Gaddafi strongholds targeted in strikes by Nato warplanes

After a week-long stand-off over efforts for a peaceful surrender of Bani Walid – one of the last bastions of Gaddafi supporters – anti-Gaddafi fighters launched a two-pronged assault on the town that soon dissolved into street fighting.

But loyalists of the former regime have battled back in a sign that the fight is far from over.

Nato, which has played a key role in decimating Gaddafi’s forces over the six-month Libyan civil war, said that its jets hit a tank, two armed vehicles and one multiple rocket launcher the day before near Bani Walid.

Air strikes also pounded targets around Gaddafi’s home town of Sirte, and the towns of Waddan and Sabha in the southern desert, Nato said.

A military commander for former rebels near Bani Walid, Abdel-Razak al-Nadouri, said that a sizeable force pushed into the town but met heavy resistance and Nato asked them to pull back to allow for the air strikes.

“A large number of people entered Bani Walid but we had to retreat because of heavy fire,” he said. “Yesterday, Nato asked us to return three miles from Bani Walid because they were striking military bases and Grad rocket launchers.”

Around a mile from the city centre, a cluster of abandoned houses in the desert showed signs of the fierce fighting.

Libyan fighters swept into the capital Tripoli on August 21, effectively bringing an end to Gaddafi’s nearly 42-year rule.