Al Senussi, Gaddafi's intelligence chief, in Mali: reports

GlobalPost

Muammar Gaddafi's intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Senussi, has reached the Kidal region of Mali overnight, after crossing through the Niger desert, according to an adviser to the president of Niger, reports CBS. Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam, is on his way, they report.

The adviser, spoke to CBS via telephone from the Nigerien city of Agadez, where Tuareg elders held meetings overnight to discuss the situation.

Al Senussi and Saif al Islam are the two remaining members of Gaddafi's regime that have warrants out against them by the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

The adviser said that al Senussi had been escorted by Malian Tuaregs, across the dunes and is now in a desert camp in Kidal, in northern Mali. Saif al-Islam is expected to follow the same route.

There has been a lot of speculation about Saif al-Islam's location in the past few days. Reports that he was considering surrender had been circulating on Wednesday.

The Christian Science Monitor reports that the surrender of both men could help the new Libya make a clean break with the Qaddafi era and ease the transition to a new political order.

However, Saif al-Islam had once vowed to fight and die on Libyan soil.

"We fight here in Libya; we die here in Libya," he told Reuters in an interview conducted shortly after the rebellion began in February.  

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