Rebels Diss Gadhafi Offer to Negotiate

Threaten to advance on Sirte, arrest him soon
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Aug 28, 2011 10:40 AM CDT
Rebels Diss Gadhafi Offer to Negotiate
Mahmoud Jibril, head of Libya's National Transitional Council, sits with the Libyan rebel flag next to him as he represents Libya during an Arab league meeting in Cairo, Saturday, Aug. 27, 2011.   (Khalil Hamra)

Libyan rebels today rejected an offer by Moammar Gadhafi to negotiate and said they have captured the eastern town of Bin Jawwad, forcing regime loyalists to flee after days of fighting. With his regime crumbling, Gadhafi is on the run, but his chief spokesman Moussa Ibrahim says he's still in Libya. As the call for negotiations came, new signs emerged of arbitrary killings of detainees and civilians by Gadhafi forces during the rebels' push into Tripoli earlier this week, including some 50 charred corpses at a regime lockup.

The rebels dismissed Gadhafi's proposal to have his son al-Saadi lead talks on a transitional government as delusional. "We are looking at them as criminals. We are going to arrest them very soon," said the rebels' information minister. "Talking about negotiations is a daydream for what remains of the dictatorship." In today's fighting, rebels threatened to advance on the coastal road toward Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte if tribal leaders there don't surrender. A spokesman said rebel forces captured Bin Jawwad, about 350 miles east of Tripoli, late yesterday and deployed forces in the city after days of fighting. He said Gadhafi's forces fled westward, likely to join regime forces in Sirte. (More Libya stories.)

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