“font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;”>CAIRO —

Libyan rebels battled Monday to hold Tripoli

as 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Moammar Gadhafi’s son

and longtime heir apparent _ whom the rebels claimed to have

captured _ made a surprise appearance outside a hotel and dismissed

claims that his father had lost control of the country.

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CAIRO — Libyan rebels battled Monday to

hold Tripoli as 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Moammar Gadhafi’s son

and longtime heir apparent _ whom the rebels claimed to have

captured _ made a surprise appearance outside a hotel and dismissed

claims that his father had lost control of the country.

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That 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Seif al-Islam Gadhafi was

in fact free _ and not in their custody, as they’d bragged Sunday _

wasn’t just a tremendous embarrassment for the rebels. It also

raised serious questions about the credibility of the opposition

government set to take control of 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>post-Gadhafi Libya

and, more urgently, about the rebels’ claims to control nearly all

of the capital.

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Seif al-Islam’s purported arrest had signaled

the imminent end of the regime, and it wasn’t clear whether he

escaped from custody or was never captured at all. Rebel leaders

didn’t immediately explain what happened, and the White House had

no immediate comment.

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Just a day earlier, the International

Criminal Court had said it would ask the rebels to

transfer 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Seif al-Islam

to its custody to try him for crimes against humanity. Late Monday,

Arabic satellite channels showed the son swaggering out of an

armored SUV outside a hotel housing foreign journalists shortly

after midnight local time, wearing a scruffy beard and an army

green t-shirt, shaking hands with supporters and saying, “Things

are fine in 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Tripoli.”

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News services reported

that 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Seif al-Islam

then took some foreign journalists on a tour of parts of Tripoli

under

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Gadhafi’s control

and suggested that government forces had allowed the rebels to

enter Tripoli as a plot to entrap them.

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The news cast a pall of uncertainty over

a day in which rebels battled to consolidate their grip on the

capital even as they clashed with 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>pro-Gadhafi holdouts

at his 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Bab al Azizya compound

in southern Tripoli. Another 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Gadhafi son,

Mohammed, reportedly escaped rebel custody in unclear

circumstances. And residents in 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Zuwara,

a town west of Tripoli and about 30 miles from the Tunisian border,

reported heavy shelling from three nearby towns believed to be

loyal to the longtime ruler.

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Anees al 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Fonas,

a member of the rebel media council from 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Zuwara who

spoke by phone from Tunisia, said that rockets and mortars had been

fired “for the last 24 hours, nonstop,” from the nearby towns

of 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Zolton, Riqdalin and

Al

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Jamil.

One civilian was killed Monday when a rocket landed on the roof of

his house, and four others were injured,

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Fonas said.

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A small group of rebels were on the

outskirts of 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Zuwara,

but reinforcements from rebel-held 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Sabrata,

about 25 miles to the east, could not arrive

because 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Gadhafi forces

reportedly were stationed near a road connecting the

two.

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President Barack Obama called for a

“peaceful, inclusive and just” transition but warned that the

situation “is still very

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>fluid.” The

six-month fight against 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Gadhafi,

aided by a NATO-led coalition, turned in favor of the rebels only

in the past two weeks, and took far longer than the Arab Spring

revolutions in neighboring Egypt and Tunisia.

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Still, Obama, who was vacationing in

Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., told rebels that “the Libya you deserve

is within your

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>reach.” And

residents reached by phone said that much of Tripoli appeared to be

in opposition hands, with rebels and volunteers setting up

checkpoints, deploying civilian patrols and securing

buildings.

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The 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Rixos Hotel,

where 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Seif al-Islam

arrived, is one of the few places 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Gadhafi’s forces

had retained control, in part by positioning gunmen nearby and

threatening foreign journalists that they would be shot if they

stepped outside. In TV footage, he’s shown describing the rebels as

“saboteurs” and said that

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“The people of Libya have broken the

spine of those 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>gangsters.”

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Gadhafi himself remained at large, a status

that “almost doesn’t matter,” said the 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>U.S.

State Department’s Jeffrey

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Feltman,

assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs.

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“He has become, for all intents and

purposes, part of Libya’s past, and now people need to look to

build Libya’s better future,” he said on ABC’s “Good

Morning 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>America.”

“margin: 0in; margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: 15.6pt;”>In

Tripoli, there remained an air of apprehension about

whether 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Gadhafi’s four-decade

stranglehold on the oil-rich North African nation had really come

to an end. An employee answering the phones in Tripoli at

the 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Veba Oil

Co., a subsidiary of the National Oil Co. of Libya, said few people

were at work Monday.

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“Everybody stays in their homes, nobody

goes out,” said the man, who would not disclose his name for fear

of retribution. “I hope it is good … that things become better

than before. I am a normal person, what I see in the street is that

nobody can understand this. We hope it becomes

like 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>before.”

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The oil company employee said he didn’t

know the condition of export facilities or production and said

those are questions Libyans are asking, too. But stable Internet

and cellular telephone networks returned to the city Monday, said

one resident of eastern Tripoli, 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Adel,

who also declined to give his last name because of safety

concerns.

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“The families in Tripoli are celebrating

the arrival of the rebels _ they have been terrorized and

suppressed for months,” he said. “Anyone who talked was arrested by

the 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Gadhafi army

and would disappear. We are finally breathing our freedom, God help

us continue and reach our 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>victory.”

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Obama urged rebel forces to respect law

and human rights, a call echoed by the head of the National

Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Jalil,

who was 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Gadhafi’s justice

minister before defecting near the start of the

uprising.

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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke

Monday to Abdul 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Jalil about

what the international community can do to assist Libyans in

protecting civilians as well as providing key services, State

Department spokeswoman Victoria 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Nuland said.

Clinton and Abdul 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Jalil also

spoke about the rebel council’s efforts to assemble an inclusive

government that will “foster peaceful reconciliation among all of

Libya’s people,” 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Nuland said.

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Abdul 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Jalil,

who’s expected to become Libya’s new leader until elections are

held, said he hoped that 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Gadhafi would

be captured alive and given a fair trial. In a news conference in

Benghazi, the rebels’ eastern capital, he said even Libyans who’d

previously withheld their support for the uprising would be

welcomed as partners.

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He urged holdouts to join the rebels’

side, saying it was “better late than 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>never.”

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He also warned rebels against carrying

out revenge attacks and said he’d resign if the opposition didn’t

follow the rule of law as they attempt to rebuild Libya.

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“We are on the threshold of a new stage

where we’ll work to establish the principles of the revolution:

freedom, democracy, justice, equality and transparency,” he

said.

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American diplomats in Libya have

apparently looked favorably on Abdul 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Jalil for

years.

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Officials at Human Rights Watch

told 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>U.S.

Embassy staff privately that he was “a proponent of the rule of

law,” according to a December 2009 cable

from 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>U.S.

Ambassador Gene 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>Cretz that

was obtained by 

“list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;”>WikiLeaks.

• Erica Bolstad Associated Press