Rebels demand Algeria hand back Gaddafi family

TRIPOLI - Libyan rebels Tuesday called on the Algerian government to hand back Libyan strongman Muammar Gadhafi's wife and three children.

"We'd like those persons to come back," said rebel spokesman Mahmud Shammam in Tripoli, quoted by Qatar's al-Jazeera television.

His call came after Algeria's Foreign Ministry confirmed Monday the entry of a convoy carrying Gadhafi's wife Safiya, two sons, a daughter and their children, into the country from Libya.

"The wife of Muammar Gadhafi, Safiya, his daughter Aisha, and sons Hannibal  and Mohammed, accompanied by their children, entered Algeria at 8:45 am (0745 GMT) through the Algeria-Libyan border," the Algerian foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the official APS news agency.

The ministry said that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon, the Security Council and the head of the National Transitional Council's executive board, Mahmud Jibril, had been informed.

In a quick response, spokesman Shammam told reporters in Tripoli Monday that saving Gadhafi's family members is an act Libyan rebels can not understand.

The rebels "are determined to arrest and try the Gadhafi family and Gaddafi himself," Shammam said, adding that they would be guaranteed a "fair trial."

Algiers said Gadhafi's family members were received on humanitarian grounds.