FRANCE PRESS

NEAR BANI WALID, Libya: Fierce clashes erupted Friday in Bani Walid, a bastion of Moammar Gadhafi, as a deadline loomed for loyalists of the deposed Libyan strongman to surrender or face a final assault.
And while world police body Interpol called for the fugitive Gadhafi’s arrest for crimes against humanity, following a request by the International Criminal Court, there were reports a number of his generals had fled Libya.

The National Transitional Council has set a Saturday deadline for towns still loyal to Gadhafi to surrender, and on-off talks have been going on for days over Bani Walid, where a number of former regime officials, including Gadhafi’s spokesman Mussa Ibrahim, are believed to be holed up.
“Sleeper cells of revolutionaries went into action and fighting has taken place between them and armed men loyal to Gadhafi on the streets of the town,” Abdullah Kenshil, the NTC’s chief negotiator, told journalists about 20 kilometers from Bani Walid.

Kenshil said the main forces of the NTC were still outside Bani Walid, about “one kilometer from the town.”
“We will not launch an attack without a decision by the NTC, but for now we have no choice and we want to protect our forces and the inhabitants of the town,” he said.
One of the “revolutionary” fighters was killed and four wounded, while there were three deaths in the ranks of the pro-Gadhafi forces.

NTC commander Abdullah al-Khzami said earlier that “fierce fighting between our forces and pro-Gadhafi ones are under way in sectors very close” to Bani Walid.
“The revolutionaries have reached the gates of the city, and its first neighborhoods lie before us, but we will not enter until the ultimatum expires,” he told AFP.

Columns of smoke and the crump of shelling could be heard by journalists 20 kilometers from Bani Walid as convoys carrying fighters and ammunition were heading toward the town 170 kilometers southeast of Tripoli.
Another commander, Abdullah al-Hakim, said pro-Gadhafi forces were shelling his forces about 30 kilometers away “to keep us from advancing on Bani Walid,” and that one of his men had been killed.

In Brussels, NATO said its aircraft destroyed two Scud missiles around Bani Walid Friday.
“The intent of Gadhafi forces to use these indiscriminate weapons represents a serious threat to civilians in Libya and demonstrates their willingness to ignore calls for discussions,” said Colonel Roland Lavoie, the NATO mission’s spokesman.

Meanwhile, on the road to Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte, rebels who had captured Red Valley, 60 kilometers to the east Thursday, were under counterattack, an AFP correspondent reported.
Sporadic fighting ensued Friday morning, and Gadhafi forces launched their counteroffensive with the arrival of a convoy of 10 vehicles along the front line.
NTC fighters fired anti-aircraft guns and held their positions under cover along the road and behind buildings just outside the town.

Speaking for the first time from Tripoli since it was captured on Aug. 23, de facto Prime Minister Mahmud Jibril warned late Thursday that “the battle of liberation is not finished.”
Jibril, who refused to speculate on Gadhafi’s whereabouts, acknowledged the conflict would end only with the “capture or elimination of Gadhafi.”

The NTC fears Gadhafi will try to slip across one of Libya’s porous borders, and neighboring Niger strongly denied he was there after a convoy carrying other senior ousted regime officials arrived Monday.
Niger vowed to respect international commitments if wanted former Libyan officials cross into its territory.

“If wanted Libyans are on Nigerien soil, we will follow existing procedure when legal requests are filed” by international courts, Justice Minister Marou Amadou told AFP. “We are not talking about Gadhafi, but about those who are already in Niger,” he said, insisting that “we do not know” the whereabouts of the fugitive former Libyan leader.
World police body Interpol called earlier for the arrest of Gadhafi, his son Seif al-Islam and his intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, for whom the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for crimes against humanity.

Interpol said it had issued a “red notice” for the three men, a day after ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked for the agency’s help.
A source from Niger’s ethnic Tuareg community in Niamey said Friday that a number of Libyan generals loyal to Gadhafi are now in Burkina Faso after having passed through Niger.