Kadhafi family ‘flee to Algeria’

ALGIERS: The wife and three children of fugitive Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi are in Algeria, Algerian officials say.
A foreign ministry statement said Col Kadhafi’s wife Safia, daughter Ayesha and sons Muhammad and Hannibal left Libya early on Monday. Algeria’s UN ambassador said they were received on humanitarian grounds.
The arrival of Col Gaddafi’s wife and three children in Algeria had been reported to the UN and to Libyan rebel authorities, the Algerian foreign ministry said in a statement carried by Algeria’s APS news agency. It said they had crossed the border between Libya and Algeria at 08:45 local time (07:45 GMT) on Monday.
Algeria is an obvious refuge for the Gaddafi family as the two countries have a long border and the Algerian government has still not recognised the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC).
Meanwhile, NTC spokesman Mahmoud Shamman said: “This would be an act of aggression against the Libyan people and against the wishes of the Libyan people, “We will use all legal means to seek the return of these criminals and to bring them to justice in Libya.”
Muhammad and Hannibal are two of the sons with the least involvement in politics.
Rebels had previously suggested that other sons may be in or close to the Kadhafi stronghold of Sirte. On Monday, rebel Col Al-Mahdi Al-Haragi was quoted as saying Khamis, who has led a feared army unit blamed for a massacre last week, had died after being badly wounded in a clash.