@NasimFekratNasim Fekrat
Bani Walid, a city of 70,000 about 90 miles southeast of Tripoli, is one of the few places in Libya still held by forces loyal to Gadhafi. Opposition fighters say that they have given the city's tribal leaders until Saturday to lay down their arms or face a military assault.
"It looks like Bani Walid will be entered without one drop of blood spilled," said Mohammed bin Dala, 62. "We want peace; we want peace for all Libya."
STORY: Gadhafi loyalists flee Libya to Niger
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Tribal leaders from Bani Walid met Tuesday with representatives from the Tripoli-based opposition but did not surrender their weapons. A group of about a dozen elders gathered for discussions and prayers at a mosque on a road about 20 miles from the town.
Rebel negotiators say that almost all of the town's residents want to surrender but that a hard-core few are holding out.
Diaki Mohammed, 52, who is from Bani Walid, said 90% of the people there supported the rebels and that "the other 10% were involved in the bloodshed and killing, and they're afraid to be punished."
Although rebels now hold almost all of this oil-rich North African nation, pockets in the south and east remain loyal to Gadhafi.
Regime forces still control Bani Walid's radio station, and the rebels say people are fearful of the advancing rebel army.
"People don't know the truth," said professor Sadig Bendalla, 55, a surgeon from Bani Walid involved in the negotiations.
"The remnants of the old regime (are) trying to feed them with the wrong information. We're trying to clarify the picture," Bendalla said.
Bani Walid is home to the million-strong Warfalla tribe, which makes up one-sixth of Libya's population. In an audio message last week, Gadhafi said that the Warfallas would defend him to the death.
The humanitarian situation inside the town may be dire as supplies of water and food run low.
Farther south, information was scarce on the number and identity of the regime members who fled across the Sahara Desert. Gadhafi himself is not in the convoys, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
A dozen vehicles pulled into Niger's capital, Niamey, on Tuesday, and customs official Harouna Ide confirmed that it included Mansour Dao, Gadhafi's security chief and a key member of his inner circle, as well as around 12 other Gadhafi regime officials.
Ide said other Libyan convoys had crossed the border and included heavily armed contingents of Tuareg tribal fighters from Niger, who have been long enlisted by Gadhafi's regime.
Nuland said the U.S. has urged Niger to detain any individuals who may be subject to prosecution in Libya, to confiscate the weapons and to impound any state property such as money or jewels illegally taken out of the country.
