, Product Red
In the box: iPhone 14, USB-C-to-Lightning cable, one Apple sticker
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Famous left-handers
- Marie Curie
- Jimi Hendrix
- Leonardo Di Vinci
- David Bowie
- Paul McCartney
- Albert Einstein
- Jack the Ripper
- Barack Obama
- Helen Keller
- Joan of Arc
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Almouneer
Started: 2017
Founders: Dr Noha Khater and Rania Kadry
Based: Egypt
Number of staff: 120
Investment: Bootstrapped, with support from Insead and Egyptian government, seed round of
$3.6 million led by Global Ventures
Film: Raid
Dir: Rajkumar Gupta
Starring: Ajay Devgn, Ileana D'cruz and Saurabh Shukla
Verdict: Three stars
My Country: A Syrian Memoir
Kassem Eid, Bloomsbury
FROM THE ASHES
Director: Khalid Fahad
Starring: Shaima Al Tayeb, Wafa Muhamad, Hamss Bandar
Rating: 3/5
A QUIET PLACE
Starring: Lupita Nyong'o, Joseph Quinn, Djimon Hounsou
Director: Michael Sarnoski
Rating: 4/5
Getting there
The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly to Johannesburg or Cape Town daily. Flights cost from about Dh3,325, with a flying time of 8hours and 15 minutes. From there, fly South African Airlines or Air Namibia to Namibia’s Windhoek Hosea Kutako International Airport, for about Dh850. Flying time is 2 hours.
The stay
Wilderness Little Kulala offers stays from £460 (Dh2,135) per person, per night. It is one of seven Wilderness Safari lodges in Namibia; www.wilderness-safaris.com.
Skeleton Coast Safaris’ four-day adventure involves joining a very small group in a private plane, flying to some of the remotest areas in the world, with each night spent at a different camp. It costs from US$8,335.30 (Dh30,611); www.skeletoncoastsafaris.com
COMPANY PROFILE
Company: Eco Way
Started: December 2023
Founder: Ivan Kroshnyi
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Electric vehicles
Investors: Bootstrapped with undisclosed funding. Looking to raise funds from outside
RESULTS
6.30pm: Maiden Dh 165,000 1,600m
Winner: Superior, Connor Beasley (jockey), Ahmad bin Harmash (trainer)
7.05pm: Handicap Dh 185,000 2,000m
Winner: Tried And True, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
7.40pm: Maiden Dh 165,000 1,600m
Winner: Roy Orbison, Fernando Jara, Ali Rashid Al Raihe
8.15pm
Handicap Dh 190,000 1,400m
Winner: Taamol, Dane O’Neill, Ali Rashid Al Raihe
8.50pm
Handicap Dh 175,000 1,600m
Winner: Welford, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar
9.25pm: Handicap Dh 175,000 1,200m
Winner: Lavaspin, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar
10pm: Handicap Dh 165,000 1,600m
Winner: Untold Secret, Xavier Ziani, Sandeep Jadhav
Book Details
Three Centuries of Travel Writing by Muslim Women
Editors: Siobhan Lambert-Hurley, Daniel Majchrowicz, Sunil Sharma
Publisher: Indiana University Press; 532 pages
SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
EMIRATES'S REVISED A350 DEPLOYMENT SCHEDULE
Edinburgh: November 4 (unchanged)
Bahrain: November 15 (from September 15); second daily service from January 1
Kuwait: November 15 (from September 16)
Mumbai: January 1 (from October 27)
Ahmedabad: January 1 (from October 27)
Colombo: January 2 (from January 1)
Muscat: March 1 (from December 1)
Lyon: March 1 (from December 1)
Bologna: March 1 (from December 1)
Source: Emirates
Nick's journey in numbers
Countries so far: 85
Flights: 149
Steps: 3.78 million
Calories: 220,000
Floors climbed: 2,000
Donations: GPB37,300
Prostate checks: 5
Blisters: 15
Bumps on the head: 2
Dog bites: 1
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kinetic 7
Started: 2018
Founder: Rick Parish
Based: Abu Dhabi, UAE
Industry: Clean cooking
Funding: $10 million
Investors: Self-funded