SHISHAN, Libya: Negotiations for the surrender of Muammar Qaddafi’s forces in the Libyan town of Bani Walid have failed and will not resume, an official said, opening the way for a military attack.

“I am leaving the military commander to resolve the problem,” said Abdullah Kenshil, the chief negotiator for Libya’s new government, the National Transitional Council (NTC).

The town southeast of Tripoli is one of the last strongholds of pro-Qaddafi fighters where at least one of the ousted despot’s sons is reported to be hiding.

Kenshil said that the fighters had wanted to come out with their weapons on Sunday but were rebuffed.

“They demanded that the revolutionaries enter Bani Walid without their weapons,” he added, charging that it was a pretext for an ambush.

Kenshil said that Qaddafi himself, his sons and much of his family had been in Bani Walid, without specifying when.

Some had left but two of Qaddafi’s sons, Saadi and Mutassim, were still believed to be there.

Negotiations began several days ago through tribal intermediaries with the hope of taking Bani Walid without bloodshed.

Saadi Qaddafi said that the talks’ failure was the fault of his high-profile brother Seif al-Islam, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court along with their father for suspected crimes against humanity during the uprising.

Saadi told the Cable News Network (CNN) during a telephone interview that an “aggressive” speech broadcast by his brother a few days ago had led to the breakdown of the negotiations.

Asked about his location, Saadi replied that he was “a little bit outside” of Bani Walid but had been moving around, CNN reported on Sunday night.

He said that he had not seen his father or brother for two months.

Saadi added that he was “neutral,” but remained “ready to help negotiate a ceasefire,” the news network said.

Meanwhile, NTC military spokesman Ahmed Omar Bani confirmed earlier reports of the death of another Qaddafi son—Khamis—and said that the son of the strongman’s spy master Abdullah Senussi was also killed.

“I can confirm that Khamis and Mohammed (Senussi) . . . (were) killed around Tarhuna,” he told reporters in Benghazi, referring to a town north of Bani Walid on the road from the capital.

The 28-year-old Khamis, Qaddafi’s youngest son, commanded a brigade seen as the most effective and loyal force of the Libyan strongman. Rebel fighters captured its base south of Tripoli in fierce fighting last week.

Bani Walid is the heartland of the powerful Warfalla tribe, which made up the core of Qaddafi’s army and was given top political positions within the regime.

But it has split over whether to back Qaddafi or not, said tribesmen who have sided with the NTC and are among the NTC forces besieging the town.

The anti-Qaddafi fighters had moved to within 15 to 20 kilometers of Bani Walid in readiness to launch an assault should the talks break down.

They had set a deadline of 4 p.m. on Sunday (Manila time) for the town’s surrender, although the NTC last week announced an overall truce until September 10 in a bid to negotiate the surrender of the remaining strongholds of Qaddafi forces.

Those include a strip of Mediterranean coast around his hometown of Sirte and the southern oases of Sabha and Al-Jufra, as well as Bani Walid.

Civilians fleeing Bani Walid said that most of Qaddafi’s forces had now fled, taking their heavy weaponry with them into the surrounding mountains.