Head of provisional government arrives in Tripoli

The leader of the Libya’s provisional government arrived in the capital on Saturday for the first time since an armed uprising backed by NATO warplanes drove its longtime leader Muammer Gaddafi from power.

Mustafa Abdul Jalil, justice minister until his defection from the Gaddafi regime earlier this year, stepped off a flight from the eastern city of Benghazi to a red carpet reception.

Abdul Jalil’s arrival underscores the improvement of the security situation in the capital three weeks after rebels pushed Gaddafi from power and into hiding. But armed conflict continues elsewhere in the country.

Rebel fighters on the outskirts of Bani Walid, under the control of Gaddafi loyalists, said they had withdrawn their forces from the city at the request of NATO a day after entering the city. At least five rebel fighters have been killed near the city in two days of fighting, people at the scene said.

Rebel negotiator Abdullah Kanshil, who had been assigned the task speaking to Bani Walid leaders in an attempt to peacefully resolve the standoff, accused Gaddafi’s loyalists of using the city’s 100,000 inhabitants as human shields.

“I worked for 10 days to avoid this,” he told reporters. “I was negotiating with elders. But Gaddafi’s men forced them to stop negotiating.”

The rebels appeared to be advancing on the town as NATO planes could be heard flying overhead. They had moved their staging area to a point called Wadi Dinar, which they said was less than 5km from the city itself.

Kanshil said eyewitnesses inside the city had told them they spotted two of Gaddafi’s sons, Saif al-Islam and Mutassim, as well as a high-profile cousin, Ibrahim Moussa, inside the city as early as three days ago.

He said Gaddafi’s loyalists had less than a dozen Grad rocket launchers aimed at the fighters.

“They have about 30 or 40 diehard fighters from inside the city,” he said, citing sources inside the city. “The rest are from other cities.”