- Joined
- Sep 5, 2008
- Messages
- 467
- Points
- 18
http://news.sky.com/home/article/16068051
Gaddafi stronghold under fire
7:42pm UK, Monday September 12, 2011
Anti-Gaddafi fighters have entered the Libyan town of Bani Walid, one of the former regime's last strongholds.
Rebel commanders say the resistance in Bani Walid is much stiffer than expected with an estimated 600 pro-Gaddafi fighters holed up in the residential areas of the city.
At least seven anti-Gaddafi fighters have been killed and several dozen injured in the latest phase of the assault that began late on Saturday.
Sky Correspondent Emma Hurd, who is one of the first foreign correspondents into Bani Walid, says they have entered the outskirts via the northern gate and appear to be taking the suburbs street by street.
A few miles outside the city, Nato jets can be heard overhead.
As pick-up trucks carrying fighters clutching semi-automatic weapons head towards the frontline, a few cars carrying families fleeing the city speed in the opposite direction along the desert road.
In one car with a wheelchair strapped to the roof, a disabled man was driving his wife, three young girls and two-week-old baby boy to safety.
"We could hear the rockets being fired all around us, we had to leave to be safe," he said.
Those escaping Bani Walid, a city of 100,000 people, say that food and fuel supplies are running short.
Large numbers of residents are reported to be trapped between the opposing forces as the anti-government fighters try to advance.
The pro-Gaddafi fighters still seem to be firing heavy weapons despite several days of Nato airstrikes.
There is speculation that they are protecting senior figures in the regime, including Saif al Islam, Col Gaddafi's son, who was seen in the city last week.
Libya's interim rulers, the National Transitional Council, believe that the battle for Bani Walid could be the last stand of the ousted Gaddafi regime.
They believe that victory there will convince other remaining regime strongholds, including the leader's hometown of Sirte, to surrender.
Gaddafi stronghold under fire
7:42pm UK, Monday September 12, 2011
Anti-Gaddafi fighters have entered the Libyan town of Bani Walid, one of the former regime's last strongholds.
Rebel commanders say the resistance in Bani Walid is much stiffer than expected with an estimated 600 pro-Gaddafi fighters holed up in the residential areas of the city.
At least seven anti-Gaddafi fighters have been killed and several dozen injured in the latest phase of the assault that began late on Saturday.
Sky Correspondent Emma Hurd, who is one of the first foreign correspondents into Bani Walid, says they have entered the outskirts via the northern gate and appear to be taking the suburbs street by street.
A few miles outside the city, Nato jets can be heard overhead.
As pick-up trucks carrying fighters clutching semi-automatic weapons head towards the frontline, a few cars carrying families fleeing the city speed in the opposite direction along the desert road.
In one car with a wheelchair strapped to the roof, a disabled man was driving his wife, three young girls and two-week-old baby boy to safety.
"We could hear the rockets being fired all around us, we had to leave to be safe," he said.
Those escaping Bani Walid, a city of 100,000 people, say that food and fuel supplies are running short.
Large numbers of residents are reported to be trapped between the opposing forces as the anti-government fighters try to advance.
The pro-Gaddafi fighters still seem to be firing heavy weapons despite several days of Nato airstrikes.
There is speculation that they are protecting senior figures in the regime, including Saif al Islam, Col Gaddafi's son, who was seen in the city last week.
Libya's interim rulers, the National Transitional Council, believe that the battle for Bani Walid could be the last stand of the ousted Gaddafi regime.
They believe that victory there will convince other remaining regime strongholds, including the leader's hometown of Sirte, to surrender.
