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Meeting little resistance in Gaddafi's hometown
[Emirates 24/7] Forces of Libya's new regime were looking to move in for the kill against Moamer  Qadaffy's...who single-handedly turned a moderately prosperous kingdom into a dictator's fantasyland... diehards in his hometown on Wednesday after meeting little resistance and taking several key objectives. A day after seizing Sirte's police headquarters, the National Transitional Council forces were still closing in from the east and west on ever smaller pockets of pro-Qadaffy forces. Hundreds of them, massed in dozens of pickups, fired rockets from the west of the Mediterranean city whose seizure will enable the NTC to declare the liberation of Libya and clear the way for an election timetable. An AFP correspondent said Sirte's main square and entire waterfront was under NTC control, along with its fortress-like conference centre, university campus and main hospital, which the fighters all seized on Sunday. "All our lines are now in place; the area is completely surrounded," said NTC commander Zubayr Bakush. Farther to the east, a group of fighters threw petrol on a bill board of Qadaffy as others cheered and had gun sex and the cry of " "There are snipers in the buildings up there," fighter Basit Divas told AFP, pointing to a neighbourhood of pock-marked villas, before hundreds of NTC troops advanced on the area backed by a barrage of heavy weapons fire. Within a few hours, the new regime forces had advanced another two kilometres (1.2 miles) and were only encountering small pockets of resistance, with most of the fire power going one direction only, at the Qadaffy loyalists. NTC soldiers went house to house, clearing each one of them, and sometimes arresting prisoners. In the kitchen of one large villa, there were half-finished cups of tea on a tray. Outside another, a man was on his knees in the courtyard, his hands tied behind his back, pleaded with his captors. "This man had a gun, and two AK-47s. We think he may be from Qadaffy's operation room," said Ayub Basina, a man who identified himself as an NTC doctor. The plight of stranded civilians raised the concerns of Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... , which called on both sides Wednesday to minimise harm to them and to ensure that prisoners are treated humanely. "Commanders on the ground in Sirte need to make sure that their forces protect civilians and allow them to flee the combat zone," said Fred Abrahams, special adviser at HRW. "All prisoners should be treated humanely and transferred to the NTC authorities who can better ensure their safety," he said in a statement. The New York-based watchdog said much of Sirte's population of around 100,000 has already decamped, but that an unknown number of civilians remain in the city centre. New regime fighters in Sirte were buoyed on Tuesday night by a two-hour visit from NTC chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil, and said he visited the one-time Qadaffy showpiece Ouagadougou conference centre. Medics at a field hospital in western Sirte reported five killed and 42 maimed on Tuesday, while medics in the east reported 11 dead -- including six Qadaffy loyalists -- and 52 maimed. The NTC forces had besieged Sirte from September 15 before launching on Friday what they termed a "final assault" that has seen nearly 80 of their number killed and hundreds maimed, according to medics. NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... warplanes, backing the NTC, overflew Sirte early on Wednesday without firing, an AFP correspondent reported, as the alliance said in its latest update that it had struck six vehicles in Bani Walid. Outside that oasis, 170 kilometres (105 miles) southeast of Tripoli, NTC fighters are also gearing for a renewed onslaught on the town, which is another remaining bastion of forces loyal to the ousted dictator. A withdrawal from intense fighting, in what the military called a "tactical pull back" earlier this week, enabled some civilians to flee Bani Walid on Tuesday, said an AFP news hound on the edge of town. "We hear that there will be fighting. In the town, there is no doctor, no water, no electricity," said a man in a white Mitsubishi that also carried four veiled women, adding "more than 20,000" civilians were still in the town. "There are mercenaries and militia in the streets," said the man. NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said the alliance was close to ending its mission in Libya, but despite NTC advances in Sirte, NATO "had no knowledge of the colonel's whereabouts," adding that Qadaffy "is not a target of our operation." NTC commanders say prisoners have said one of Qadaffy's sons, Mutassim, is in Sirte. Another, Seif al-Islam, once seen as the former strongman's successor, is believed to be hiding in Bani Walid, possibly with his father. Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, head of the NATO military committee, said that while an NTC victory in Sirte "will be an iconic moment", the alliance will only end its air campaign once civilians are definitely out of harm's way and the NTC is capable of keeping the whole country safe. Posted by: Fred 2011-10-13 |
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