NTC Forms Supreme Council to Secure Libyan Capital

Libya's National Transitional Council on Saturday announced the creation of a supreme security council tasked with protecting the capital Tripoli.

"This committee represents all those who are concerned for the security of our new capital," Ali Tarhuni, who chairs the newly formed body as well as the NTC's executive committee, told reporters.

In their first meeting, the 17 members of the committee agreed that the capital's security was the general responsibility of the interior ministry, which resumed work on Saturday, and of the police force in particular.

"The main goal is to protect citizens, as well as public and private establishments, and to eliminate what remains of pro-Gadhafi groups, or what is called the fifth column," Tarhuni said.

The committee, which he said includes the majority of the revolutionary groups in the capital, also decided to include "remaining groups" under its umbrella and expected "no problems" in this regard.

"I do not anticipate any problems in other groups joining this committee," Tarhuni said, adding that revolutionary units will temporarily assist police forces in securing the streets of the capital.

These groups, he said, will leave the city as soon as the city's police, which boasts about 7,000 men, can fully take over.

Interim interior minister Ahmed Darrad told Agence France Presse on Friday that Libya's new leaders had called on fighters from elsewhere in the country to leave the capital and go home.

"Tripoli is free and everyone should leave this town and go back to their own towns," he said.

"Now the revolutionaries of Tripoli are able to protect their own city."

"The responsibility for securing Tripoli should be in the hands of the sons of Tripoli," Abdullah Naqir, head of the newly formed military council of Tripoli, also told AFP.

But NTC head Mustafa Abdel Jalil said Saturday there was no official order for the provincial fighters to leave.

"The NTC did not issue any statement calling for the departure of revolutionaries," he told a press conference in Benghazi.

"There is only an understanding that the revolutionaries will surround the city of Tripoli to take down the remaining forces of Gadhafi."

Tarhuni also announced the creation of a new committee charged with centralizing prisoners of war in a "safe and secure" location to ensure that their legal and human rights are respected.

"We will protect them and they will enjoy all the legal and human rights despite the fact that they denied such rights to our Libyan people," he said.

Police were back on the streets of Tripoli and business slowly resumed Saturday at the end of a week of fighting and festivities after the capital was wrested from the grip of forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi.