Gaddafi to be handed over if he attempts to enter Algeria

Algeria would hand over Muammar Gaddafi to the International Criminal Court if the embattled Libyan leader attempted to enter the North African country, Algerian local media reported Tuesday. Local Arabic-language daily Echorouk quoted well-informed sources as saying that the government made the decision according to the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for Gaddafi, his son Seif al-Islam Gaddafi and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi. Algeria would be committed to all international regulations issued regarding the situation in Libya, it said. The Algerian Foreign Ministry confirmed that Gaddafi's wife and three children entered Algeria Monday morning, the nation's official news agency APS reported. However, it did not mention the whereabouts of Gaddafi himself. The Algerian government has informed the United Nations and the Libyan rebel National Transitional Council about the Gaddafis' arrival, the statement said. Algerian security services will receive an instruction to close the southern border with Libya in view of the fragile security situation in the Sahel region and Libya, Algeria's French-language newspaper El Watan reported on its website, quoting a government source as saying. Algeria has hundreds of kilometers of borderline with Libya, stretching through vast expanses of sparsely peopled desert.