@RRowleyTucsonRobert Rowley
Libyan rebels battled for control of Sirte, the birthplace of Muammar Qaddafi and one of the last holdout cities, as the leaders of the U.K. and France pledged aid to the country’s new rulers during a visit to Tripoli.
Rebel forces withdrew to the outskirts of Sirte after a day of fighting, Al Jazeera television reported today, citing Yousif bin Yousif, a rebel commander. The Misrata Military Council said earlier its forces took control of the entrances to the city and units started searching the city for pro-Qaddafi officials.
The withdrawal is to “prepare for an invasion of the city in the next few hours,” bin Yousif told Al Jazeera. “It’s a military tactic.”
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy became the first foreign leaders to visit Tripoli since helping opposition forces oust Qaddafi last month. The leaders, who mobilized international backing for the rebels, said they would push at the United Nations Security Council today for the adoption of a resolution releasing more Libyan assets that were frozen under sanctions against Qaddafi.
“This is not finished, this is not done, this is not over; there are still parts of Libya under Qaddafi’s control,” Cameron told a joint news conference in the Libyan capital yesterday. “We will help you to find Qaddafi and bring him to justice.”
Leaders Cheered
Television pictures showed Cameron and Sarkozy being cheered as they visited a Tripoli hospital. The leaders later addressed a crowd on Freedom Square in Benghazi, Libya’s second city. Britain is unfreezing 600 million pounds ($950 million) of Libyan assets, Cameron’s spokesman, Steve Field, told reporters in London.
The Misrata council said earlier yesterday that Qaddafi loyalist forces were surrounded in an insurance building in Sirte’s city center.
Elements of the 32nd Brigade -- the special forces unit commanded by Qaddafi’s son Khamis and tasked in the past with protecting the former Libyan dictator -- were trapped in beachfront villas, it said. While Qaddafi’s whereabouts are unknown, there has been speculation that he could be with the Khamis brigade in Sirte.
The council said the Sirte attack was carried out with 900 technicals, the pickup trucks carrying machine guns or rocket launchers.
‘It’s Over’
“The message to Qaddafi and all those still holding arms on his behalf is that it’s over, give up, the mercenaries should go home,” Cameron said. “It’s time for him to give himself up. It’s time for the Libyan people to get the justice they deserve.”
“People have constantly underrated and underestimated the National Transitional Council; people said they couldn’t unite Libya, they were too tribal,” Cameron said, speaking alongside NTC Chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil and Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril. “It has been an impressive transformation. The roads are full, your water is flowing and your hospitals are working.”
Sarkozy said that airstrikes against pro-Qaddafi forces “will continue as long as Libyan leaders think Libyan people are in danger.”
The new leaders of Libya are seeking to build a country where there is a “rotation of power and the abandoning of terrorism,” Abdel Jalil said. “We aspire for freedom to prevail over all Libyan soil and for the arrest of Muammar Qaddafi alive and his trial.”
