LIBYA: NTC forces take Sirte university, conference hall and hospital whilst fierce fighting is underway near the centre of the city where Gaddafi forces launch counter-attack

Record ID: 375106

  • Title: LIBYA: NTC forces take Sirte university, conference hall and hospital whilst fierce fighting is underway near the centre of the city where Gaddafi forces launch counter-attack
  • Date: 10th October 2011
  • Summary: SIRTE, LIBYA (OCTOBER 09, 2011) (REUTERS) ( ** GRAPHIC MATERIAL **) NTC FIGHTERS BEHIND WALL ON FRONTLINE VARIOUS OF NTC SNIPER FIRING FIGHTERS ON FRONTLINE FIGHTER ARMED VEHICLE FIGHTERS BEHIND WALL ON FRONTLINE VARIOUS FIGHTER PREPARING AMMUNITION FIGHTERS PREPARING TO LAUNCH ROCKETS VIEW OF SIRTE CITY ROCKETS BEING FIRED FIGHTERS CHEERING "GOD IS GREAT" MORE
  • Embargoed: 25th October 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Libya
  • Country: Libya
  • Topics: Conflict
  • Reuters ID: LVAHLLBNOC7ARNX4K9FQ82G0X17
  • Story Text: Libyan government forces captured landmark buildings in a thrust towards the centre of Muammar Gaddafi's hometown Sirte, but came under a fierce counter attack which inflicted dozens of casualties.
    Taking Sirte would bring Libya's new rulers a big step closer to establishing control of the entire, sprawling North African country almost two months after they seized the capital Tripoli, but Gaddafi loyalists are putting up stiff resistance.
    National Transitional Council (NTC) forces captured Sirte's main hospital as well as the university and a lavishly built international conference centre, but one large group of anti-Gaddafi fighters fled in disarray after coming under an intense mortar volley.
    The university, seized overnight, also came under a sustained counter-attack, as did the conference centre.
    While Reuters correspondents had entered the landmark buildings, confirming their capture, intense fighting was now underway around all three buildings and it was unclear whether they were still in provisional government hands.
    "We are in the residential area called Sabamiyah about 1 km from the centre of Sirte. We are facing a lot of sniper fire, they also have rocket launchers, but we are surrounding them from three fronts so they only have the sea facing them and God willing, the decisive hour for the battle is coming soon," said NTC fighter, Abdel Latif Al Darar.
    One large group of NTC fighters, approaching Sirte from the west and trying to pin down Gaddafi loyalists against the sea, saw their advance turn into a rout under heavy and accurate mortar bombardment.
    Their trademark pick-up trucks raced to the rear, some running on flat tyres. One man with arm and leg wounds frantically limped away from the carnage as commanders screamed over the radios for their troops to pull back.
    Soon seven fighters lay dead in a field hospital while dozens more were being treated for shrapnel wounds.
    The speed of the reversal underlines the fragility of government advances and the weight of the task still ahead of them despite their leaders' upbeat assessment of the fight.
    But even as the Gaddafi counter attack appeared to be underway, another group of fighters was attacking a number of buildings in the centre of the city that they said housed Gaddafi's security forces, a Reuters witness said.
    Earlier, at the main hospital, a Reuters witness counted more than a dozen, mostly black African pro-Gaddafi fighters being frog marched away. One was punched in the head when NTC forces found a picture of the deposed leader in his pocket.
    Blood and faeces lay on the floor while at least 30 patients lay on hospital beds, some of them unconscious, with an array of bullet, shrapnel and burns injuries. Most appeared malnourished.
    Two bodies lay in a nearby field hospital, one with his face blown off. They had been hit by fire from an anti-aircraft gun while trying to evacuate patients from a frontline hospital, their comrades said.
    Ambulances coming from the direction of the university screamed past a nearby roundabout ferrying the dead and wounded.
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