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Libyan National Transitional Council fighters fire at pro-Gaddafi troops in Sirte yesterday |
Nearly two months since seizing the capital, Libya’s National Transitional Council has failed to capture the final holdout towns still under the grip of Gaddafi’s supporters. The ousted leader has repeatedly vowed to lead an uprising.
Yesterday’s battles appeared to be isolated and involve only dozens of pro-Gaddafi fighters, but it was the first sign of armed resistance to the NTC in the city since its rebel brigades seized the capital and ended Gaddafi’s 42-year rule in August.
Hundreds of NTC fighters in pick-up trucks shouting “Allahu Akbar” careered towards the Abu Salim neighbourhood, a centre of support for Gaddafi, and the two sides exchanged automatic and heavy machinegun fire.
Local people told Reuters at the scene that a group of up to 50 armed men had appeared in Abu Salim earlier in the day and had chanted pro-Gaddafi slogans. NTC men said fighting also broke out in three other nearby neighbourhoods.
“Gaddafi told them in a message last night to rise up after Friday prayers,” said one NTC fighter, Abdullah. “That’s why these few people have come out and are causing this problem.”
NTC fighters dragged one man out of an apartment block in Abu Salim, a traditional bastion of support for Gaddafi. As he was kicked and punched, one of the NTC men plunged a knife into the prisoner’s back. It was unclear if it was a fatal blow.
The captured man had been armed with a rocket-propelled grenade, said NTC fighters. The interim government’s forces have been criticised by human rights groups for their treatment of prisoners. Reuters saw at least two other captured gunmen taken away in pickup trucks being punched and kicked in the face.
Dominated by apartment blocks, Abu Salim was the last part of the capital to fall to the NTC when its forces took the city after six months of civil war.
The NTC fighters were met by volleys of machinegun fire as they went from house to house searching for remaining Gaddafi gunmen. Shooting died down later in the afternoon.
“Some Gaddafi cells came out on the streets with guns today after prayers but, as you can see, our forces have the situation under control,” said a senior NTC official at the scene under heavy protection, Mahmoud Abdul Aziz.
“All families are safe. If Gaddafi is still at large we won’t see peace but we will slay that beast.”
A spokesman for the NTC in the eastern city of Benghazi dismissed Gaddafi’s armed supporters in Tripoli as a “fifth column” trying to destabilise the country.
“The other thing I hear that is disturbing is that the fifth column has been doing some drive-by shootings around Tripoli today. These are loyalists trying to wreak havoc,” he said.
Diplomats said there were drive-by shootings near the Radisson hotel, where some senior NTC officials and Western diplomats are staying.
Gaddafi supporters appear to have set yesterday as the date for a new uprising. A pro-Gaddafi Facebook group called October 14 bears a green Gaddafi flag and calls for an “intifada (uprising) of the free Libyan people.” It has more than 1000 followers.
Gaddafi supporters are still holding out in Sirte, Gaddafi’s coastal hometown in the centre of the country, where a small pocket is battling on after weeks of fighting, and Bani Walid, a town south of Tripoli.
Government forces pushed tanks deep into Sirte yesterday to try to smash the last pocket of resistance by Gaddafi loyalists in his home town.