It seems that the Libyan interim government’s forces are making slow advance in their assault aimed at taking control of whole Libya.
It seems that the Libyan interim government’s forces are making slow advance in their assault aimed at taking control of whole Libya.
One month after they seized Tripoli, fighters of National Transitional Council said they have captured the airport of Sirte, the hometown of Muammar Gaddafi.
NTC fighters said on Wednesday they were in control of the airport after intense fighting in the coastal city, one of the last of two bastions of support for the deposed Libyan leader.
Sirte has withstood a siege by NTC fighters hitting it with tank and rocket fire as well as NATO air raids.
However, intense sniper and artillery fire from pro-Gaddafi forces has so far prevented NTC forces from taking Sirte, despite more than two weeks of fighting and two full-on assaults.
SEVERE CONDITIONS
Meanwhile, international agencies voiced concerns over deteriorating conditions for civilians who were trapped in the town.
Media reported that Gaddafi forces have prevented civilians from leaving Sirte by force.
Witnesses said that there was no food or electricity in the town, and that Gaddafi forces were forming checkpoints that prevented residents from fleeing by sending shots in air.
GADDAFI WHEREABOUTS
Gaddafi himself hasn’t been seen since August 23 Tripoli seize. However he delivered audio messages through the Syrian-based television Al-Rai, voicing defiance and calling for “Libyans to fight traitors and colonizers”, referring to NTC fighters and NATO.
His whereabouts have been still unknown, but a senior NTC military official said that the strongman was believed to be holed up near the western town of Ghadamis near the Algerian border under the protection of Tuareg tribesmen.
"There has been a fight between Tuareg tribesmen who are loyal to Gaddafi and Arabs living there [in the south].
"We are negotiating, the Gaddafi search is taking a different course," Hisham Buhagiar told the Reuters news agency.
Many Tuaregs, nomads who roam the desert spanning the borders of Libya and its neighbours, have backed Gaddafi since he supported their rebellions against the governments of Mali and Niger in the 1970s and allowed them to settle in Libya.
Buhagiar said Gaddafi's most politically prominent son, Saif al-Islam, was in Bani Walid, and that another influential son, Mutassem, was in Sirte.
