[Tripoli Post] Residents of Bani Walid, 140 kilometres southeast of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, are taking the advice of the NTC fighters and leaving the town with their families to avoid being in the midst of the fighting that could become very fierce. The residents have been given two days to leave before the anti-Al Qadaffy
...who single-handedly turned a moderately prosperous kingdom into a dictator's fantasyland...
fighters make an all-out assault to take the town, one of the last remaining bastions loyal to the runaway leader who has now been shorn of any power after 42 years ruling with an iron fist.
The NTC fighters don't want innocent civilians in Bani Walid to become victims trapped inside the 'war zone'. Many are heeding the advice and hoping to be liberated. A few, reportedly some 10 per cent are Al Qadaffy loyalists who appear to be willing to sacrifice themselves for nothing.
Al Qadaffy has no future. By fighting and risking their lives and also putting the lives of others at risk would achieve nothing. There's is a lost cause. Resisting because Al Qadaffy or his son Seif is telling them so, to fight to the death, could only lead to one thing, death. Else caught and imprisoned.
After the fall of Tripoli, many would have thought that the worst was over. But now the three towns known as Al Qadaffy strongholds are making a last-ditch effort to resist. They have surprisingly offered stiff resistance and after fighting for over five days, the town has not yet been liberated.
With the backing of air strikes from NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization....
warplanes on Al Qadaffy rocket positions, the NTC fighters battle on, and fleeing residents who had been trapped inside for weeks, have reported having fighting inside the city.
NTC military front man Ahmed Bani, told news hounds the plan for Bani Walid for now was to wait. He added: "When our forces entered Bani Walid they found the Al Qadaffy brigades using citizens as shields."
Bani added that they found out that missile launchers had been placed on the roofs of homes, making it difficult for NTC forces or NATO warplanes to strike.
NTC commanders say they are close to taking control of the town and are close to the centre. There's no doubt that they will tae it, though with some costs. After that they will tackle Al Qadaffy's hometown of Sirte on the Mediterranean coast and the remote desert city of Sabha.
From his unknown hideout, in yet another audio message on Alrai Tv transmitting from Syria, runaway Al Qadaffy keeps urging his supporters to keep up the fight. "It is not possible to give Libya to the colonialists again," he said. "All that remains for us is the struggle until victory and the defeat of the coup," he added.
Meanwhile,
...back at the bunker, his Excellency called a hurried meeting of his closest advisors. It was to be his last...
the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
said it was worried about the plight of civilians stranded inside besieged pro-Al Qadaffy towns, with Valerie Amos, the UN humanitarian chief, reportedly saying that their biggest concern right now is Sirte, where we they have been receiving reports that there's no water and no electricity,"