Death toll climbs as anti-Qaddafi fighters inch forward in Sirte

At least 18 people were killed and nearly 300 wounded in two days of clashes as Libya’s new regime fighters struggled to take full control of Muammar Qaddafi’s hometown of Sirte, medics said on Saturday.

The push by National Transitional Council (NTC) fighters squeezed Qaddafi’s diehard loyalists into an ever tighter net in Sirte, correspondents on the ground said.

NTC chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil predicted “the battle for Sirte and Bani Walid will be very vicious,” referring to the two holdouts of Libya’s fallen leader.

Hassan Umran, in charge of the registry at a field hospital 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Sirte, said 17 people were killed and 230 wounded in the fighting on Friday alone.

One was killed and 58 wounded on Saturday, he said.

Forces from Libya’s interim regime scored a strategic goal on Saturday, seizing a four-lane avenue which opens the way to a final assault on a key base of Qaddafi’s troops.

But with thousands of civilians still trapped in the ex-leader’s hometown, NTC commanders said they were pacing their advance to evacuate some of those who had not fled and to avoid losses from friendly fire.

Attacking from the east, NTC fighters seized the road to the Ouagadougou conference centre, a key base of pro-Qaddafi fighters still holding out after days of heavy pounding by NTC tank, cannon and rocket fire and ground assaults.

The advancing forces reached within between 500 meters (yards) and one kilometer of the centre and the nearby university, as Qaddafi loyalists responded with sporadic mortar and small arms fire, a correspondent said.

Naji Mismari, an NTC commander, said several Qaddafi loyalists were killed but without giving a number. “Their corpses are still in the houses,” he said, adding that 17 trapped families were evacuated.

On the western front, fighting concentrated on the so-called 700-house complex where NTC forces fired RPGs and machineguns while Qaddafi loyalists used snipers and mortars.

After launching on Friday what they called a final assault on Sirte with a barrage of rocket and artillery fire, the NTC forces still faced stiff resistance by late Saturday.

With the NTC awaiting the capture of Sirte to declare the liberation of the whole of Libya, clearing the way to draw up a timetable for elections, its fighters resumed the assault earlier on Saturday after a sandstorm eased.

Earlier, NTC fighters overlooking the Ouagadougou centre said its concrete bunkers were proving tougher than they originally thought.

“It has been hit for days by tank guns and rockets, but it hasn’t budged. Its paint has hardly been scratched,” said one of them, armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

Late on Friday, NTC interim defense minister Jalal al-Digheily said the end of the conflict was near.

“We are very close to the end of the war and peace will be restored all over Libya,” he told reporters in Tripoli on the occasion of visits by the British and Italian defense ministers, Liam Fox and Ignazio La Russa.

“There are still some hot spots but they won’t resist very long,” he added of Sirte and Bani Walid, a desert oasis 170 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of the Libyan capital.

NATO said on Saturday that one “firing and vehicle staging point was engaged and destroyed in Sirte” on Friday.

British defense minister Liam Fox said in Tripoli said the alliance will keep up its military operations for as long as remnants of Qaddafi’s regime present a risk to the people.

“The message for those who are still fighting for Qaddafi is ‘the game is over,’ that they are rejected by the Libyan people,” Fox added.

As the battle for Sirte appeared to be nearing its end, the United Nations urged the NTC, which has ruled most of the oil-rich country since its forces overran Tripoli on August 23, to avoid revenge attacks.

“Libya’s revolution is based upon the demand for human rights and dignity,” U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon’s special representative, Ian Martin, said in a statement on Friday.

“I appeal to all to respect the calls made by the National Transitional Council that there should be no revenge even against those responsible for war crimes and other grave violations.”

Outside Bani Walid, an NTC commander told AFP on Friday that a new mediation attempt was under way with tribes there, but if it failed a fresh assault would be launched.

NTC commanders have said Qaddafi’s most prominent son, Seif al-Islam, is in Bani Walid and possibly Qaddafi himself as well.

Taking Sirte would bring Libya’s new rulers closer to their goal of establishing control of the entire country almost two months after they seized the capital Tripoli, but they are also under pressure to spare the civilians trapped inside.

The NTC forces have thrust Qaddafi loyalists back from defensive positions well outside Sirte, and are now contesting control of the centre of the Mediterranean coastal city in often-chaotic, street-by-street battles.

A prolonged struggle to capture the few remaining bastions of pro-Qaddafi loyalists has sidetracked NTC efforts to set up effective government over the sprawling North African country and rebuild oil production vital to its economy.

Sirte holds symbolic importance because Qaddafi turned it from a fishing village into a second capital. He built opulent villas, hotels and conference halls to house the international summits he liked to stage there.