Reply #60: Libyan government fighters move on besieged towns [View All]

[pinboy3niner]

(WRAPUP 4)

Fri Sep 16, 2011 11:40am GMT


• Interim govt fighters push into besieged towns

• Turkish leader in Tripoli, staking claim

• NATO rebuffs Gaddafi aide's claims of civilian deaths


By Maria Golovnina and Alexander Dziadosz


BANI WALID/SIRTE, Libya, Sept 16 (Reuters) - The forces of Libya's new leaders attacked two besieged towns on Friday, storming into Bani Walid and pushing forward at Sirte, as they tried to finish off resistance from diehard supporters of Muammar Gaddafi.

At Bani Walid, a bastion of tribal loyalists in the desert 180 km (110 miles) southeast of Tripoli, a Reuters correspondent watched anti-Gaddafi fighters move forward under mortar, rocket and sniper fire, advancing from house to house and sheltering behind walls as shrapnel and bullets flew.

Though the forces of the National Transitional Council (NTC) said they took a key valley leading to the centre, the defence remained ferocious after a two-week siege of the town where senior figures in the old government may have taken refuge.

On the outskirts of Sirte, Gaddafi's birthplace on the Mediterranean coast, another Reuters correspondent watched scores of trucks mounted with heavy machineguns, as well as four tanks, advancing on the sprawling seaside city.

Explosions, rapid gunfire and the scream of heavy rockets came from the centre of the city as black clouds of smoke curled into the sky above. NATO planes roared overhead.

...


Much more detail at link:
http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7KF3X220110916?sp=true