ripoli – The U.S., NATO and Britain were helping Libya's rebel fighters Thursday track down the elusive Muammar Qaddafi, who remains at large days after losing control of his capital, Tripoli.
U.S. intelligence agencies believe Qaddafi slipped out of his main security compound in Tripoli ahead of the rebel advance into the capital this week. But US officials believe they have identified several possible sites where he could be hiding, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The U.S. and its allies are repositioning intelligence agents and targeting surveillance equipment to narrow the search, while the CIA and other spy services are putting their muscle behind the effort to safeguard mustard gas and other chemical-weapons agents that the Qaddafi's regime had stockpiled at sites around the country.
On the ground, Libyan rebel fighters were involved in tough street-to-street fighting as they bid to mop up the remaining pockets of loyalist resistance in Tripoli and find Qaddafi and the remains of his regime.
The Transitional National Council (TNC), the rebel leadership based in the eastern bastion of Benghazi, on Wednesday said a bounty of two million dinars ($1.67 million) was on offer for Qaddafi's capture -- dead or alive.
The rebels were receiving assistance from Britain's elite 22 SAS Regiment, which was ordered to join the manhunt by Prime Minister David Cameron, The (London) Daily Telegraph reported.
The crack troops even donned Arab civilian clothing and carried the same type of weapons as the rebel fighters in a bid to blend in.
NATO meanwhile was funneling information to the rebel leadership, British defense minister Liam Fox told Sky News. "I can confirm that NATO is providing intelligence and reconnaissance assets" to the TNC, Fox said.
The hunt for Qaddafi has become a top priority because of concerns that the six-month conflict will not end as long as the man who has ruled the country for 42 years remains at large and can threaten a comeback, the WSJ reported.
"Clearly, locating Qaddafi is important for closure, so it will be one of several key collection priorities in this next phase of the conflict," the report quoted a U.S. official as saying.
CIA operatives on the ground in Libya have been supporting NATO's air campaign, as well as the rebel leadership. Those intelligence operations are supplemented with other collection methods, including satellites and unmanned surveillance aircraft.
If Qaddafi's location is pinpointed, the response could take any number of forms depending on the situation, U.S. officials said. The position could be bombed from the air, the CIA could send its own operatives, or special forces from Britain and France could move in. The U.S. does not have military personnel on the ground inside Libya, and President Barack Obama has made clear that situation will not change.
In addition to chemical-weapons agents, Tripoli also maintains control of aging Scud B missiles, U.S. officials said, as well as large quantities of uranium yellowcake and vast amounts of conventional weapons.
The Obama administration considers securing those weapons and materials a clear priority now that Qaddafi appears to have lost his grip on power.
Qaddafi agreed in 2003 to scrap his weapons-of-mass-destruction program, but is thought to have kept several tons of mustard gas and large supplies of precursor chemicals that could be used to create chemical weapons.
Intelligence agencies have long believed that Al Qaeda and its allies have been seeking such materials for use in terror attacks.
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