“Libya’s new civilian leaders put all military commanders in the capital under their control Saturday, a move designed to rein in Islamist influence and paper over internal tensions.  Libya’s rebellion has been plagued from its outset by reports that its civilian leaders had little control over military commanders and by talk of rivalry among commanders. Western officials acknowledge that there are also concerns about the influence of Islamists who fought against Soviet rule in Afghanistan in the 1980s and whose experience gave them an important role in the armed uprising against Moammar Gaddafi.   Moammar Gaddafi has ruled Libya for more than 40 years. Now, he is strongly rejecting opposition demands that he give up power, as anti-government demonstrators continue to push for his ouster.  On Saturday, the transitional governing council moved to quell that talk by bringing the military commanders in Tripoli under one umbrella, creating a Supreme Security Committee headed by Deputy Prime Minister Ali Tarhouni.  Meanwhile, officials said there were unconfirmed reports that Gaddafi’s forces had retreated from the city of Bani Walid, 100 miles southeast of Tripoli, where three of his sons were believed to have taken refuge.  Tripoli military commander Abdulhakim Belhadj said that Gaddafi’s forces had vanished from checkpoints they were manning outside Bani Walid and that the city was reported to be 90 percent under the control of rebel sympathizers.  The Associated Press reported late Saturday that thousands of rebel fighters were closing in on the town from three sides.  ’If they don’t raise the rebel flag tomorrow, we will enter with force’, Abdel-Razak al-Nathori, a rebel brigade commander, told the AP.  Rebel commanders said they believe that the three Gaddafi sons had escaped and headed to the south across the Sahara, possibly toward the city of Sabha. A fourth son, military commander Khamis Gaddafi, was killed in an ambush on the road to Bani Walid a week ago, they said. Gaddafi’s whereabouts remained unknown”

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