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Libya fighters search Tripoli for Gadhafi loyalists

15 October 2011 17:33 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Libya’s new leadership on Saturday pressed a campaign to clear the capital of armed Moamer Kadhafi loyalists after gunbattles killed three people in the first fighting to rock Tripoli since its capture in August, APA reports quoting AFP.

The head of Tripoli’s supreme military council, Abdelhakim Belhaj, pledged tough action against the pro-Kadhafi fighters and "sleeper cells" of the former regime, which he said would be targeted in the clean-up operation.

Pro-Kadhafi gunmen on Friday clashed with fighters loyal to the National Transitional Council (NTC) in Abu Salim, a district around 10 kilometres (six miles) south of the city centre known to harbour supporters of the fugitive strongman.

"The fighters are in the process of clearing the buildings in the area of Kadhafi loyalists," said Hamad, 40, an NTC soldier manning one of the checkpoints in the neighbourhood.

He said they had already found evidence that the Kadhafi loyalists had been preparing for the clashes, including sand bags and flak jackets on the roofs of apartment blocks.

Abdelrazaq al-Aradi, vice president of the security committee in Tripoli, said three people were killed in the clashes there -- two Kadhafi loyalists and one NTC fighter -- and another 30 people wounded.

Aradi told a news conference that around 50 armed Kadhafi supporters were behind the violence, 27 of whom, including four "African mercenaries," were arrested on Friday.

Abu Salim residents said the fighting broke out during pro-Kadhafi demonstrations after noon Muslim prayers, prompted by a call to rise from a pro-Kadhafi Libyan television presenter earlier in the week, broadcast on Iraqi TV channel Al-Rai.

The district, notorious for its prison where the Kadhafi regime held its opponents, was the last area of the capital to witness resistance after NTC forces stormed the veteran strongman’s sprawling and fortified Bab al-Aziziya headquarters on August 23.

Clashes were also reported in other parts of Tripoli, although a senior official in the military council claimed they were "very limited" in scope and had been swiftly brought under control.

The flare-up came as a setback to the new regime, which hopes to proclaim the country’s liberation within days, and prepare for the transition to an elected government, when Kadhafi’s hometown of Sirte is finally captured by NTC forces.

Libya’s new regime forces kept up pressure on the last two pockets of resistance in Sirte on Saturday with hundreds of men surrounding the Dollar and Number Two districts, an AFP correspondent said.

In intense machinegun fire, NTC fighters targeted buildings at the source of incoming sniper fire.

Fighters weaved their way in and out of alleys, as the chant of "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) played from a mosque in Number 2 district where they were seen chasing a pro-Kadhafi fighter.

The last two holdouts were hit by steady rocket fire, including Grads.

But NTC commanders decided after a meeting on Saturday to hold off on an all-out assault on the two neighbourhoods in a bid to capture the top regime figures they believe are holed up there alive, a senior commander said.

"The resistance from the two neighbourhoods is high because we believe there are four to five important people inside," eastern front operations chief Wesam bin Hamaibi said after the meeting.

"We are sure that (Kadhafi’s son and his national security chief) Mutassim and (ousted defence minister) Abu Bakr Yunis are inside," he said.

"We also believe that Seif al-Islam (another of Kadhafi’s sons) and Kadhafi (himself) are possibly inside.

"We want to capture them alive to hand them over to the judiciary rather than killing them, which is why we are still not going to have a massive attack."

Sirte is a key goal for the NTC, which has said it will not proclaim Libya’s liberation and begin preparing for the transition to an elected government until the city has fallen.

At NTC-held Ibn Sina hospital in Sirte, Barbara Frederick of the charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said around 500 injured people had been brought in from the city’s western front since a final assault was launched October 7.

Twenty-six patients remain and the others have been evacuated, said a doctor transferred from Tripoli with 20 colleagues, Abdelati Milad.

The hospital itself was filled with debris but at least two operating rooms were back in service. Outside, six unidentified corpses lay rotting in the sun under plastic sheeting.

Around 100 civilians, mostly families of medical staff, were camped inside the facility, some two kilometres (one mile) from the front line.

NATO said in its operational update Saturday that its aircraft had hit a military vehicle in Bani Walid, a desert oasis southeast of Tripoli that is the only other remaining bastion of Kadhafi loyalists.