Gaddafi's Wife, 2 Sons, Daughter Flee to Algeria

A file photo dated 15 April 2011, shows Aisha Gaddafi, daughter of Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi, flashing a victory sign in the heavily fortified military barracks and compound of Bab Al Azizia in Tripoli. EPA/BGNES

The wife and three of the children of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi have fled to Algeria, the Algerian Foreign Ministry has announced.

"The wife of Muammar Gadhafi, Safiya, his daughter Aisha, and sons Hannibal and Mohammad, accompanied by their children, entered Algeria ... through the Algeria-Libyan border," Algeria's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday night, as cited by Algeria's state news agency.

The Algerian Foreign Ministry said the members of the Gaddafi family entered Algeria at 8.45am on Monday.

The statement did not provide immediately additional details or say whether Gadhafi himself was with the family.

The movement of his family raises speculation that the ousted dictator could also have entered into the country.

Algeria, which has been sticking to a policy of neutrality regarding the civil war in Libya, has been viewed with misgivings by the Libyan rebels' Transitional National Council.

The announcement about the fleeing of Gaddafi's family into Algeria comes several hours after earlier on Monday Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci held talks with a top Libyan rebel official, the highest-level contact between Algeria and the rebel government of Libya.

Medelci met Mahmoud Jibril, the head of the NTC's rebel executive committee, on the sidelines of an Arab League meeting in Cairo, Algeria's state APS agency said on Monday.

It quoted Algerian Foreign Ministry spokesman Amar Belani as saying the meeting had been initiated by Jibril.

Last week Algerian officials were quoted as saying their country would not recognize the Libyan rebels until it was certain their government would be committed to fighting Al Qaeda's branch in North Africa.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!