‘Even if he is in hell, we will chase him and fight him’

AS Muammer al-Gaddafi’s supporters professed their loyalty to the regime, the men of the Bani Walid brigade polished their guns in preparation for war.

They had liberated Tripoli, now it was time to free their home town from the “head of the snake” – the Gaddafi family itself. “We are proof that not all Warfalla support Gaddafi,” said one rebel fighter.

All the men in the brigade belong to the tribe that the “Brother Leader” has said will never surrender.

For months the men have been preparing to retake their home town of Bani Walid. Nestled in the sand dunes of Libya’s barren south, the town is one of the few areas still under loyalist control in Libya.

The spotlight has turned on Bani Walid as rebels hone in on Gaddafi. Located en route to the Algerian border it has been marked as one of the most likely locations to which Gaddafi may have escaped, and is believed to have hosted the ousted leader’s family before they fled Libya.

Mahmoud Abdul Aziz, Bani Walid’s National Transitional Council representative, told The Scotsman Gaddafi’s son, Saif al Islam, is now leading the loyalists living in the city.

General Warfalla – who would not give his full name for fear of recriminations on his family in the town – defected from the regime army as early as March. Secretly he and other soldiers in the regime began planning an internal revolt he said.

“But they caught one of our people, and tortured him until he exposed our plan,” he said. “So we left to plan our attack from the western mountains.”

He sat in a secret and sprawling military base in the heart of Tripoli. The car park stood filled with fighter pick-up trucks caked in mud for camouflage and mounted with rocket launchers.

“I cannot tell you how many we are but we are enough, believe me,” said the rebel. “Even if he is in hell, we will chase him there to fight him.”

As the general spoke, Dr Mariam Warfalla joked and laughed with troops. She said: “We are one of the largest tribes in Libya. Many of Gaddafi’s top security guards, his police chiefs and his politicians come from Warfalla. But many of us are not with him now”.