Top Kadhafi security chief in Niger: sources

NIAMEY: Members of fugitive Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's entourage, including his internal security chief Mansour Daw, have crossed the border into Niger, sources told AFP Monday.

A Nigerien government source said that the fugitive ex-Libyan leader was not in the group of 11 Libyans.

"Moamer Kadhafi was not part of the delegation that arrived in Niger, which consisted of three Nigeriens: Agaly Alambo and two of his brothers and 11 Libyans, among them Mansour Daw," the government source said.

"The 11 Libyans will be housed in Niamey and we have taken measures to this effect," added a security source.

The Libyans arrived in the northern Niger city of Agadez escorted by Alambo, a historical leader in Niger's Tuareg rebellion with close ties to Kadhafi.

"In any case, these people who came with Agaly (Alambo) are neither Kadhafi's sons nor his close relatives," a Tuareg source told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that all had since reached the capital Niamey.

Alambo, head of the Niger Movement for Justice, the country's main Tuareg rebel group since 2007, had been living in Libya since Kadhafi brokered an end to his fight against Niamey in 2009.