Libya: Rebel council confirms Tripoli move

Libyas rebels on Friday announced the transfer of their leadership to Tripoli from their Benghazi base, boosted by a United Nations decision to release millions of dollars of cash aid within days.“I declare the beginning and assumption of the executive committees work in Tripoli,” Ali Tahuni, a senior official of the rebel National Transitional Council, told a press conference in the capital.“Long live democratic and constitutional Libya and glory to our martyrs,” he said, announcing the holders of key posts in a new provisional government.Tahuni, the executive committees vice-chairperson and minister of oil and economics, said NTC head Mustafa Abdel Jalil would arrive in Tripoli as soon as the security situation permitted.At the same time the UN Security Council released $1.5-billion of seized Libyan assets to be used for emergency aid after the United States and South Africa ended a dispute over the money.The assets were frozen in US banks, but South Africa had blocked the release on the UN Security Councils sanctions committee, saying it would imply recognition of the NTC.Earlier a senior rebel official said diplomats of the Contact Group on Libya had agreed in Istanbul to speed up the release of $2.5-billion in frozen Libyan assets by the middle of next week.The announcements came less than three days after rebel forces swarmed into Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi’s sprawling compound in the centre of the capital, defeating his fighters in fierce clashes and seizing control of most of the city.But Gaddafi was nowhere to be found and on Thursday he broadcast a new audio calling on the populace to take up arms.Gaddafi, who has a $1.7-million price on his head, said: “We must resist these enemy rats, who will be defeated thanks to the armed struggle.”“Leave your homes and liberate Tripoli,” he added in the message broadcast from an unknown location on a Syria-based television station, Arrai Oruba.Addressing the youth of the capital, he said: “Fight them street by street, alley by alley, house to house. With rifles and pistols they will be annihilated.”“Do not fear them, fear only God,” he said, telling them not to fear bombardment by Nato warplanes. “They are just sound bombs.”Gaddafis audio message came as Abdel Jalil gave the grim assessment that more than 20 000 people had been killed in the drive since mid-February to end the strongmans 42-year, iron-fisted rule.Half of the NTC members arrived on Thursday in Tripoli to begin a transition to the post-Gaddafi era, while a rebel offensive largely cleared the strongly loyalist district of Abu Slim after fierce fighting.