No confirmation if Gaddafi's son is caught: Libyan official

A Libyan spokesman Thursday said that revolutionary forces have captured some fighters close to one of Muammar Gaddafi's sons in the fugitive leader's hometown but that he has no information that the son himself has been seized.

Jalal el-Gallal, a spokesman for the National Transitional Council in the eastern city of Benghazi, said his office has called commanders in the besieged city of Sirte and "so far as we are concerned there is no confirmation that Mutassim Gaddafi has been captured."

He was commenting on reports that the son had been seized, which prompted heavy celebratory gunfire in Tripoli and the eastern city of Benghazi.

Anti-Gaddafi fighters have been closing in on armed supporters of the fugitive leader in Sirte, the most important of two major cities yet to be cleared of loyalists more than two months after the fall of Tripoli.

Libyan officials have said they believe Mutassim Gaddafi and other high-level former regime figures are hiding in Sirte and that is the reason for the fierce resistance.

Mutassim was Libya's national security adviser and had a strong role in the military and security forces under his father's regime.

Libya's de facto leader, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, said earlier yesterday he expected to declare total victory in less than a week, which would pave the way for a new interim government to be named to guide the oil-rich North African nation to elections within eight months.