@modernghanaliveModernGhana.Com
Fighters step up assault on Kadhafi town: SIRTE, Libya AFP - Forces of Libyas new regime were looking to step up... bit.ly/nAnYdl
A day after seizing Sirte's police headquarters, the National Transitional Council forces were still closing in from the east and west on ever smaller pockets of pro-Kadhafi forces.
Hundreds of them, massed in dozens of pickups, fired rockets from the west of the Mediterranean city whose seizure will enable the NTC to declare the liberation of Libya and clear the way for an election timetable.
An AFP correspondent said Sirte's main square and entire waterfront was under NTC control, along with its fortress-like conference centre, university campus and main hospital, which the fighters all seized on Sunday.
"All our lines are now in place; the area is completely surrounded," said NTC commander Zubayr Bakush.
Further to the east, a group of fighters threw petrol on a bill board of Kadhafi as others cheered and fired into the air and the cry of "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) blasted from a loudspeaker on a van.
"There are snipers in the buildings up there," fighter Basit Divas told AFP, pointing to a neighbourhood of pock-marked villas, before hundreds of NTC troops advanced on the area backed by a barrage of heavy weapons fire.
Within a few hours, the new regime forces had advanced another two kilometres (1.2 miles) and were only encountering small pockets of resistance, with most of the fire power going one direction only, at the Kadhafi loyalists.
NTC soldiers went house to house, clearing each one of them, and sometimes arresting prisoners.
In the kitchen of one large villa, there were half-finished cups of tea on a tray. Outside another, a man was on his knees in the courtyard, his hands tied behind his back, pleaded with his captors.
"This man had a gun, and two AK-47s. We think he may be from Kadhafi's operation room," said Ayub Basina, a man who identified himself as an NTC doctor.
The plight of stranded civilians raised the concerns of Human Rights Watch, which called on both sides Wednesday to minimise harm to them and to ensure that prisoners are treated humanely.
"Commanders on the ground in Sirte need to make sure that their forces protect civilians and allow them to flee the combat zone," said Fred Abrahams, special adviser at HRW.
"All prisoners should be treated humanely and transferred to the NTC authorities who can better ensure their safety," he said in a statement.
The New York-based watchdog said much of Sirte's population of around 100,000 has already fled, but that an unknown number of civilians remain in the city centre.
New regime fighters in Sirte were buoyed on Tuesday night by a two-hour visit from NTC chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil, and said he visited the one-time Kadhafi showpiece Ouagadougou conference centre.
Medics at a field hospital in western Sirte reported five killed and 42 wounded on Tuesday, while medics in the east reported 11 dead -- including six Kadhafi loyalists -- and 52 wounded.
The NTC forces had besieged Sirte from September 15 before launching on Friday what they termed a "final assault" that has seen nearly 80 of their number killed and hundreds wounded, according to medics.
NATO warplanes, backing the NTC, overflew Sirte early on Wednesday without firing, an AFP correspondent reported, as the alliance said in its latest update that it had struck six vehicles in Bani Walid.
Outside that oasis, 170 kilometres (105 miles) southeast of Tripoli, NTC fighters are also gearing for a renewed onslaught on the town, which is another remaining bastion of forces loyal to the ousted dictator. Continued...
