NTC forces based in the western city of Zawiya have for the past days been clashing with Wershifanna tribal fighters in the nearby Hashan area. Rumors maintain that Saif al-Islam Qaddafi is being harbored by the tribal fighters.
Niger’s military clashed with a heavily armed convoy travelling though the desert from Libya. Authorities say the convoy is made up of fleeing Qaddafi loyalists escorted by local Tuareg fighters, with arms bound for the AQIM network.
International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said all war crimes allegations against NATO, NTC and pro-Qaddafi forces committed during the recent conflict will be investigated “impartially and independently.”
Algeria is sending military forces to the border with Western Sahara after a group of Spanish and Italian aid workers were kidnapped from the Polisario-run refugee camps at Tindouf by supposed al-Qaeda militants.
Abdurraheem el-Keib—a dual US-Libyan citizen and veteran of the energy industry, described favorably as a “technocrat” by the Washington Post—was elected prime minister of Libya by leaders of the National Transitional Council.
As elite voices in the West call for breaking Libya up along “tribal lines,” the country’s Berbers—who have the most to fear from a centralized Arab-dominated regime—issued a statement calling for a unified state with equal rights for all.
Swiss Federal Judicial Police detained Algeria’s former defense minister Khaled Nezzar for questioning by prosecutors on “suspicion of war crimes” carried out during the North African country’s civil war in the 1990s.
Amnesty International is calling for the NTC to give a full accounting of the slaying of Moammar Qaddafi. Reports conflict on whether he was already injured by a NATO air-strike when he was captured, or was shot while in the hands of NTC fighters.
Striking workers at Libya’s Waha Oil firm, which operates in a joint venture with US companies, agreed to return to work after the government said it will dismiss chairman Bashir Elshahab, accused of being a crony of ousted dictator Moammar Qaddafi.
With Western warplanes still bombing Sirte, TNC Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril visited Baghdad to meet with his Iraqi counterpart Nouri al-Maliki, who pledged to support Libya, noting (without irony) “similarities between the Iraqi and Libyan experiences.”
Riot police in Tunis used tear-gas to disperse hundreds of young Islamists who fought back with stones, knives and sticks. At least 40 were arrested. The Islamists were protesting against the ban on women who wear the niqab enrolling in university.
Libya’s Berber (Amazigh) minority held the “First Libyan Amazigh Forum” in Tripoli, under the slogan: “Officialize the Amazigh language and support national unity.” The unprecedented festival opened with the new national anthem, sung in Arabic and Berber.
