Over 50 revolutionary leaders joined Colonel al-Rajbani, a recent defector from Gaddafi's forces, at a strategy meeting in the western town of Rujban on Friday, the Associated Press reported.
Al-Rajbani switched sides and left the Libyan capital Tripoli three weeks ago after serving in the Gaddafi forces in the country's southern desert region. He now serves as the revolutionary military commander of Rujban, his hometown.
“Even if I were captured by Gaddafi's forces, I wouldn't be worried at all, because my family and children would be serving the revolutionaries' cause without me,” he said.
Before defecting, al-Rajbani had arranged for his wife and daughter to meet up with revolutionary forces in the town. He said his sons were also fighting for the revolutionaries.
Revolutionaries in Libya have established a number of munitions depots since the beginning of the revolution in February.
Colonel Mahmud Mesbah, a military official at a munitions depot in Rujban, claimed that the revolutionaries had captured “most of the weapons (at the depot) from Gaddafi's forces” following a recent military operation at the Ga'a military base, located 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of the western town of Zintan.
Meanwhile, Libyan revolutionaries attending the African summit, which was held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea from June 30 to July 1, said on Friday that they would stop fighting if Gaddafi steps down.
“If we see that Gaddafi withdraws, we are ready to stop (the hostilities) and negotiate with our brothers who are around Gaddafi,” Mansour Safy Al-Nasr, a representative of the National Transitional Council, said at the AU summit.
The African has so far refrained from calling for the ouster of Gaddafi.
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