Libya's last battle may be its toughest, hilltop desert badlands of Bani Walid, natural defense
NORTH OF BANI WALID, Libya, Sept 25 (Reuters) - The hilltop desert badlands of Bani Walid could be where Muammar Gaddafi's supporters make their final stand. They could hardly have picked a better place.
With its severe geography exposing any attacker to raking gunfire, the town southeast of Tripoli was one of the last places to fall to Italian colonialist troops last century and has long been known as a refuge for defenders. Bani Walid was "built for last stands," said Geoff Porter, an independent U.S. expert on North African politics.
"Every country has a 'maquis' -- a back-country redoubt where fighters have hidden and held out over history," he said, using a term for the impenetrable highlands of Corsica which has given its name to countless guerrilla groups and their hideouts."Bani Walid is Libya's 'maquis'."
Interim government forces trying to wipe out the last bastions of Gaddafi support have had some success in redoubts in the deep Sahara desert, and even in Gaddafi's staunchly-defended home town of Sirte along the Mediterranean coast.But here, repeated attempts to storm Bani Walid town have been repulsed, leading to chaotic retreats and recriminations. The town is strung along the tops of a rang of hills, geography that compels attackers advancing from the north to traverse a gully, exposing them to withering gunfire. Contined...
