Rebels reinforcements from Tripoli celebrate as they arrive at a checkpoint between Tarhouna and Bani Walid, Libya, Monday, Sept. 5, 2011. Negotiations over the surrender of one of Moammar Gadhafi's remaining... (Associated Press) 
 
 Moammar Gadhafi is determined to fight his way back to power, the toppled dictator's spokesman said Tuesday, but a large convoy of his soldiers has apparently deserted, crossing the Libyan desert into neighboring Niger. 
 
 Also Tuesday, tribal elders in a Gadhafi stronghold were trying to persuade regime loyalists holed up inside to lay down their arms, a rebel negotiator said. 
 
 Still, Gadhafi spokesman Moussa Ibrahim was defiant. 
 
 Gadhafi is "in excellent health, planning and organizing for the defense of Libya," Ibrahim told the Syrian TV station al-Rai, adding that both Gadhafi and his sons remain in Libya. 
 
 "We are fighting and resisting for the sake of Libya and all Arabs," Ibrahim said. "We are still strong and capable of turning the tables on NATO." 
 
 Gadhafi loyalists have been holed up in several towns, including Bani Walid, some 90 miles (140 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli. Thousands of rebel fighters have surrounded the town, as rebel leaders tried to negotiate a surrender deal. 
 
 Rebel negotiator Abdullah Kanshil said Tuesday that tribal elders want assurances that the rebels will not take revenge, and are trying to persuade Gadhafi loyalists to lay down their arms. 
 
 A member of the rebel transitional council said by telephone Tuesday he was in a village near Bani Walid called al-Manasser that had just raised the rebel flag. 
 
 "We want the rest of the tribes to do like al-Manasser to avoid bloodshed and to realize that the regime is over and it will not come back," said Mubarak Sabah, who is from Bani Walid and represents the town on the transitional council. "They should realize that their brothers around the country are enjoying freedom and that they can follow them." 
 
 Sabah reiterated that rebel fighters would not move into Bani Walid before Saturday unless the town surrendered, so as to avoid "a bloody war" with what he said was a minority of Gadhafi supporters in the town. 
 
 Across the desert late Monday, a large convoy of Gadhafi loyalists rolled into the frontier town of Agadez, Niger, said Abdoulaye Harouna, the owner of the local newspaper. The convoy consisted of more than a dozen pickup trucks bristling with well-armed Libyan troops, said Harouna, who saw the arrival. 
 
 At the head of the convoy, he said, was Tuareg rebel leader Rissa ag Boula, a native of Niger who led a failed war of independence on behalf of ethnic Tuareg nomads a decade ago. He then sought refuge in Libya and was believed to be fighting on behalf of Gadhafi. 
 
 It was not immediately clear if the convoy included any members of the Gadhafi family or other high-level members of his regime. 
 
 Gadhafi's regime is believed to have financed the Tuareg rebellion in the north of Niger. African nations where Tuaregs represent a significant slice of the population, like Niger, have been among the last to recognize the rebels that ousted Gadhafi. 
 
 Gadhafi remains especially popular in towns like Agadez, where a majority of the population is Tuareg. The Sahara Desert market town is the largest city in northern Niger. 
 
 Harouna says the pro-Gadhafi soldiers accompanying Boula were coming from the direction of Arlit. 
 
 The desert that stretches north of Arlit borders both Libya and Algeria. Some members of Gadhafi's family, including his wife, his daughter Aisha and two of his sons, recently sought refuge in Algeria. 
 
 A rebel spokesman for Tripoli's military council said the rebel leadership was aware of the convoy but had few details. 
 
 "It was not a large number of soldiers. We think it was a protection team of some sort," Anis Sharif said. 
 
 A NATO official in Brussels said the alliance did not have any immediate information about the convoy. 
 
 NATO warplanes don't normally patrol that deep south in the Sahara, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with standing alliance policy. 
 
 NATO reported bombing several sites overnight near Gadhafi's Mediterranean hometown of Sirte, a region NATO has targeted heavily every day in recent days. 
 
 Gadhafi's whereabouts are unknown, but speculation has centered on Sirte and the other loyalist holdouts of Sabha in the far south and Bani Walid. 
 
