Rebel fighters push into centre of Gaddafi home-town stronghold

Anti-Gaddafi fighters have captured the sprawling Ouagadougou Convention Centre as well as Ibn Sina Hospital on the south side of Sirte.

They are now battling loyalists in heavy street fighting focused around Green Square in the city centre.

At the hospital yesterday, hundreds of wounded civilians crowded the corridors. There was no electricity or water, and a handful of medical students and nurses were the only medical staff.

Revolutionary fighters roamed the hallways checking IDs, and took some people suspected of being Gaddafi fighters into custody.

The rebels’ inability to take Sirte, the most important remaining stronghold of Gaddafi supporters, more than six weeks after anti-Gaddafi fighters seized the capital has stalled efforts by Libya’s new leaders to set a timeline for elections and move forward with a transition to democracy.

Gaddafi supporters also hold the inland enclave of Bani Walid, where revolutionary forces also reported key gains after weeks of faltering advances that resulted in part from the challenging terrain of desert hills and steep valleys. Bani Walid is believed to be harbouring high-level figures in the old regime.

The transitional leadership has said it will declare liberation after Sirte’s capture because that will mean it holds all of the ports and harbours in the oil-rich Mediterranean coastal country.

Libya’s de facto leader, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, head of the governing National Transitional Council, said yesterday that anti-Gaddafi fighters have made huge gains in Sirte and Bani Walid, south-east of the capital.

“I do believe, God willing, that the liberation of these cities will happen within this week,” he told reporters in Tripoli.

He said that revolutionary forces in Sirte have punched their way into the city centre in fierce fighting and are now cleaning out pockets of resistance.

In Bani Walid, advancing fighters drove Gaddafi forces out of the airport, said Abdullah Kenshil, who led failed talks for the revolutionaries in search of a peaceful surrender of the city.

“The takeover of Bani Walid is imminent,” he said. “The fighters are only one kilometer from the heart of Bani Walid.”

He claimed that Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, was seen on Saturday distributing cash to his loyalists in Bani Walid.

“We are 100 per cent sure that he is inside,” Kenshil said.