Gaddafi spokesman Ibrahim denies capture: TV
(AFP)
1 October 2011, 10:13 PM
A man claiming to be Mussa Ibrahim, spokesman for Muammar Gaddafi, denied on Saturday claims he had been captured by forces of the country’s new regime outside of the deposed Libyan leader’s hometown of Sirte.
‘This information is a lie and does not reflect reality,’ the man said in a live telephone interview with Syrian-based Arrai television, which has become a conduit for declarations by Gaddafi and other elements of his former regime.
On Thursday, field commanders with Libya’s National Transitional Council said Ibrahim had been captured as he attempted to flee Sirte in a car, with some reports saying he was dressed as a woman.
Those claims quickly came into question, with a spokesman for the NTC’s Misrata military council saying the next day: ‘We cannot confirm he was arrested.’
On Friday, the website of the former state television channel Allibiya said ‘Mussa Ibrahim has not been captured.’
‘This is a mendacious rumour aimed at distracting attention from the rebels’... defeat at the hands of the heroic forces in Sirte.’
In the interview on Arrai, the purported Ibrahim said claims of his capture could not be true because at the time he was said to have been captured ‘I was near the Sirte front with 23 fighters. We were under attack by very well-armed rebels for more than a day and a half, and we suffered fatalities.’