Fighters of Libya’s new regime flooded into Muammar Gaddafi’s penultimate bastion yesterday to celebrate the liberation of the desert oasis of Bani Walid with bursts of gunfire.
They came from the capital Tripoli, the north and the west in pick-up trucks and other vehicles, clogging the city centre with traffic after a six-week siege.
“Bani Walid is free,” a young fighter from Zliten in the north shouted as he drove in on a pick-up mounted with a machinegun and a loudspeaker that blared cries of Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest).
Celebratory gunfire erupted as each group of fighters entered the town, where Gaddafi loyalists who fled Tripoli and Zliten had taken refuge, according to the National Transitional Council.
But the loyalist forces which had withstood the protracted siege by NTC fighters were nowhere to be seen.
“We don’t know where they are. We have captured 30 African mercenaries,” said Saif al-Lasi, commander of the Al-Madad Brigade from Zliten.
He said the loyalist fighters could be hiding in the mountains or in the desert around the oasis, “or maybe they have infiltrated the ranks of the rebels who came from several towns and who don’t know each other,” he said.
“We are combing the town and we surely will find dozens of them who could be hiding in (abandoned) houses,” he added.
Apart from the NTC fighters flooding Bani Walid, the oasis was a virtual ghost town.
The stench of death hung over the town’s hospital where seven decomposed bodies lay in the mortuary.
“The bodies of other (NTC) martyrs have been identified by their comrades and have been buried,” a doctor said.
The hospital began admitting patients again after a team from the International Committee of the Red Cross arrived in the afternoon with much-needed medical supplies.
Medics were treating wounded fighters from both sides – NTC fighters and two Gaddafi loyalists.
“When we arrived there were no patients,” said team leader Dejan Ivkor as dozens of boxes containing medical supplies were unloaded from a truck.
“Soon the hospital will be up and running again,” Mr Ivkor added.
One of those being treated, who had sustained a serious shrapnel wound, pleaded with an AFP journalist to get in touch with his family.
“Please write this number down on a piece of paper and put it in my pocket,” he said.
“It is my brother’s telephone number. That way at least there will be someone to bury me when I die.”
A group of Indian nurses who were trapped in Bani Walid during the siege were back at work in the hospital, although there was no electricity and several wards were gutted by shelling.