Wars, Moammar Gadhafi | featured news

Moammar Kadafi 's wife and three of his children fled Libya to neighboring Algeria on Monday, firm evidence that the longtime leader has lost his grip on the country.

A spokesman for Libya's ousted leader apparently sought talks on a transfer of power. Rebels offer only 'safety and a fair trial.' A top-ranking rebel government official Sunday dismissed a supposed offer by Moammar Kadafi to negotiate a transition, insisting that the country's long-time ruler should turn himself in.

It took 200,000-plus U.S. troops nine months to capture Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein after one of the largest manhunts ever....

Amid the euphoria of having forced Moammar Kadafi to flee, some Tripoli residents decry the lack of basic services and say they fear that chaos is imminent, like that in Baghdad after Saddam Hussein. The rapid rebel takeover has left Libya's capital teetering, with young men firing antiaircraft weapons into the air and gunmen at checkpoints hustling anyone they regard as mildly suspicious into overcrowded detention centers.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi called on his supporters on Thursday to march on Tripoli and "purify" the capital of rebels, who he denounced as "rats, crusaders and unbelievers."

With Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule effectively over, Libya's new leaders and their foreign allies face the daunting task of restoring order, beginning reconstruction and avoiding collapse into conflict and chaos.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said on Wednesday that his withdrawal from his Bab al-Aziziya headquarters was a "tactical move" after the compound was leveled by 64 NATO air strikes.

The son and heir apparent of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, Seif al-Islam, resurfaced free and defiant early Tuesday a day after rebels claimed to have captured him, boasting in a bizarre reappearance that his father's loyalists still control parts of Tripoli and would crush the rebellion.

With Libyan rebels reaching Tripoli, the endgame is at hand. Intense fighting may lie ahead, but three of Moammar Gadhafi's sons are reportedly in custody and the power of the regime appears to be rapidly eroding.

President Barack Obama said on Monday the United States would be a friend and partner to Libya, but urged rebels poised to depose Muammar Gaddafi to not seek justice through violent reprisals.