Columns of fighters loyal to Libya’s new leaders surged into Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown Sirte yesterday, sparking battles with loyalists in three sectors, including at the airport, commanders said.
Backed by tanks, they launched the assault late morning on Sirte, 360 kilometres west of Tripoli, after a first attack the previous day was repulsed by loyalists, who set up sniper nests on rooftops.
An AFP reporter witnessed heavy fighting at the airport and two kilometres southeast of the city centre.
NTC forces were firing anti-aircraft guns and heavy cannon within the city limits and Gaddafi forces responding with sniper fire and Grad rockets.
Senior military commander Salem Jeah said that NTC forces were nearing the centre of Sirte, with the AFP reporter saying the front line was about one kilometre away.
“We are advancing in from the west and the south towards the city centre,” he said by telephone. “Our forces retreated strategically during the night but are now speeding towards the centre and some have already entered.”
Field commander Hadi Saleq of the Karama (Generosity) Brigade, who has 160 men under his command and has roots in Sirte, reported skirmishes on three fronts.
“The fighting is concentrated on September 1 Street, residential zone 2 in the city centre and around the airport,” Mr Saleq said.
During yesterday’s fighting, medics at a hospital east of Sirte where people were being taken said there were at least three dead and 15 wounded among the NTC fighters.
But Dr Mohammed Saleh said some patients were sent to Misurata.
“Today we saw more gunshot wounds” than from shrapnel, a sign of more close-quarter fighting.
Earlier, emergency worker Mohammed al-Ashraf said 10 NTC fighters were wounded yesterday and one killed in September 1 Street, Al-Zafraan district, where the AFP reporter witnessed heavy fighting.
“There’s a building ahead that just won’t surrender,” said one fighter, Walid Ismail.
Amid the gunfire, medics in one street were seen treating a man with a shrapnel wound to the leg.
At least 200 NTC pick-up trucks fanned out from a roundabout on the street firing heavy weapons to clear the area of Gaddafi fighters amid incoming sniper fire and sporadic rocket attacks.
Ironically, resident and university student Abdel al-Mutaly told the reporter it was not until Friday that he had learned Tripoli had fallen to the NTC on August 23.
He said there has been no electricity for a month “so people were completely in the dark about what was going on outside” Sirte.
“There is no food, no money, no petrol, no information in Sirte. How could I have known they had taken Tripoli?”
Mr Mutaly said he had a weapon but had immediately surrendered it to NTC forces and was not arrested.
“We stayed at home hearing the gunfire. A shell hit our home and I put down my weapon. I had no other thought than to get my family to safety.”
Field commander Saleq said they hoped that Sirte would soon be under their control.