Interior minister and family ‘defect’

Libya’s interior minister and nine of his family have flown into Cairo on their private plane in what appeared to be the highest level defection from Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi’s regime in months.

Egyptian airport officials said Nassr al-Mabrouk Abdullah entered on a tourist visa.

No Libyan embassy officials greeted him at the airport and one embassy official said they were not aware of his plans to visit Egypt. The minister flew in from Tunisia, which borders Libya.

Col Gaddafi’s regime has suffered a series of defections since the unrest broke out in February. Many senior military commanders have deserted him – often seeking exile in the former colonial power Italy.

A number of ministers – such as those responsible for oil and transport – have abandoned the Gaddafi camp as well.

The most notable of those defections however, was that of Abdel Fattah Younes, Gaddafi’s long-serving previous interior minister who joined the rebel cause in the early days of the uprising.

He was killed, in circumstances that remain unclear, by fighters allied to the rebels in Benghazi in late July.

It is certain that what is still being referred to as the Libyan government consists of little more than Col Gaddafi himself, and his immediate family.