LIBYA: NTC forces battle pro-Gaddafi resistance in Sirte

Record ID: 375478

  • Title: LIBYA: NTC forces battle pro-Gaddafi resistance in Sirte
  • Date: 16th October 2011
  • Summary: SIRTE, LIBYA (OCTOBER 15, 2011) (REUTERS) LIBYAN INTERIM GOVERNMENT FORCES ON A TANK ON A HILL OVERLOOKING THE "DOLLAR" NEIGHBORHOOD TANK FIRE SMOKE RISING IN THE HORIZON INSIDE SIRTE MORE TANK FIRE FIGHTERS ON TOP OF ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIER SMOKE RISING VARIOUS OF ROCKET FIRE FIGHTERS PREPARING ROCKETS FIGHTERS FIRING MORTAR ROCKETS VIEW OF SMOKE RISING FROM
  • Embargoed: 31st October 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Libya
  • Country: Libya
  • Topics: Conflict
  • Reuters ID: LVA7Z8MJRLR348FY9GSU5XKJ6CMG
  • Story Text: Forces of the National Transitional Council (NTC) continued battling supporters of deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi in Sirte, the former Libyan leader's Mediterranean coastal hometown in the centre of the country, on Saturday (October 15).
    Government forces said small pockets of Gaddafi supporters were still holding out after weeks of fighting in the city.
    Government forces pushed tanks deep into Sirte on Friday (October 14) to try to smash resistance by pro-Gaddafi fighters.
    The mostly untrained NTC militia army has gradually tightened its stranglehold around Sirte in a chaotic struggle that has cost scores of lives and left thousands homeless.
    The failure to seize the final Gaddafi bastions has also held up the attempt by Libya's new leaders to try to build a democratic government, a process they say will begin only after Sirte is captured.
    NTC commanders say Gaddafi's diehard loyalists now only control an area measuring about 700 metres (yards) north to south, and around 1.5 km (a mile) east to west in a residential neighbourhood comprising mostly apartment blocks.
    The biggest obstacle to taking the town has been Gaddafi's snipers hunkered down in buildings. Green flags, the banner of Gaddafi's rule, still fly above many of the buildings in Sirte. An occasional sniper shot zipped past government forces cleaning their weapons.
    Gaddafi's encircled forces in Sirte have little hope of victory, but still fight on, inflicting casualties with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and small arms.
    Gaddafi himself is believed to be hiding somewhere in the vast desert of southern Libya.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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