Libya’s new rulers yesterday declared victory in the battle for the key southern city of Sabha, one of the last bastions of deposed despot Muammar Gaddafi’s diehard supporters.
Officials of the interim ruling National Transitional Council said there were only small pockets of resistance in Sabha, Libya’s largest desert city and home to a strategically vital military base.
The US prepared to raise the Stars and Stripes over its embassy in Tripoli today, after President Barack Obama met Libya’s new leader in New York and pledged support for Libya as it consolidates freedom.
And Nato, whose air strikes have been been instrumental in beating back Gaddafi forces, said yesterday it was extending its air campaign for another 90 days.
“We are in complete control of the city of Sabha. Everybody, including (those who were) pro-Gaddafi, are now with the revolution,” said Abdelmajid Seif Ennasr, who represents the NTC in Sabha.
NTC fighters are only encountering “resistance from some individuals here and there,” he said.
“Sabha is totally under the control of the revolutionaries,” said Mohammed Wardugu, the Benghazi spokesman of the “Desert Shield Brigade” fighting in the region.
The battle for Sabha, a city of 100,000 people in an area dominated by Gaddafi’s clan, first broke out on June 12 after two days of anti-regime protests in the sprawling oasis.
Meanwhile, NTC commander Ahmed Zlitni said that fighters were planning for a three-pronged attack on Colonel Gaddafi’s hometown, Sirte.
“We are still giving time for Sirte civilians to leave the city. There is resistance to our forces from Gaddafi’s forces from inside the city,” Mr Zlitni said.
Anti-Gaddafi authorities have admitted they lost three men at Sirte on Tuesday, taking the overall death toll since they moved on the city on September 15 to at least 45 NTC fighters.
Meanwhile, 16 patients, most in critical condition, were evacuated on a Qatari military plane to Malta as doctors said the region’s hospitals were overwhelmed.
NTC forces suspect Col Gaddafi enjoys a broad base of support in Sirte.
“The majority of residents are with Gaddafi,” said Zuber al-Gadir, spokesman of the Misurata military council, adding their persistent loyalty to the ousted leader was a legacy of his now defunct propaganda machine.
In Harawa, an AFP correspondent saw about nine NTC tanks moving towards Sirte’s eastern front, possibly in a bid to boost defences in the face of steady artillery and machinegun fire from Gaddafi loyalists.
Nato allies yesterday decided to extend their air campaign by another 90 days, with Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen saying warplanes would stay in the air as long as Libyan civilians are under threat but the mission will be under constant review and could be called off “at any time.”
The current 90-day mandate was due to expire on September 27.
At Bani Walid, a Gaddafi bastion southwest of Sirte, doctors said two people were killed and another four wounded.
Previously NTC official Abdullah Kenshil reported the death of an NTC fighter in Bani Walid and said new regime forces were preparing for a “decisive” tank-backed battle for the town in the next 48 hour.
In the Al-Jufra oasis towns of Waddan and Hun, Nato said it took out on Tuesday one military vehicle storage facility, four anti-aircraft guns and one armed vehicle.
Witnesses said yesterday that Gaddafi loyalists shelled Hun, southwest of Tripoli, killing and wounding dozens of people.
Earlier an NTC official in Benghazi, Mustafa Huni, said NTC forces had seized most of Waddan and were only facing pockets of resistance in other Al-Jufra towns, about 300 kilometres south of Sirte.
“Seventy per cent of the Al-Jufra has been liberated. Waddan is freed, our forces entered the town following NATO bombing of Al-Hisha dam, 20 kilometres (13 miles) from the town,” Mr Huni said.
Despite the setbacks, the fugitive Gaddafi told his remaining loyalists in Libya that the new regime is only temporary, in his latest comments aired on Syrian-based Arrai TV.