Libyans celebrate Gaddafi son’s arrest

Libyans have started to celebrate the reported arrest of Mu’tasim, one of the sons of the country’s fugitive former dictator, Muammar Gaddafi.

On Wednesday, officials from Libya’s ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) said their fighters had captured Mu’tasim in Gadaffi’s northern hometown of Sirte.

Celebratory gunfire was heard all across the capital, Tripoli and the northeastern city of Benghazi after the spread of the news.

Mu’tasim has reportedly been taken to NTC headquarters in Benghazi for questioning.

The developments come as the battle for the command of Sirte continues, with Gaddafi’s loyalists holding out only in two small pockets of the city, NTC military commanders said.

“Now we are getting forward to a place called ‘Dollar’ (a neighborhood of Sirte), and the family of Gaddafi live there. And after this place we’re going to fight only two places (in Sirte), that’s it,” said fighter, Colonel Kamal al-Magrabi.

The council’s leader, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, said on Wednesday that he hoped the forces declare complete victory over Gaddafi’s loyalists there in less than a week.