The Assad regime in Syria brought about Muammar Gaddafi's death by providing France with the key intelligence which led to the operation that killed him, sources in Libya claimed.
The Assad regime in Syria brought about Muammar Gaddafi's death by providing France with the key intelligence which led to the operation that killed him, sources in Libya claimed on Sunday.
French spies operating in Sirte, Gaddafi's last refuge, were able to set a trap for the Libyan dictator after obtaining his satellite telephone number from the Syrian government, they said.
In what would amount to an extraordinary betrayal of one Middle East strongman by another, President Bashar al-Assad sold out his fellow tyrant in an act of self-preservation, a former senior intelligence official in Tripoli told The Daily Telegraph. With international attention switching from Libya to the mounting horrors in Syria, Assad offered Paris the telephone number in exchange for an easing of French pressure on Damascus, according to Rami El Obeidi.
"In exchange for this information, Assad had obtained a promise of a grace period from the French and less political pressure on the regime - which is what happened," Obeidi said.
While it was not possible to verify Obeidi's allegation independently, Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president, played a leading role in both the Nato mission to bomb Libya and in bringing international pressure to bear on the Assad regime.
The claims by Obeidi, the former head of foreign intelligence for the movement that overthrew Gaddafi, followed comments by Mahmoud Jibril, who served as prime minister in the transitional government and now leads one of Libya's largest political parties.
He confirmed over the weekend that a foreign "agent" was involved in the operation that killed Gaddafi. He did not identify his nationality. However the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera quoted Western diplomats in Tripoli as saying that if a foreign agent was involved "he was almost certainly French". The news of the Syria deal could potentially embarrass Nato, which initially claimed that it did "not target individuals".
According to the alliance's official version, an RAF reconnaissance plane spotted a large convoy of vehicles trying to flee Sirte on October 20 last year, two months after Gaddafi fled Tripoli.
Nato warplanes bombed the convoy, apparently unaware of who was travelling in it, before militia fighters found Gaddafi hiding in a drainpipe.
He is believed to have been killed by his captors en route to the city of Misurata, west of Sirte.
But Obeidi said that France had essentially masterminded the operation by directing Libyan militiamen to an ambush spot where they could intercept Gaddafi's convoy. He also suggested that France had little interest in how Gaddafi was treated once captured, although the fighters were encouraged to try to take him alive.
"French intelligence played a direct tole in the death of Gaddafi, including his killing," Obeidi said.
"They gave directions that he was to be apprehended, but they didn't care if he was bloodied or beaten up as long as he was delivered alive."
According to Obeidi, French intelligence began to monitor Gaddafi's Iridium satellite telephone and made a breakthrough when he rang two of his senior loyalists, Yusuf Shakir and Ahmed Jibril, who had fled to Syria.
A spokesperson at the French foreign ministry refused to confirm or deny the claims.
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