“A group was captured in Bani Walid consisting of 17 mercenaries. They are technical experts and they include consultative officers,” Qaddafi spokesman said on Syria-based Arrai television, which has backed the ousted leader.

“Most of them are French, one of them is from an Asian country that has not been identified, two English people and one Qatari.”

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said France has no mercenaries in Libya. The British Foreign Ministry said it was not able to substantiate the report. Qatari officials were not immediately available for comment.

Meanwhile, Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) pledged on Monday to treat foreigners accused of fighting for Qaddafi well, and denied that anti-Qaddafi fighters had committed systematic abuse of Africans.

A UN commission of inquiry on Libya, which has not been able to enter the country since Qaddafi was driven from power, said it had received many reports of ill-treatment of black Africans and dark-skinned Libyans by anti-Qaddafi fighters.

Media reports from Libya have shown cowed blacks herded into trucks and raised accusations of summary executions. Blacks captured by anti-Qaddafi forces have said that they were innocent migrant workers mistaken for Qaddafi fighters.

Mohammed Al-Alagi, identified as the minister of justice and human rights of the NTC, told the UN Human Rights Council that Qaddafi had used mercenaries to kill Libyans, but that any who were captured would be treated fairly.

“The Qaddafi regime declared war on the Libyan people, and used foreign mercenaries,” Al-Alagi said. “But when captured they will still have the right to an appropriate trial before an ordinary judge and according to international law.”

He added: “We do not make any distinction among people on grounds of color. And we do not discriminate against our brothers from African countries.”

Al-Alagi said that the NTC would investigate fully any violations of human rights committed by its fighters.

“There have been no war crimes (by anti-Qaddafi forces),” he said. “If anything illegal has happened, it was individual acts by revolutionaries who were not acting under instructions from the NTC. We have called on the revolutionaries to treat prisoners according to Islamic Shariah and international law.”

Allegations of abuse by Libya’s new authorities are uncomfortable for the NATO countries that helped install them. US Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe said having a new government in Libya would make it easier to hold it responsible for human rights.

“The important point today is that we have a new government and we have a credible partner to work with and to encourage in Libya,” she told reporters.

“That is where our emphasis will be in the near term — to make sure that this new government gets off on the right foot and lives up to its responsibility with respect to accountability and creation of a secure situation for all.”

Meanwhile, Fierce fighting raged Monday in Bani Walid as new regime fighters attacked the oasis town where a son of Muammar Qaddafi is believed holed up, possibly with his father, said Libya’s rulers.

“The revolutionaries came to Bani Walid this morning and engaged in a hard battle,” Abdullah Kenshil, a senior official in the National Transitional Council (NTC), told AFP.

Kenshil said the battle against Qaddafi’s mercenaries for control of Bani Walid, one of the ousted strongman’s few remaining bastions southeast of Tripoli, was a “done deal and will be completed in the next two days.”

The NTC official said that Seif Al-Islam, the most prominent son of the ousted Libyan leader, had been seen in Bani Walid, and that it is likely that his father is also in the oasis town.

“Seif Al-Islam was seen in Bani Walid; this is 100 percent certain. As for his father, he was there too; we are 70 percent sure,” Kenshil told AFP, adding they were only being defended by mercenaries.

“Those fighting in Bani Walid are not necessarily Qaddafi’s brigades, whose members joined the NTC forces,” said Kenshil, adding they were “mercenaries from Chad, Niger and Togo, according to the bodies we have recovered.”

“Fighting has started and it is more artillery shelling at the moment,” said NTC commander Abdel Mustafa.

“Our fighters are spread out and the idea is to slowly and steadily advance ahead,” Mustafa said as the sound of heavy artillery fire echoed in the background.

“In the morning it was quiet, but now the fighting has picked up and as the day progresses we expect it to intensify.”

Frontline fighters in Sirte are convinced that Mutassim Qaddafi, a career soldier and former national security adviser to his father, is hiding in the southern outskirts of the one-time strongman’s hometown.

Radio chatter intercepted by former rebels showed a lieutenant by the code name of Abu Bakr issuing orders to Qaddafi loyalists to shoot heavy artillery despite counter-appeals to protect civilian life, an AFP journalist said.

“Shoot, shoot,” crackled the radio.

“We don’t need them. You have experience in Chad. Just shoot.”

NTC fighters said that the same pro-Qaddafi commander promised to come to Mutassim’s rescue saying: “Master, master... we will protect you as ordered by your father.”

That report could not be verified by Misrata’s military council.