Fierce clashes between Libya’s new regime forces and Muammar Gaddafi’s diehards were ongoing in Sirte Tuesday, with National Transitional fighters moving in for the kill against Gaddafi remaining loyalists.

Fierce clashes between Libya’s new regime forces and Muammar Gaddafi’s diehards were ongoing in Sirte Tuesday, with National Transitional fighters moving in for the kill against Gaddafi remaining loyalists.

Gaddafi loyalists were putting up fierce resistance as the NTC forces were battling house by house towards the heart of the fallen leader's hometown.

In other Gaddafi bastion, Bani Walid, diehards mounted a fightback, killing 17 National Transitional Council fighters, the new regime announced on Monday.

The interim ruling NTC has been waiting for Sirte's full capture to declare the liberation of the whole of Libya, clearing the way to draw up a timetable for elections.

SOME GAINS IN SIRTE
Commander for the NTC forces at Sirte's eastern front, Wissam bin Ahmid, said the fighters were close to overrunning the entire city of Sirte but still feared for the safety of many civilians too scared to flee the fighting.
"There remains still two square kilometres (0.8 square mile) to take to free the city completely," Ahmid told AFP news agency.

"There are still some snipers. But our main worry are the families still in the city who are too afraid to leave their houses as the snipers are using them as firing posts," he said.

On Monday, the third day of what NTC commanders had touted as a final assault, the new regime said its troops captured Sirte's showpiece conference center, university campus and hospital on Sunday.

However, the military gains came at a heavy price, with medics reporting 13 dead and 90 wounded on the western side of Sirte alone.
The bodies of another four NTC fighters were recovered from the city's Ibn Sina hospital following its capture.

“TACTICAL WITHDRAWAL”, HEAVY LOSSES
In another front, Bani Walid, a desert oasis 170 kilometers southeast of Tripoli, the military said NTC fighters withdrew from forward positions in a "tactical pullback" after intense fighting on Sunday.
"We lost 17 fighters in fierce clashes on Sunday and our forces have withdrawn from the airport where they had taken control," said Salem Gheith, head of the NTC military command centre in the capital.

"We've received reinforcements from Tripoli and the Nafusa mountains, and we will resume the offensive," he said.
Regional NTC commander Yunes Mussa announced the airport's capture on Sunday, before the fightback by pro-GADDAFI forces.

The ferocity of the resistance in Sirte and Bani Walid has surprised Libya's new regime.
At least 70 NTC fighters have been killed and hundreds wounded since Friday when they launched a final push on Sirte after several days of NATO air strikes to soften up pro-Kadhafi positions.

 

NATO MILITARY INTERFERENCE
For its part, NATO was still backing NTC fighter with its airstrikes. The western alliance said its warplanes struck three armed vehicles in Bani Walid on Sunday, and its secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said the alliance was close to terminating its mission in Libya.

"We are pretty close to the very end of this operation," Rasmussen said in Bucharest.
Rasmussen said despite the NTC's advances in Sirte, NATO "had no knowledge of the colonel's whereabouts," adding that Gaddafi "is not a target of our operation."