NTC forces raise flag over Gaddafi bastion

AFP/Tripoli

Musician Masohd al-Baser entertains anti-Gaddafi fighters on the frontline in Sirte yesterday

Libyan fighters raised the new government’s flag over the oasis of Bani Walid yesterday and hoped for the swift fall of the other remaining redoubt of Muammar Gaddafi loyalists, Sirte, as relatives of his henchmen fled. Cries of Allahu Akhbar and bursts of celebratory machinegun fire filled the desert air over the centre of Bani Walid, as the new regime troops feted their capture of the loyalist bastion after a six-week siege. “The city of Bani Walid has been completely liberated,” said Saif al-Lasi, a commander of the Zliten Brigade, one of the National Transitional Council units which took part in the final assault launched on Sunday. The overall commander of NTC forces in the city, Musa Yunis, said all resistance from loyalist forces had now ceased. “Gaddafi’s troops left their vehicles behind and even changed into civilian clothing so they would be hard to find,” he said. “There is no resistance in Bani Walid anymore. Most of Gaddafi’s troops have fled, and those who remain are not causing problems.” NTC field commander Jamal Salem said his fighters had encountered “heavy resistance” from Gaddafi loyalists holed up in the Saharan town, 170km southeast of Tripoli. The desert region’s Warfala tribe was a major recruiting ground for elite units of Gaddafi’s regime and devotion to the fugitive strongman runs deep. Two NTC fighters were killed and 16 wounded in yesterday’s fighting, commander Salem Ghit said. Two more were killed and 70 wounded on Sunday, he added. The new regime troops had launched a pincer attack, with columns advancing from north and south which met in the city centre capturing the castle at the heart of the sprawling oasis. The jubilant fighters hoisted the red, black and green flag of the new government over mosques and other buildings, tearing down the all-green emblem of the ousted regime. The fall of Bani Walid means that Gaddafi loyalists are now restricted to just one tiny enclave in the fugitive strongman’s hometown Sirte. NTC fighters, who have laid siege to his loyalists in the Mediterranean coastal city for more than a month, took heart yesterday from the flight of several relatives of leading Gaddafi regime officials. Among the escaping civilians were the mother and a brother of Gaddafi’s spokesman Moussa Ibrahim, a senior NTC commander said. “These are families of regime officials. There is Moussa Ibrahim’s mother and brother among them,” said Wessam bin Hamaidi, gesturing at seven cars loaded with men, women and children fleeing the battleground neighbourhoods. Bin Hamaidi, in charge of military operations in Sirte’s eastern front, said the passengers included other “wanted” people but “no big fish,” adding there were fighters mixed in with the fleeing civilians. “Our strategy of surrounding the neighbourhoods is working as you can see families of regime officials are coming out,” he said. Hassan al-Droe, an NTC representative from Sirte, said relatives of Gaddafi regime officials started fleeing in the morning from the Dollar and Number Two neighbourhoods, where diehard loyalists are holed up. “This morning a lot of families from the regime left the two neighbourhoods in 20 cars,” Droe said, adding that the passengers included men, women and children. “They told us that Mutassim is inside,” he added in reference to Gaddafi’s son and national security chief. As NTC fighters shuttled back and forth to the frontline and surrounded the contested neighbourhoods, Droe said it was only a matter of time before they took control of the last two pockets of resistance in Sirte. “The way the families came out has raised hope that we will capture the neighbourhoods very soon,” he said, as machinegun and mortar fire rocked the area.