Libyan forces raise flag over siege town
Source: Agencies |
October 18, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
LIBYAN interim government forces said yesterday they had raised the country's new flag over Bani Walid, one of the last bastions of Moammar Gadhafi's loyalists, but it was not yet clear if the town had been captured.
Bani Walid and Gadhafi's hometown, Sirte, have been the only towns in Libya where there is still armed resistance to the rule of the National Transitional Council.
"We have reached the city center (of Bani Walid) and have raised the flag," said Colonel Abdullah Naker, head of the Tripoli Revolutionist Council.
Fighters taking part in the assault on Bani Walid said they had entered the town, which nestles in rocky hills 150 kilometers south of Tripoli.
Bani Walid is an ancestral home of the Warfalla, Libya's biggest, politically-influential tribe. They number about a million of the country's 6 million population and are traditional supporters of Gadhafi.
The town has been under siege for weeks, with hundreds of Gadhafi loyalists dug into its steep valleys and hills.
As well as the military assault, NTC officials have been negotiating with tribal leaders in the town.
A group claiming to represent the townsfolk offered a truce to Libya's new government yesterday. In return for pledging loyalty to the NTC, the tribal groups said they would take over the town, but demanded in return the NTC should withdraw its forces.
It was not immediately clear what the government response would be to the offer, or whether the town had already been captured.
Bani Walid and Gadhafi's hometown, Sirte, have been the only towns in Libya where there is still armed resistance to the rule of the National Transitional Council.
"We have reached the city center (of Bani Walid) and have raised the flag," said Colonel Abdullah Naker, head of the Tripoli Revolutionist Council.
Fighters taking part in the assault on Bani Walid said they had entered the town, which nestles in rocky hills 150 kilometers south of Tripoli.
Bani Walid is an ancestral home of the Warfalla, Libya's biggest, politically-influential tribe. They number about a million of the country's 6 million population and are traditional supporters of Gadhafi.
The town has been under siege for weeks, with hundreds of Gadhafi loyalists dug into its steep valleys and hills.
As well as the military assault, NTC officials have been negotiating with tribal leaders in the town.
A group claiming to represent the townsfolk offered a truce to Libya's new government yesterday. In return for pledging loyalty to the NTC, the tribal groups said they would take over the town, but demanded in return the NTC should withdraw its forces.
It was not immediately clear what the government response would be to the offer, or whether the town had already been captured.
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