Battle Under Way to Crush Last Gadhafi Holdout
Anti-Gadhafi fighters launched a fresh assault on Wednesday against the ousted strongman's remaining holdouts, now pinned into a small corner of his hometown Sirte, an Agence France Presse correspondent said.
The fighting was concentrated in the outer streets of Sirte's Number Two neighborhood, with both sides trading heavy gunfire and bombarding each other with mortar shells.
Ali al-Rikabi, field commander of the National Transitional Council (NTC), Libya's new rulers, said fighting was raging in "four or five streets of the neighborhood."
"It is intense and we have exchanges of gunfire," he said, as the AFP reporter saw wounded NTC fighters being hurried out towards a field hospital.
Medics said at least 11 NTC fighters were killed and 95 wounded on Tuesday alone in the battle to subdue the last pockets of support for Moammar Gadhafi in Sirte.
According to Essam Baghhar, a field commander of the NTC's Zintan Brigade, only Number Two neighborhood in the Mediterranean city was still being held by Gadhafi's forces after NTC fighters overran the adjoining Dollar district late on Tuesday.
"The Dollar neighborhood was liberated last night and now the fight is in Number Two neighborhood," Baghhar said.
He added that loyalist forces had been pushed into an area of Number Two neighborhood less than one square kilometer in size.
"We have captured many snipers in the past two days, including two women snipers," the commander said.
Murshed Haider, a doctor, said fighting had been raging since early Wednesday in Number Two district but added that while Dollar district had been mostly liberated, there was still some sporadic shooting about.
Among those killed on Tuesday was Mustafa bin Dardef, a popular field commander with the Zintan Brigade, who was hit by a mortar round.
Sirte, the very last bastion of Gadhafi support, is seen as strategic as the NTC has said it will not declare Libya fully freed of Gadhafi's 42-year autocratic rule until his hometown falls.
In the desert oasis of Bani Walid, the red, black and green flag of the new government was raised after the only other remaining holdout was liberated on Monday.
Gadhafi was toppled in August when NTC fighters overran his headquarters in the capital Tripoli. He has since gone into hiding, with some NTC officials believing he could be in Sirte, making a last stand. However, most believe he is hiding out in Libya's vast southern deserts.
Source: Agence France Presse
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