Gaddafi's son Saedi and other officials enter Niger

Colonel Gaddafi's son Saedi Gaddafi. Tripoli – Imad Ajaj Rebels face fierce resistance in Bani Walid Muammar Gaddafi's forces put up unexpectedly fierce resistance on Monday, launching a deadly raid on an oil refinery far behind the front lines even as the ousted despot's son Saadi fled to Niger. Southeast of Tripoli, civilians poured out of the desert town of Bani Walid after intense fighting on Sunday between Gaddafi loyalists holed up in the sprawling oasis and encircling new regime troops, an AFP correspondent reported.
The fighting comes as a message attributed to Gaddafi was aired on Syrian television, accusing rebel forces of surrendering Libya to foreign influence and promising to fight until the end.
NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen vowed there would be no let-up in the alliance's bombing campaign against Gaddafi's remaining strongholds, which also include his hometown of Sirte and the southern oases of Waddan and Sabha, as long as his forces pose a threat.
The Gaddafi force killed 12 soldiers loyal to the new government in its attack on the oil refinery near Ras Lanuf on Libya's central coast, National Transitional Council military spokesman Mohammed Zawawi told AFP.
"So far, we have a figure of 12 dead in the ranks of the revolutionaries" guarding the key plant, Zawawi said after the attack deep behind NTC lines.
"A group (of loyalists) travelling in five vehicles tried to enter the refinery but were unable to," he said.
The oil infrastructure along the Mediterranean coast between Sidra and Brega was a key battleground of the seven-month uprising against Gaddafi and the front line between the mainly rebel-held east and mainly government-held west went back and forth several times.
But since the fall of Tripoli last month, NTC forces have advanced dozens of kilometres (miles) west towards Sirte, which remains in the hands of Gaddafi loyalists, and have moved to secure the vital oil infrastructure on which its post-war reconstruction plans depend.
As civilians poured out of Bani Walid, many more residents remained trapped inside the town, 180 kilometres (110 miles) from the capital, for want of fuel for their vehicles, those fleeing said.
NTC fighters made little effort to check the identities of those passing through the checkpoints, the AFP correspondent said.
"Families are scared to death by this war," said Mohammed Suleiman as he passed through with 10 relatives crammed into the back of his white BMW.
Ezzedine Ramadan said the ferocity of Sunday's exchanges had prompted him to leave.
"Gaddafi's men were firing indiscriminately from the hills and rebels responded," he said as he he drove through with his family.
"We are expecting another attack today, so we left," he told AFP.
His wife Ibtissam said they had been forced to leave behind her brother.
"I am scared for those families stuck in the middle because there is no petrol," she said.
A medic at a field clinic outside Bani Walid said that at least 10 people had been killed in Sunday's exchanges.
"We received 10 killed and almost 20 injured, among them a woman with chest wounds," said surgeon Riba Ahmed.
In its latest update on Monday, NATO said warplanes under its command had hit 13 targets in and around Sirte, four around Waddan and one near Sabha.
The NATO chief said the strikes would go on until the threat to civilians had been eliminated.
"We have seen also during this weekend that remnants of Gaddafi's regime still constitute a threat to the civilian population," Rasmussen told reporters in London. "So as long as this threat exists, we will continue," he added.
West of Sirte, an NTC field commander said that his forces had met fierce resistance as they advanced towards the city on Sunday.
"We advanced yesterday to a place called Checkpoint 50," 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Sirte, said field commander Umran al-Awaib.
"There was strong resistance -- we came under fire from a lot of Grads (rockets)."
The fightback by Gaddafi loyalists came despite the flight on his son Saadi to neighbouring Niger on Sunday.
"Today, September 11, a patrol of the Nigerien armed forces intercepted a convoy in which was found one of Gaddafi's sons," Niger government spokesman Marou Amadou said on Sunday.
"At this moment the convoy is en route to Agadez (northern Niger). The convoy could arrive in Niamey between now and (Monday)," he added.
Saadi, 38, the third of Gaddafi's seven sons and known as a playboy, had last month offered to give himself up "if my surrender stops the spilling of blood."
He was hired in 2003 to play for Italian first division club Perugia but barely kicked a ball when he was suspended after testing positive for nandrolone, an anabolic steroid.
He renounced his football career in 2004 to join the army, where he led an elite unit.
Amadou has said that Al-Saedi "has no status at all" in Niger, suggesting that Al-Saedi has not been given refugee status.
The convoy included 12 armoured vehicles, and included eight former-regime officials, which Amadou considered "of minor importance compared to Al-Saedi."
Niger's Prime Minister said today that 32 members of the Gaddafi regime are currently in Niger.
Several convoys have crossed into Niger in the last week which have contained many high-profile former-regime officials, including Gaddafi’s chief of security and the head of his southern command.
Al-Saedi has reportedly offered to surrender.
The head of the NTC’s military council in Tripoli, Abdel-Hakim, said: “Saedi has expressed his desire to join the rebels and return to Tripoli if his safety can be guaranteed.”
Niger vowed Friday to respect international commitments if wanted Libyans entered its territory, and confirmed that three Gaddafi-era generals, including his air force chief, Al-Rifi Ali Al-Sharif, had arrived in Agadez.
Niamey has denied that Gaddafi himself is on its soil.
Earlier, the Prime Minister of Guinea Bissau, Carlos Gomes Jr., said that his country would welcome Muammar Gaddafi, representing a possible reprieve for the besieged former-President.
Gomes Jr. told a Guinean radio station that “Gaddafi deserves respect and a good treatment after all the investments that Gaddafi made in Guinea Bissau.”
In the capital, a massive explosion at an arms depot near the international airport injured two people on Monday, an AFP photographer and witnesses said.
"The munitions exploded because they were badly stored," a guard at the depot said. "Two people were hurt in the explosion and were taken to hospital."
Banks meanwhile prepared to start withdrawing from circulation the 50-dinar banknote, which bears a portrait of Gaddafi and, with a value of around 40 dollars is Libya's largest denomination.
"The banks have agreed to start withdrawing these notes and handing them in to the central bank," a branch manager of the National Commercial Bank, Talal al-Dhagisi, told AFP.
The President of the Executive Office of the Transitional National Assembly, Mahmoud Jbril, said that the NTC will begin governing within ten days, with input from representatives across Libya.
Jbril has said that two governments will be formed. The first will be formed shortly to implement new NTC legislation, and the second will be formed once the NTC has achieved full control over Libya.
He stated: “we still in the process of liberating Libya.”
Jbril’s comments come as United Press International reports that two mass graves have been discovered in Tripoli, containing 15 decomposed bodies.
The NTC will work with forensics to identify the dead, as the bodies have decomposed beyond recognition.