Mystery Of Qaddafi's Whereabouts Looms Large In Conflict's Endgame

He has exalted himself as the “brother leader” of Libya, the dean of Arab rulers and the king of kings of Africa. On Monday, though, he was the autocrat who could not be found.

For all his bluster and bombast over the past four decades as Libya’s quirky ruler, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi was mysteriously and conspicuously absent as forces of the six-month-old Libya rebellion encircled what they believed to be his ultimate Tripoli hideout, the Bab al-Azizya compound.

Even the leader of the rebel movement, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, admitted he did not know if Colonel Qaddafi was holed up inside — or somewhere else in Libya, or another country. He is wanted not only by the rebels but by the International Criminal Court, which in June issued a warrant for his arrest.

Colonel Qaddafi, 69, has not been seen in public for more than two months. His once prolonged televised diatribes have stopped. The only indications that he may be in the compound have been the arrests of three of his sons in Tripoli as well as a series of fuzzy audio recordings — the most recent of them Sunday night — promising he will not leave Libya and exhorting Libyans to spill their blood for him to the end.

Rumors have swirled in Libya and elsewhere that he may have secretly slipped out of Tripoli before the rebel movement’s surprisingly speedy invasion of the city over the weekend.

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