Fighters battled with former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s loyalists yesterday, as more volunteers poured in from the Libyan capital and other towns held by the former rebels to join what they expected to be the final battle for Bani Walid, one of the ousted leader’s last remaining strongholds.
The pro-Qaddafi forces fired Grad rockets and mortars, and snipers fired on the revolutionary fighters trying to force their way in Bani Walid, killing at least two, said Abdullah Kanshir, a negotiator with the former rebels. The commander of the assault, Daw Salaheen, called on the city’s residents to lay down their arms, saying anyone who does so will be “safe in our hands.”
After a weeklong standoff over a peaceful surrender of the town, the Libyan fighters on Friday launched a two-pronged assault on Bani Walid that soon dissolved into street fighting.
The fighters loyal to Libya’s new rulers yesterday pulled back from the Qaddafi loyalist stronghold, saying they expected NATO air strikes, but the Western military alliance denied it had told them to retreat.
“Field commanders have told us to retreat because NATO will be bombing soon,” fighter Abdul Mulla Mohamed said, driving away from the town in his pickup truck.
Several other fighters leaving the scene also said they expected a NATO strike. A Reuters reporter saw dozens of vehicles pulling back from the town.
Revolutionary forces had initially given tribal leaders and pro-Qaddafi loyalists in Bani Walid, Sirte, and Sabha, deep in Libya’s southern desert — the three key remaining Qaddafi bastions — until yesterday to surrender or face an offensive, but said they were drawn into fighting on Friday night after former regime fighters attacked with rockets.
Volunteers asking to join the battle said yesterday they were getting increasingly impatient with the standoff. Dozens crowded around a desk at a mosque in Wishtata, a hamlet about 40km from Bani Walid, to register their names, blood type and other information.
Abdel Wahab Milad, a 26-year-old teacher from the town of Gharyan, drove dozens of kilometers to the front in a pickup truck with six friends. Dressed in army fatigues, he said he signed up for battle because it was time to “get rid of Qaddafi once and for all.”
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