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Fighters battle for pro-Gadhafi town
Source: Agencies |
September 11, 2011, Sunday
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FIGHTERS battled with Moammar Gadhafi loyalists yesterday as more volunteers poured in from the Libyan capital Tripoli and other towns held by the former rebels to join what they expect to be the final battle for Bani Walid, one of the ousted leader's last remaining strongholds.
The pro-Gadhafi forces fired Grad rockets and mortars, and snipers fired on the revolutionary fighters trying to force their way in Bani Walid, killing at least two, said Abdullah Kanshir, a negotiator with the former rebels. The commander of the assault, Daw Salaheen, called on the city's residents to lay down their arms, saying anyone who does so will be "safe in our hands."
After a weeklong standoff over a peaceful surrender of the town, the Libyan fighters on Friday launched a two-pronged assault on Bani Walid that soon dissolved into street fighting.
Revolutionary forces had initially given tribal leaders and pro-Gadhafi loyalists in Bani Walid until yesterday to surrender, but said they were drawn into fighting on Friday night after former regime fighters attacked with rockets.
Volunteers asking to join the battle said yesterday they were getting increasingly impatient with the standoff. Dozens crowded around a desk at a mosque in Wishtata, a hamlet about 40 kilometers from Bani Walid, to register their names, blood type and other information.
Abdel Wahab Milad, a 26-year-old teacher from the town of Gharyan, drove dozens of miles to the front in a pickup truck with six friends. Dressed in army fatigues, he said he signed up for battle because it was time to "get rid of Gadhafi once and for all."
Gadhafi has not been seen in public for several months, and has been a fugitive since the fall of Tripoli in late August. In audio messages broadcast over a loyalist TV station, Gadhafi has urged his followers to keep fighting.
On Friday, revolutionary forces also battled loyalists near the Gadhafi hometown of Sirte, 400km southeast of Tripoli, but withdrew after heavy casualties.
Libya's new rulers had set a Saturday deadline for Gadhafi loyalists in Bani Walid, Sirte, and Sabha, deep in Libya's southern desert - the three key remaining Gadhafi bastions - to surrender or face an offensive.
At the fighters' checkpoint outside Bani Walid, the spokesman for the revolutionaries, Abu Seif Ghneya, said there was no fighting overnight but that there would be a final push toward the town center yesterday.
The pro-Gadhafi forces fired Grad rockets and mortars, and snipers fired on the revolutionary fighters trying to force their way in Bani Walid, killing at least two, said Abdullah Kanshir, a negotiator with the former rebels. The commander of the assault, Daw Salaheen, called on the city's residents to lay down their arms, saying anyone who does so will be "safe in our hands."
After a weeklong standoff over a peaceful surrender of the town, the Libyan fighters on Friday launched a two-pronged assault on Bani Walid that soon dissolved into street fighting.
Revolutionary forces had initially given tribal leaders and pro-Gadhafi loyalists in Bani Walid until yesterday to surrender, but said they were drawn into fighting on Friday night after former regime fighters attacked with rockets.
Volunteers asking to join the battle said yesterday they were getting increasingly impatient with the standoff. Dozens crowded around a desk at a mosque in Wishtata, a hamlet about 40 kilometers from Bani Walid, to register their names, blood type and other information.
Abdel Wahab Milad, a 26-year-old teacher from the town of Gharyan, drove dozens of miles to the front in a pickup truck with six friends. Dressed in army fatigues, he said he signed up for battle because it was time to "get rid of Gadhafi once and for all."
Gadhafi has not been seen in public for several months, and has been a fugitive since the fall of Tripoli in late August. In audio messages broadcast over a loyalist TV station, Gadhafi has urged his followers to keep fighting.
On Friday, revolutionary forces also battled loyalists near the Gadhafi hometown of Sirte, 400km southeast of Tripoli, but withdrew after heavy casualties.
Libya's new rulers had set a Saturday deadline for Gadhafi loyalists in Bani Walid, Sirte, and Sabha, deep in Libya's southern desert - the three key remaining Gadhafi bastions - to surrender or face an offensive.
At the fighters' checkpoint outside Bani Walid, the spokesman for the revolutionaries, Abu Seif Ghneya, said there was no fighting overnight but that there would be a final push toward the town center yesterday.
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