Libya's former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi has been arrested, an official in the National Transitional Council (NTC) has said.

"Abdullah al-Senussi was arrested in Al-Guira region in the south of the country," the NTC official, who declined to be identified, told the AFP news agency on Sunday, without providing details on when he was captured.

News of Senussi's capture came a day after Libya's new rulers also announced the arrest of the late Muammar Gaddafi's son and one-time heir apparent Saif al-Islam, who had also been on the run for months.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants on June 27 for Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi and Senussi on charges of crimes against humanity committed while crushing anti-regime protests earlier this year.

Senussi's capture was also announced by an officer in the eastern city of Benghazi as NTC officials were meeting with the military.

"The terrorist, the assassin, Abdullah al-Senussi has been arrested," said the officer to thunderous applause.

Jallal al-Digheily, Libya's defense minister, who was at the meeting with hundreds of army officers, branded the capture a "victory". A member of the Thwar Council (revolutionary council) in Tripoli also confirmed the arrest.

Senussi, 62, is the brother-in-law and former right-hand man of Gaddafi, who was arrested and killed last month.

In 1999 a Paris court sentenced Senussi in absentia to life in prison for his alleged involvement in an attack on a French UTA airliner a decade earlier that killed 170 people.

PHOTO  CAPTION

Abdullah al-Senussi, head of the Libyan Intelligence Service, speaks to the media in Tripoli in this August 21, 2011 file photo.

Al Jazeera