Despite the claims of rebels and the International Criminal Court yesterday, Saif al-Islam is not in captivity, not any longer at any rate. He drove to the Rixos hotel, where western journalists and a handful of US Congressmen are incarcerated, in the early hours to give a press conference. “We’re winning,” he said in that insouciant, cultured manner of his — the effect ruined only by his unkempt beard.
NATO spokesmen have been across the airwaves this morning, saying that the military situation in Tripoli is confused but the outcome of this battle is not in doubt. NATO commanders insist that they are not pursuing regime change, a claim that causes an involuntary snort of irony. The Telegraph has a detailed account of the co-operation between RAF assets and the rebels during the battle for Tripoli, as well as producing a list of ‘non-lethal’ hardwire that Britain has gifted the rebels: telecommunications equipment, body armour etc.
Meanwhile, journalists report that Tripoli’s hospitals are ‘overflowing’ and struggling to treat patients during regular power cuts. There also reports that Gaddafi death squads are touring hospitals to shoot wounded rebels, so doctors have retreated to their homes. As Christina Lamb predicted in May, Gaddafi’s mad defiance is coming at a terrible price in blood. The positive point is that violence appears to be between rebels and loyalists: Tripoli has not degenerated into sectarian or ethnic violence, as some feared it might. By all accounts, this remains a spontaneous insurrection against the crumbling Gaddafi regime. But of Gaddafi himself, there is still no sign. NATO commander Colonel Robert Lavoie confirmed that the organisation have no idea where the Libyan leader is.
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