It seems that the town of Bani Walid, stronghold of Libyan deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi, is to surrender to rebel National Transitional Council.

It seems that the town of Bani Walid, stronghold of Libyan deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi, is to surrender to rebel National Transitional Council.

A Chief negotiator said that the town was ready to come under the NTC’s authority despite pockets of resistance.
"The negotiations were successful yesterday and we are waiting for the NTC to give us the green light to go in”, Abdullah Kenshil told AFP news agency.
Kenshil held talks with Bani Walid elders on Tuesday.

"The elders have joined the revolution," he said, adding that some of them were now in Tripoli, and others were back in Bani Walid, where pro-Gaddafi armed men initially prevented them from returning.
He said the aggression against the elders had angered members of the community.

"Armed men waved their weapons at the elders... and this angered the community," Kenshil said.
Witnesses reported seeing the tribal elders heading away from Bani Walid, 170 kilometers southeast of Tripoli, towards the nearby town of Tarhuna late on Tuesday.

Pro-Gaddafi forces in Bani Walid, Sabha in the south and Sirte, Gaddafii's hometown on the coast have been a given a Saturday deadline to surrender and lay down their arms, in a bid to spare further bloodshed.

The outcome of negotiations concerning Bani Walid, a bastion of the powerful Warfalla tribe and hometown of NTC leader Mahmud Jibril, has created some anxiety.
Thousands of rebel fighters have been camping outside Bani Walid. They have also built a field hospital and deployed 10 volunteer doctors to prepare for the possibility of a fight.

GADDAFI FLED TO NIGER OR CHAD
Meanwhile, a senior NTC military official told Reuters news agency that Gaddafi has probably left Bani Walid and was heading further south with the help of loyalist tribes towards Chad or Niger.

"He's out of Bani Walid I think. The last tracks, he was in the Ghwat area. People saw the cars going in that direction. We have it from many sources that he's trying to go further south, towards Chad or Niger”, Hisham Buhagiar, who is coordinating efforts to find the former Libyan leader, said.
Ghwat is some 950km south of Tripoli and 300km north of the border with Niger.