NTC fighters 'capture' Qaddafi hometown of Sirte

Associated Press

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SIRTE, Libya // Libyan fighters have overrun the last positions of Muammar Qaddafi loyalists holding out in the city of Sirte and the revolutionaries now have all of the ousted leader's hometown within their hands.

Witnesses said the final push to capture the remaining pro-Qaddafi positions began around 8am today and was over after about 90 minutes. Just before the assault, about five carloads of loyalists tried to flee the enclave down the coastal motorway but were killed by revolutionaries.

NTC forces began searching homes and buildings looking for any Qaddafi fighters who may be hiding there.

"Sirte has been liberated. There are no Qaddafi forces any more," Colonel Yunus Al Abdali, the head of operations in the eastern half of the city told Reuters. "We are now chasing his fighters who are trying to run away."

Another front line commander confirmed the capture of the city, which was the last remaining significant bastion of pro-Qaddafi fighters almost three months after the ex-leader was overthrown by rebels.

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NTC forces have overrun the last positions of Muammar Qaddafi loyalists holding out in the city of Sirte and the revolutionaries now have all of the ousted leader's hometown within their hands.

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Qaddafi killed as Sirte falls to NTC: Libya

Agencies

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SIRTE, Libya // The Prime Minister of Libya's interim government, Mahmoud Jibril, has confirmed that former Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi has been killed.

Libya's National Transitional Council leader said Qaddafi died of his wounds as fighters battling to complete an eight-month uprising against his rule overran his home town Sirte today.

The era of Moammar Qaddafi has ended with his death and the capture of Sirte in Libya by the National Transitional Council.

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"We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Muammar Qaddafi has been killed," Jibril told a news conference in the capital Tripoli.

A NTC official said his body was now being taken to a secret location.

"Qaddafi's body is with our unit in a car and we are taking the body to a secret place for security reasons," Mohamed Abdel Kafi, an NTC official in the city of Misrata told Reuters.

Nato said they couldn't yet confirm reports from revolutionary fighters that Qaddafi was captured or killed in the fall of his hometown. In Washington, US officials were also still working to confirm the reports, a senior Obama administration official said.

However, television networks around the world are broadcasting an apparent photograph of the former leader's body released by the NTC.

The photo, apparently taken on a mobile phone, showed a pale, bloodied and dead-eyed man closely resembling the deposed Libyan ruler, with dark frizzy hair and similar facial features.

It was not clear if the man was dead or wounded. He appeared to be bandaged and had a blank expression. He had a stream of blood from the side of his mouth and was wearing a bloodstained, dark-coloured shirt.

It is common for anti-Qaddafi fighters to photograph and record scenes from the battlefield.

The Misrata Military Council, one of multiple command groups for revolutionary forces, earlier released a statement that said Qaddafi was dead. Another commander, Abdel-Basit Haroun, said Qaddafi was killed when an airstrike hit a convoy trying to flee.

Previous reports of Qaddafi family deaths or captures have later proved incorrect.

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Qaddafi's snipers pin down push into Sirte

Reuters

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SIRTE // Transitional Libyan government forces swept into Sirte yesterday in one of the biggest assaults yet on Muammar Qaddafi's hometown, but had to seek cover when they drew fire from his loyalists.

Fighters with the National Transitional Council shouted "God is greatest" as their force of about 100 pickup vehicles mounted with heavy weapons pushed into a residential district on the southern side of Sirte.

They were forced to scramble for refuge under heavy fire from Qaddafi fighters holed up in an apartment complex, a reporter on the scene said. Two NTC fighters were killed and three wounded in the exchanges.

"There is a very vicious battle now in Sirte," NTC chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil told reporters in Tripoli, where he was meeting defence ministers from Britain and Italy.

"Today our fighters are dealing with the snipers that are taking positions and hiding in the city of Sirte."

Taking Sirte would bring Libya's new rulers closer to their goal of establishing control of the entire country almost two months after they seized Tripoli.

The NTC forces have thrust Qaddafi loyalists back from defensive positions well outside Sirte, and are now contesting control of the centre of the city in often chaotic, street-by-street battles.

A prolonged struggle to capture the remaining bastions of Qaddafi loyalists has sidetracked NTC efforts to set up an effective government in the country.

Thousands of civilians have fled Sirte as fighting has intensified, describing increasingly desperate conditions for those still inside the city.

There is no electricity and drinking water and food is running out. People have spoken of the stench of rotting corpses at the city's hospital.

Hassan Massoud drove out of the city in a pickup vehicle with his family in the cab and luggage teetering on the back. He said he decided to leave after his neighbour's house was hit.

