Interpol widens net in hunt for Gaddafi,sons

The Interpol Thursday widened its net for Muammar Gaddafi and members of his family.

The Interpol Thursday widened its net for Muammar Gaddafi and members of his family. Gaddafi is likely to have taken refuge near the Algerian border under the protection of sympathetic Touareg tribesmen who have fought for him,an official of the new Libyan government said Wednesday.

The official said Gaddafis son and heir apparent,Seif al-Islam,was likely to be hiding in the loyalist desert enclave of Bani Walid,and that a second son,Muatassim,a militia commander and former national security adviser,was probably in Sirte,the Gaddafi clans hometown on the Mediterranean coast.

On Thursday,Interpol placed a third son,Saadi el-Gaddafi,38,on the Red Notice list for allegedly misappropriating properties through force and armed intimidation when he headed the Libyan Football Federation.

Interpol said it had confirmed reports that the third son was last seen in Niger. It said the alert was the first to be issued at the request of Libyas Transitional National Council. Previous such alerts were issued at the request of the International Criminal Court,Interpol said.

ARAB SPRING UPDATE

Yemen: Fresh clashes

Clashes between government troops and rival tribesmen erupted anew in the Yemeni capital Sana early Thursday and artillery shelling left at least one person dead and seven wounded. On Wednesday,rebel tribesmen in a mountainous region 30 km north of Sana brought down a Soviet-era military aircraft.

Syria: Ambassador blogs

The British ambassador in Damascus,Simon Collis,has started blogging about the truth in Syria because,he says,I can. In his first post on the blog,hosted on the British embassys website,Collis said the government was spreading disinformation,and he would fight attempts to pull the shutters down.

COLONELS GUNS ARE A VIDEO GAME

A BRITISH TV documentary on arms sales by Gaddafi to the IRA showed pictures it called IRA footage 1988,but which were actually images taken from a video game,Arma 2,released two years ago,and set in a fictional post-Soviet country.

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THE VOICEOVER,deadly serious,spoke of Gaddafis heavy machine guns,as shown in the terrorists own footage of 1988. A YouTubeviewer who caught the goof commented on the narrators grave declaration that thankfully no one had died in the attack shown in the images: correction,im dying from laughter right now.?

THE DOCUMENTARY makers issued an apology for the unfortunate case of human error in the film after the goof was reported.

KAREEM FAHIM & RICK GLADSTONE