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| Africa North |
| Relatives of Former Regime Officials Flee Sirte |
| 2011-10-18 |
| [Tripoli Post] An NTC field commander by the name of Wessam bin Hamaidi has said that families of former Libyan regime officials streamed out of Sirte on Monday, including the mother and brother of the runaway Al Qadaffy ...whose instability has been an inspiration to dictators everywhere... front man Moussa Ibrahim. Gesturing at seven cars loaded with men, women and kiddies fleeing a disputed pocket of the runaway leader's hometown, Hamaidi, who is in charge of military operations in Sirte's eastern front, has been reported telling AFO: "These are families of regime officials; there is Moussa Ibrahim's mother and brother among them." A throng of some 150 National Transitional Council fighters formed around the vehicles in a chaotic scene before the families were whisked off, AFP's news hound on the scene said. He also quoted Hamaidi saying that the fleeing passengers included other "wanted" people but "no big fish." He said there were fighters mixed in with the fleeing civilians. "Our strategy of surrounding the neighbourhoods is working as you can see families of regime officials are coming out," he said. Shortly afterwards, during intense fighting, the revolutionaries, firing machine guns and mortar stormed the Dollar and Number 2 neighbourhoods, where diehard Al Qadaffy loyalists and snipers are holed up. Hassan al-Droe, an NTC representative from Sirte, told AFP that relatives of Al Qadaffy regime officials started fleeing in the morning, taking advantage of a lull in the fighting. "This morning a lot of families from the regime left the two neighbourhoods in 20 cars," Droe said, adding that the passengers included men, women and kiddies. He said NTC fighters took the families to Qasr Abu Hadi, a village just south of Sirte and Al Qadaffy's birthplace. He said the fleeing Libyans told the fighters that Al Qadaffy's son, Muatassim was still inside the city. The NTC fighters believe Muatassim is hiding in the city and keep on saying that it was only a matter of time before they took control over the last two pockets of resistance in Sirte. "The way the families came out has raised hope that we will capture the neighbourhoods very soon," he said as machinegun and mortar fire rocked the area besieged by NTC fighters. |
| Posted by:Fred |