As rebels advance, where is Qaddafi?

(CBS/AP)�

Last Updated 1:20 p.m. ET

As the rebels descended upon the capital, Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi broadcast several audio messages exhorting citizens to rise up against the insurgents, and vowing to remain in Tripoli, even if to the very end.

But Qaddafi has not been publicly seen in weeks, despite video and audio messages broadcast on state television. U.S. officials have said they believe Qaddafi is still in Libya, but do not know where.

The chairman of the rebel Transitional National Council, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, said Monday no one knows the whereabouts of Qaddafi.

When asked Tuesday the whereabouts of Qaddafi, NATO spokesman Col. Roland Lavoie replied, "Don't have a clue, but not sure it really matters."

On Tuesday Guma el-Gamaty, a spokesman for the rebel Transitional National Council, told BBC News, "We don't think that [Qaddafi] has left the country. We believe he is still inside Libya. We believe that he is either in Tripoli or close to Tripoli.

"Sooner or later, he will be found, either alive and arrested - and hopefully that is the best outcome we want - or if he resists he will be killed."

Last night, Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, another son who had been reported captured by rebels, appeared to the press outside the Qaddafi compound. When asked if his father was still in Tripoli, Saif said, "Of course."

The head of the Russian chess federation, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, told the Interfax news agency he received a phone call Tuesday from Qaddafi's eldest son, Mohammad, who was under house arrest and apparently escaped last night. Mohammad handed the phone to his father, who told Ilyumzhinov he was "alive and well and still in Tripoli and not planning to leave Libya."

He said Qaddafi sounded full of vigor and told him he was "certain we will win."

But in the face of such defiant vows - and the failure of efforts in recent months to maneuver a safe haven in exile for the leader - Qaddafi maintains the ability to slip away undetected should capture seem imminent.

There have been reports that his home and headquarters in Tripoli, named Bab al-Aziziya, sits on a maze of tunnels allowing for easy movement to and from the compound.

A rebel military official, Major General Umar Al-Hariri, told Reuters that the Bab al-Aziziya compound - which houses both military barracks and Qaddafi's private quarters - is linked to underground tunnels up to 20 miles long, allowing access to the nearby coastline.

In February in al-Bayda, rebels seized one of Qaddafi's summer palaces, which featured not only trappings of wealth but also an underground tunnel and bunker system equipped to maintain Qaddafi for an extended period of time, bolstered with airtight doors and built to withstand heavy fire from unconventional weapons.

Al Jazeera posted a video in which correspondent Jacky Rowland toured the underground complex.

Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsMain/~3/i-i3Kx168O4/main20095999.shtml

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