Gaddafi surrounded

Libyan fighters have surrounded the ousted dictator Muammar Gaddafi, and it is only a matter of time until he is captured or killed, a spokesman for Tripoli's new military council said yesterday.
Anis Sharif would not say where Gaddafi had been found, but said he was still in Libya and had been tracked using high technology and human intelligence. Gaddafi is trapped within a 60 kilometre-radius area surrounded by rebels, he said.
"He can't get out," said Sharif, who added the former rebels are preparing to either detain him or kill him.
Locating Gaddafi would help seal the new rulers' hold on the country. The announcement came after convoys of Gaddafi loyalists, including his security chief, fled across the Sahara into Niger in a move that Libya's former rebels hoped could help lead to the surrender of his last strongholds.
Meanwhile, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the head of the Transitional Council - the closest thing to a Libyan government now - warned that the loyalist town of Bani Walid had until Friday to surrender or else the former rebel forces would move in.
Some former rebels depicted the flight to Niger as a major exodus of Gaddafi's most hardcore backers. But confirmed information on the number and identity of those leaving was scarce given the vast swath of desert - over 1,600 kilometres - between populated areas on the two sides of the border.
In Niger's capital, Niamey, Massoudou Hassoumi, a spokesman for the president said Gaddafi's security chief had crossed the desert into Niger on Monday accompanied by a major Tuareg rebel.
The government of Niger dispatched a military convoy to escort Mansour Dao, the former commander of Libya's Revolutionary Guards who is a cousin of Gaddafi as well as a member of his inner circle, to Niamey.
Dao is the only senior Libyan figure to have crossed into Niger, said Hassoumi, who denied reports that Gaddafi or any member of his immediate family were in the convoy.
US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters, "We don't have any evidence that Gaddafi is anywhere but in Libya at the moment."
There has been intense speculation regarding the whereabouts of Gadhafi's inner circle and last week, Algeria, which like Niger shares a border with Libya - confirmed that the ousted leader's wife, his daughter, two of his sons, and several grandchildren had crossed into Algeria.
The anti-Gaddafi fighters who toppled his regime by sweeping into Tripoli last month have been struggling to uproot his bastions of support, particularly in the cities of Bani Walid, Sirte and Sabha. They say residents in those cities have been prevented from surrendering to the new post-Gaddafi rule because of former regime figures in their midst.
Nato said yesterday that it had made a number of airstrikes around Sirte - Gaddafi's hometown - hitting six tanks, six armored fighting vehicles and an ammunition storage facility, among other targets.