Libya conflict: Where is Col Muammar Gaddafi?

 

Col Gaddafi pledged to fight to the end - but from where?

After Libyan rebel fighters stormed the Bab al-Aziziya compound in the capital Tripoli - and crowds were seen celebrating the end of the old regime - one question remains: Where is Col Muammar Gaddafi?

The country's leader for 42 years has apparently responded with his customary defiance.
In an audio message broadcast on a local TV station, he pledged "martyrdom or victory".
He also suggested that until recently at least, he had still been in the capital.
"I have been out a bit in Tripoli discreetly, without being seen by people, and... I did not feel that Tripoli was in danger," he said.
When his son Saif al-Islam turned up in the early hours of Tuesday morning and was asked by international journalists whether his father remained in Tripoli, he responded lightly: "Yes, of course."
Audio broadcast messages have been Col Gaddafi's way of making his presence felt during the fierce fighting between rebels and government troops in recent months.
'Alive and well'?
But he has not been seen in public since May, and one of his last TV appearances was in mid-June when he was pictured playing chess with the president of the World Chess Federation, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.

Analysis

Gordon Corera Security correspondent, BBC News

There had been an expectation among some Western officials that the Libyan leader might make his last stand in his hometown of Sirte but the indications are that he most likely remains somewhere in Tripoli.
Officials in London say they do not know exactly where he is. MI6 will be using its contacts and agents on the ground to try to find him while the eavesdropping centre at GCHQ will be trying to intercept any communications.
Nato surveillance planes will also be looking for any signs of escape across the desert.
But Col Gaddafi has been hunted for months now and has proved adept at evading detection and the airstrikes which appear to have been targeting him.
What no one can be sure about is what will happen when or if he is found.
Will the hunt end - as it did with Saddam Hussein after eight months on the run - with the former leader emerging from a hole in the ground with his hands held up?
Or will Col Gaddafi choose to avoid the humiliation of a trial and end his own life - as Hitler did in his bunker - with enemy troops closing in around him.

On Tuesday, Mr Ilyumzhinov said he had spoken personally to Col Gaddafi and his son, Saif al-Islam, by telephone.

"[Saif al-Islam] gave the phone to his father, who said that he was in Tripoli, he was alive and healthy and was prepared to fight to the end," Mr Ilyumzhinov told the Reuters news agency.
If it is true that Col Gaddafi has remained in his Bab al-Aziziya compound in the Libyan capital, then it is possible his whereabouts will be confirmed sooner rather than later. Fierce fighting has taken place around the compound in the last 24 hours, and it remains a key target for rebels.
But speculation abounds over where else he might be.
One of the most persistent rumours is that he left Tripoli a while ago and may have gone to his birthplace of Sirte, on the western coast, or his ancestral home of Sabha in the south.
From there he might be able to flee across the Sahara desert to countries such as Niger and Chad, or even Mali, where he has enjoyed some support.
Rumours
When the BBC was taken on a government-guided visit to Sirte last month, they were treated to an early evening rally of several thousand people showing their support for Col Gaddafi.
However, there are rumours too that he may have fled the country.
South Africa - which has led mediation efforts by the African Union to seek a solution to the crisis - was forced on Monday to deny it had sent planes to Libya to help Col Gaddafi escape.

"The South African government would like to refute and dispel the rumours and claims that it has sent planes to Libya to fly Col Gaddafi and his family to an undisclosed location," Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane told a news briefing.
Meanwhile, unnamed rebels have been quoted as saying that Col Gaddafi and some of his family are "near to the Algerian border".
The US defence department said on Monday it believed he was still in Libya. "We do not have information that he's left the country," said Pentagon spokesman Col Dave Lapan, without giving any further details.
Whatever the truth of his whereabouts, it is impossible to predict how this is going to end for the flamboyantly-dressed, maverick leader who has long liked to portray himself as the spiritual guide of the nation.