Libya conflict: Gaddafi family 'flee to Algeria'

[Gerald]

The wife and three children of fugitive Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi are in Algeria, Algerian officials say.

A foreign ministry statement carried by Algeria's APS news agency said Col Gaddafi's wife Safia, daughter Ayesha and sons Muhammad and Hannibal left Libya early on Monday.

Libya's rebels said they considered Algeria's sheltering of Gaddafi family members an act of aggression and called for their extradition.

Col Gaddafi's whereabouts are unknown.

Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports quoted rebels as saying that another of his sons, Khamis, may have been killed in a clash near Bani Walid.

The reports came as Libyan rebels were trying to overcome the pockets of resistance by Gaddafi loyalists, and preparing to advance on Col Gaddafi's birthplace, Sirte.

Obvious refuge

The arrival of Col Gaddafi's wife and three children in Algeria had been reported to the UN and to Libyan rebel authorities, the Algerian foreign ministry said.

It said they had crossed the border between Libya and Algeria at 08:45 local time (07:45 GMT) on Monday.

The BBC's Jon Leyne in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi said first word of such a move had already come from Libyan rebel headquarters two days ago, and that at the time, Algerian authorities denied that a convoy of six heavily armoured vehicles had crossed the border.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14709896


Note: 29 August 2011 Last updated at 19:37 GMT