As they announced they were ready to move into Tripoli to govern Libya, rebels were cleaning Tripoli and preparing for what they hoped the last battle against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi.
As they announced they were ready to move into Tripoli to govern Libya, rebels were cleaning Tripoli and preparing for what they hoped the last battle against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi.
Fighters on Friday morning stepped up their assault on the capital, storming the Abu Salim neighborhood as they continue to clear pockets of resistance in what is seen as the last stronghold of Gaddafi.
Rebels swept through houses and side streets to flush out snipers and were emerging with dozens of prisoners as gunfights were going on, the Reuters news agency reported.
Local residents, some with children, were in cars trying to get out of the neighbourhood, where support for Gaddafi has traditionally been strong, the report stated.
LAST ASSAULT
Meanwhile, Fighters said they would break the siege of Gaddafi’s forces of Zuwarah town and to open the Tripoli-Tunisia road.
Since Wednesday, rebels in the region have been mobilizing for an assault on Zuwarah, a coastal town about 30 kilometers east of the Tunisian border, which rebels freed at the weekend but now is completely encircled by Gaddafi loyalists.
"Inshallah (God willing) we will finish it" quickly, said Anwar Elmeshri, one of the commanders in charge of the operation.
Seizing Zuwara is too important since the town remains within rocket range of other Gaddafi strongholds, Zelten to the west, Al-Jamil to the south and Al-Ajilat to the southwest, from where regular bombardments are launched.
The 40-kilometre road linking Zuwarah and Sabratha, to the east, was also not fully secure.
The local commander of the rebels at Sabratha, Bilal Mansur, said reinforcements were expected to arrive on Friday for the attack on the pro-Gaddafi troops but numbers were limited because many fighters had gone to Tripoli where they were trying to put down the last pockets of resistance.
NTC TO GOVERN FROM TRIPOLI
Earlier on Thursday, rebel-led interim government said it was to move into the capital, Tripoli, from its previous base in the eastern city of Benghazi, to begin governing the country.
"I declare the beginning and assumption of the executive committee's work in Tripoli”, the National Transitional Council (NTC) finance minister, Ali Tarhouni, said at a news conference at the Radisson hotel in Tripoli.
"Long live democratic and constitutional Libya and glory to our martyrs," he said, announcing the holders of key posts in a new provisional government.
Tarhouni added that NTC leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil would arrive in Tripoli as soon as the security situation permitted.
He said recognition of the NTC by the international community played an important part in the rebels' fight against Muammar Gaddafi and his troops.
