NTC Forces Regroup after Sirte Reverse

New regime forces in Libya were regrouping on Friday for a new bid to take full control of Moammar Gadhafi's hometown Sirte after a reverse at the hands of the fugitive strongman's remaining loyalists.

National Transitional Council (NTC) troops remained in the central police headquarters to which they retreated two kilometers on Thursday under heavy fire from Gadhafi forces, an Agence France Presse correspondent reported.

The loyalists, who are holed up in the Dollar and Number Two residential neighborhoods in northwest Sirte, have been putting up an unexpectedly dogged resistance that has scotched NTC hopes of a swift mopping-up operation.

"Yesterday evening, we used artillery cannon to shell the neighborhoods," said Nasser Moghassabi, a frontline field commander of the Martyrs of Free Libya Brigade.

"The situation today remains the same. We are still surrounding the two neighborhoods," he told AFP.

"In the morning, we have sent in a scouting team and very soon we will decide on the next plan of action."

The AFP correspondent said the bulk of NTC troops to the east of the two neighborhoods remained holed up in the police HQ.

"We still have to clean some rubbish that is left in the city. We are waiting for orders. Very soon the Sirte battle will be over, but the Libyan war will be over only with the capture of Gadhafi," fighter Abdul Salam Farjani said.

The AFP correspondent said three tanks were brought up and were preparing to shell and destroy a military command center seen as a symbol of Gadhafi's rule.