 The rebels hold most of Libya and have sketched out plans for a transition to democratic rule that would begin with a "declaration of liberation" that was likely to come before Gadhafi's strongholds are defeated and he is captured. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Dalatou Mamane in Niamey, Niger; Slobodan Lekic in Brussels and Karin Laub in Tripoli contributed to this report. ||||| (CNN) -- Niger has extradited Moammar Gadhafi's son Saadi, who has been transferred to a jail in Tripoli, Libya, the Libyan government said Thursday. 
 
 The North African country had been seeking the handover of Saadi Gadhafi, who fled across the border to Niger when rebel forces toppled his father in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011. 
 
 "He was handed to Libya and is now in the custody of the Libyan judicial police," the Libyan government said on its Facebook page. 
 
 It thanked the leader of its southern neighbor for his cooperation. 
 
 Saadi, one of Gadhafi's seven sons, was a professional soccer player and businessman before his father's downfall. Unlike his brother, Saif al-Islam, Gadhafi's heir apparent, he is not wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, on charges of war crimes. 
 
 In late 2011, rebel forces captured Saif al-Islam, who remains in a militia hands in the small western mountain town of Zintan, Libya. 
 
 Niger handed over Saadi Gadhafi after Libyan authorities provided evidence of "communications and practices targeting Libya's security and aimed at destabilizing Libya," Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan told Libyan television. 
 
 In February 2012, the younger Gadhafi made a televised phone call warning of an imminent uprising in Libya, saying he was in regular contact with people in the country who were unhappy with the new authorities. 
 
 Authorities in Niger had warned him after that incident. He had been staying under tight regulation, including house arrest. 
 
 Pictures of Saadi Gadhafi, 40, wearing a blue uniform as his head was shaved circulated widely on social media. 
 
 Niger had previously refused to hand him over, with some officials saying he could face the death penalty in Libya. 
 
 He reportedly resided in a secured guesthouse in Niger's capital, Niamey, after fleeing across the Sahara desert. 
 
 A leading human rights group questioned why he had been handed over. 
 
 "The authorities in Niger should explain why they were convinced that Saadi Gaddafi would not be mistreated and would get a fair trial," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. 
 
 She called for Libyan officials to bring him quickly to trial and protect him from inhumane treatment. 
 
 Seeking Gadhafi supporters 
 
 Since the end of the conflict that came with Moammar Gadhafi's capture and killing in October 2011, Libya's government has sought the extradition of family members and ex-officials. 
 
 Several of Gadhafi's other sons were killed during the rebellion. 
 
 Saif al-Arab died in a NATO airstrike in spring 2011, and Khamis, who led the elite and widely feared Khamis brigade, was reported killed during the fighting. He died in a battle in northwestern Libya that August. 
 
 Around the time of his death, troops commanded by Khamis Gadhafi killed an estimated 150 captive civilians during a retreat, hurling grenades and spraying bullets into a building full of men they had promised to release, a survivor said. 
 
 Another son, once national security adviser, Mutassim, was killed near the Libyan leader's last stronghold of Sirte in October 2011. 
 
 The former dictator's wife, Safia, fled with sons Mohammed, Hannibal and daughter Aisha to neighboring Algeria in late August 2011, along with extended family members. 
 
 They reportedly left there for Oman, where they were granted asylum. 
 
 2012: Gadhafi's son seeks travel ban waiver, lawyer says 
 
 2011: Saadi Gadhafi arrives in Niger as Libyan troops seek to strangle Sirte 
 
 CNN's Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.
– A large military convoy consisting of 200 to 250 vehicles entered Niger from Libya yesterday, leading many to speculate it might include Moammar Gadhafi or one of his sons, reports the AFP. One report claimed the convoy was heading through Niger on the way to Burkina Faso, a country that has offered Gadhafi asylum. The convoy was reportedly carrying large amounts of cash taken from the Central Bank of Libya in Sirte. Other sources claimed that senior Gadhafi officials also crossed into Niger on Sunday, and Tuareg rebels close to Gadhafi were seen with Libyan forces. But a Gadhafi spokesman was defiant, reports the AP: The longtime dictator is “in excellent health, planning and organizing for the defense of Libya,” where both Gadhafi and his sons remain, the rep told Syrian TV. “We are still strong and capable of turning the tables on NATO."