LIBYA: Anti-Gaddafi forces from Tripoli arrive in Bani Walid area to help reinforce fighters

Record ID: 561911

  • Title: LIBYA: Anti-Gaddafi forces from Tripoli arrive in Bani Walid area to help reinforce fighters
  • Date: 8th September 2011
  • Summary: 35 KM EAST OF BANI WALID, LIBYA (SEPTEMBER 7, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ANTI-GADDAFI FORCES CONVOY WITH ARMOURED VEHICLES VARIOUS OF ANTI-GADDAFI FORCES UNLOADING ARMS FROM TRUCKS VARIOUS OF ANTI-GADDAFI FORCES (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) IBRAHIM IRSAIDA, ANTI-GADDAFI FIGHTER, SAYING: "Until now, the information that we have that they do not want to turn in their weapons. They are still supporting Gaddafi until this moment." VARIOUS OF ANTI-GADDAFI FORCES (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) IBRAHIM IRSAIDA, ANTI-GADDAFI FIGHTER, SAYING: "At the end, they will give up God's willing." VARIOUS OF ANTI-GADDAFI FORCES
  • Embargoed: 23rd September 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Libya
  • Country: Libya
  • Topics: Conflict,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVADH8AZZP1KFPN3T47GSZCTI4RE
  • Story Text: Anti-Gaddafi forces from the Tripoli district of Tajoura arrived near the pro-Gaddafi town Bani Walid on Wednesday (September 7) to help reinforce fighters preparing for a possible stand-off.
    "We came from Tajoura to join the frontline of Bani Walid to help our brothers to liberate Bani Walid," an anti-Gaddafi fighter who arrived in the area said.
    Bani Walid, which lies 150 km (90 miles) south of Tripoli, has refused to surrender to forces loyal to the National Transitional Council (NTC), giving rise to expectations there would be another round of fighting to rout forces loyal to Libya's longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi.
    "The shop are all closed there and there is no traffic or movement," one Bani Walid resident said.
    "The situation in Bani Walid is very bad, I'm from Bani Walid and my family and children are still there, they are in a very bad situation, they are hostages with Muammar's supporters," another resident added.
    Along with Gaddafi's home town of Sirte on the Mediterranean coast and Sabha deep in the Sahara desert, Bani Walid is one of the last remaining pockets of pro-Gaddafi resistance to rebels who drove the veteran strongman out of Tripoli last month.
    "All communications are cut so the people do not know what is going on in the outside world. They do not know what is happening in Libya and they do not know that people outside Bani Walid are in a better condition," Moftah Saeed Ibrahim, an Anti-Gaddafi from Bani Walid said.
    On Tuesday (September 6), four tribal elders came out to meet National Transitional Council (NTC), negotiators in a small mosque, some 40 km north of the town.
    During the talks, punctuated by bursts of gunfire into the air by NTC forces, both sides laid out their conditions. The NTC side offered reassurances that there would be no retribution against Gaddafi loyalists who remain in the city.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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