Intensifying their quest to find Colonel Qaddafi and his sons, rebel leaders said their forces had attacked Sabha, a town in the south that is a stronghold of the Qaddafis’ tribe. And Britain’s defense secretary, Liam Fox, said Thursday that NATO was trying to help, apparently deviating from NATO’s nominal mission to protect civilians. “I can confirm that NATO is providing intelligence and reconnaissance assets” to the insurgents “to help them track down Colonel Qaddafi and other remnants of the regime,” Mr. Fox told Sky News.

In a sign of the rebels’ growing confidence, cabinet members of the Transitional National Council appeared at a news conference in Tripoli on Thursday to announce that they were formally moving their operations from the eastern city of Benghazi to Tripoli.

During an emotional address, the oil and finance minister, Ali Tarhouni, praised the rebel fighters, asked police officers to get back to work and called on Qaddafi loyalists to put down their arms and go home.

“There will not be any revenge,” he said. “The law will be between us.”

But that pledge may already have been violated. Reuters reported the discovery of the bullet-ridden bodies of more than 30 pro-Qaddafi fighters in a military encampment in Tripoli. At least two had been bound with plastic handcuffs, five were in a field hospital at the camp and one was still strapped to a gurney with an intravenous drip in his arm.

Among the hundreds of bodies in the Tripoli Central Hospital morgue — some in wall drawers, but many lying on the floor barely covered — at least one was bound at the hands, although it was unclear which side he fought for or whether he had been wounded before he was bound.