20110905
Reuters
NEAR BANI WALID, Libya (Reuters) - Tribal elders from the besieged
town of Bani Walid, a bastion of support for Muammar Gaddafi, came out negotiate on Sunday with fighters for Libya's interim government who have said they are ready to attack.

Earlier on Sunday a National Transitional Council (NTC) negotiator told a Reuters correspondent at the scene that talks had broken down and that its forces were about to take the town.

But, several hours later, elders from the town arrived at a frontline checkpoint, some 60 km (40 miles) north of Bani Walid. Sitting in the shade of a building, the men, dressed in flowing white robes, and NTC negotiators in military fatigues and with rifles slung over their shoulders huddled in conversation.

"We do not want to solve this militarily," NTC negotiator Abusif Ghnyah told Reuters at the frontline. "We don't want to fire even a single shot. We don't want blood."

There has been speculation from NTC officials that members of the Gaddafi family, even the former Libyan leader himself, may be hiding in the town.

NTC commanders at the checkpoint said they suspected Gaddafi's most politically-prominent son, Saif al-Islam, may have fled the town on Saturday and headed deeper into the southern desert.

Ghnyah said that about 20 pro-Gaddafi fighters still controlled the centre of Bani Walid, though other NTC officials estimated there may be as many as 100 fighters waiting in the town.

Bani Walid, along with Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte and Sabha, deep in the Sahara desert, are three of the last main areas not under NTC control, though its forces are massed nearby.

Independent accounts from inside the towns have not been available as communications appear to be largely cut off.