In an attempt to hold off tribal strife, a member of Libya's rebel council has met with chiefs of a Egyptian-Libyan border tribe that has been supporting Gaddafi against the popular uprising Fayez Gebreel, member of the Libyan Transitional National Council, has said he met with chiefs of the Awlad tribe, located near the northern Egyptian-Libyan border, to “clear the air”. It's understood that Gadhaf Al-Dam, cousin and close aide of Muammar Gaddafi, persuaded some members of Awlad to fight for the beleaguered Libyan leader against pro-democracy demonstrators. Gebreel told Ahram Online: “It was a friendly meeting to clear the air between both parties. The sons of Awlad tribe are our brothers. “We came after TransitionalNational Council President Abdel Gelil Mostafa announced that some of Awlad's members had been tricked to get involved into these battles. “Gadhaf Al-Dam is still working after pretending to have handed in his resignation [as high-ranking official].” A couple of days ago, the Egyptian Supreme Council of the Armed Forces announced that Al-Dam will be allowed to stay in Egypt as long as he is not politically active. “We appreciate the military council's role, so as we don't cause strife between the army, which we deeply respect, and the tribe's sons,” Gebreel said. “These people [who accepted to fight for Gaddafi] are more mercenaries than the tribe's sons ... They are located in Fayoum and the Peninsula of Sinai. “Gadhaf Al-Dam's mission over the past years in Egypt was to pay millions of dollars to those people in order to use them at the right time,” he explained.
