RT @liberatelibya: RT@Worldloverpeace: #Libya fighters aim to take top #Gaddafi men alive . tinyurl.com/3njp7es #Libya #Sirte#Libia
Libya fighters aim to take top Kadhafi men Saturday, October 15, 2011 02:33:30 PM
SIRTE - Libyan fighters besieging the last pockets of resistance in Muammar Gaddafi's hometown Sirte are holding back because they want to capture top regime figures alive, a senior commander said on Saturday.
Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) fighters flash victory signs as they exit the battlefield in Sirte on October 14.
"The resistance from the two neighbourhoods is high because we believe there are four to five important people inside," eastern front operations chief Wesam bin Hamaibi said after a meeting of National Transitional Council commanders.
"We are sure that (Gaddafi's son and his national security chief) Mutassim and (ousted defence minister) Abu Bakr Yunis are inside," he said.
"We also believe that Seif al-Islam (another of Gaddafi's sons) and Gaddafi (himself) are possibly inside.
"We want to capture them alive to hand them over to the judiciary rather than killing them, which is why we are still not going to have a massive attack."
Gaddafi's diehard fighters are holed up in two residential districts of the northwest of the Mediterranean coastal city ��" the Dollar and Number Two neighbourhoods.
"The plan is to keep the neighbourhoods surrounded," Hamaibi said.
An AFP correspondent on the front line heard small-arms exchanges on Saturday, together with some rocket and rocket-propelled grenade fire, but not as intense as earlier this week.