"It was single-storey. It collapsed on them. It killed a man and a girl," he said.

Along with the interior town of Bani Walid, Sirte is one of the last redoubts of Qaddafi loyalists.

It holds symbolic importance because Qaddafi turned it from a fishing village into a second capital. He built opulent villas, hotels and conference halls to house the international summits he liked to stage there.

NTC officials said they believed Qaddafi's son Mo'tassim, who used to be the national security adviser, was hiding somewhere in Sirte. The loyalists "are defending fiercely," said Abdullah Aaly, an NTC field commander. "It looks like they are protecting someone important."

But taking Sirte carries risks for Libya's new rulers. A drawn-out battle with many civilian casualties will breed hostility that will make it difficult for the NTC to unite the country.

For the anti-Qaddafi fighters down in Sirte's streets, their offensive has turned into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with snipers.

They said Qaddafi forces had stationed snipers in the Ouagadougou hall, the university and hospital.

More snipers were in residential buildings in the north-eastern corner of Sirte. Faraj Leshersh, an NTC fighter in that sector, said the snipers were experts.

He said they used trenches between buildings which allowed them to move location without showing themselves. At other times, he said, they burnt tyres so the smoke would conceal their movements.

A sandstorm yesterday gave them cover to regain a little of the ground in the north-east of the city that they had earlier lost to the NTC forces.

Officials with the new government who have been given the task of tracking down Col Qaddafi said he was probably being sheltered by nomadic Tuareg tribesman far to the south in the desert.

* Reuters

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Breakthrough for NTC forces in Sirte

Associated Press

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SIRTE // Transitional government forces increased the pressure on Colonel Muammar Qaddafi's loyalists yesterday by seizing a convention centre in his hometown that had served as a key base for the fugitive leader's forces.

Libya's de facto leader, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, the head of the governing National Transitional Council (NTC), said yesterday that anti-Qaddafi fighters had made huge gains in Sirte and Bani Walid, an inland enclave south-east of the capital.

"I do believe, God willing, that the liberation of these cities will happen within this week," he said in Tripoli.

He said NTC forces in Sirte had punched their way into the city centre in fierce fighting and were cleaning out pockets of resistance.

The inability to take Sirte, the most important remaining stronghold of Qaddafi supporters, more than six weeks after anti-Qaddafi fighters seized the capital, has stalled efforts by Libya's new leaders to set a timeline for elections.

The transitional leadership has said it will declare liberation complete after Sirte's capture because it will then hold all of the country's seaports and harbours.

Qaddafi supporters were also hanging on in Bani Walid, where NTC forces reported key gains after weeks of faltering advances that resulted in part from its challenging terrain. Bani Walid is believed to be harbouring high-level figures in the old regime.

Advancing fighters in Bani Walid have now driven Qaddafi forces out of the airport, said Abdullah Kenshil, who led failed talks in search of a peaceful surrender of the city.

"The takeover of Bani Walid is imminent," he said. "The fighters are only one kilometre from the heart of Bani Walid."

He claimed that Col Qaddafi's son Seif Al Islam was seen on Saturday distributing cash to his loyalists in Bani Walid.

"We are 100 per cent sure that he is inside, at least until last night," Mr Kenshil said.

Located 400km south-east of Tripoli, Sirte is key to the physical unity of the nation of 6 million people, since it lies roughly in the centre of the coastal plain where most Libyans live.

After a three-week siege from the outskirts, NTC forces launched an all-out assault on Sirte on Friday, pounding the city with tank shells, field cannons, rockets and heavy machine guns.

Qaddafi loyalists have put up fierce resistance and fired back with sniper rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. Yesterday, the Ouagadougou Convention Centre, an ornate complex that Col Qaddafi frequently used for international summits, lay in ruins.

Throughout the siege, pro-Qaddafi fighters used the walled complex as a base and stronghold.

From there they were able to dominate surrounding neighbourhoods and assault NTC forces trying to enter Sirte.

At the nearby Ibn Sina Hospital, scores of wounded civilians crowded the corridors, lying on gurneys and floors to protect themselves from the shelling and gunfire. There was no electricity or water and a handful of medical students and nurses were the only medical staff.

NTC fighters roamed the hallways checking identifications and they detained about 25 people suspected of being Qaddafi loyalists or mercenaries.

"These are all Qaddafi people. They are snipers and we have captured them," said Ahmed Rahman, a field commander, as his soldiers cuffed a suspected pro-Qaddafi sniper.

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