Saif al-Islam told reporters that his father and several of his sisters were safe in Tripoli, and that loyal troops had "broken the back" of the rebels who moved into the capital over the weekend.

Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, who is wanted on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, had been reported captured on Sunday along with two of his brothers. Another of those siblings, Mohammed Gaddafi, was reported to have escaped Monday, according to the Libyan ambassador to the United States, CNN reported.

There was no immediate explanation from the National Transitional Council, the rebel leadership that had announced their capture Sunday.

The younger Gaddafi said news of his arrest had been a trick by the rebels, and that he had been travelling around Tripoli in his armored convoy the entire time. He said that government forces had lured the rebels into a trap in the capital, and that Gaddafi loyalists "have broken the spines of those rats and those gangsters."

Meanwhile, heavy fighting has escalated in the al-Mansoura district and near Gaddafi's compound in Bab al-Azizya between government forces and opposition fighters. Gaddafi's forces are reportedly using heavy weapons including mortars, as Libyan opposition forces continue to push to gain control of the city.