LIBYA: Interim government fighters continue their offensive on the besieged town of Sirte

Record ID: 374843

  • Title: LIBYA: Interim government fighters continue their offensive on the besieged town of Sirte
  • Date: 20th October 2011
  • Summary: SIRTE, LIBYA (OCTOBER 19, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PLUMES OF SMOKE OVER SIRTE SKYLINE/AUDIO OF GUNFIRE PLUMES OF SMOKE FROM SIRTE AS ROCKETS ARE FIRED/ AUDIO OF GUNFIRE BUILDING ON FIRE ROCKETS BEING FIRED VARIOUS OF ROCKET LAUNCHERS ON BACK OF WHITE PICK-UP TRUCK BEING FIRED FIGHTER WEARING EAR PROTECTORS LOADING MISSILE INTO LAUNCHER WHICH IS THEN FIRED VARIOUS
  • Embargoed: 4th November 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Libya
  • Country: Libya
  • Topics: Conflict
  • Reuters ID: LVABNNNDI291PH3Z8FPKR0RLNS02
  • Story Text: Libyan interim government fighters continued their offensive on the besieged town of Sirte on Wednesday (October 19) after being pushed back by die-hard Muammar Gaddafi loyalists holed up in the deposed leader's hometown.
    Hundreds of National Transitional Council (NTC) troops have surrounded the Mediterranean coastal town for weeks in a chaotic struggle to snuff out the last pocket of resistance against the revolution that ended Gaddafi's 42-year rule.
    Grad rockets, artillery and tank fire rained down on Gaddafi positions in the centre of the town as NTC fighters have deploy their arsenal of homemade weapons.
    The NTC's failure to seize Sirte, nearly two months since capturing Tripoli, has raised questions about its ability to exert its authority over the entire country and has postponed the launch of its promised democracy programme.
    On Monday (October 17) NTC forces captured the other main Gaddafi stronghold, the desert town of Bani Walid, where the ousted leader's loyalists had put up resistance for two months.
    NTC forces were poised a few days ago to declare victory in Sirte, but on Tuesday (October 18) they were being forced to retreat in some places under intense fire.
    At the eastern end of Sirte's seafront on Tuesday a Reuters reporter saw the spot where an hour earlier mortars had landed in a cluster of NTC fighters. Thirteen were killed in the incident, witnesses said. Blood from one of the victims stained the steps of a nearby house.
    In several places in the city, locations that a day earlier were firmly under the control of anti-Gaddafi fighters were too dangerous to access because of fire coming in from loyalists.
    The NTC offensive -- by mostly amateur fighters -- has been hampered by a lack of coordination. Units which converged on Sirte from Benghazi in eastern Libya and Misrata to the west have lost men when they fired at each other by mistake.
    Gaddafi, wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of ordering the killing of civilians, is in hiding, possibly deep in Libya's Sahara desert.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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