@FromJoanneJoanne ♌ Leo
FIERCE fighting continues tonight but Revolutionary forces swept several hundred yards further into #Sirte goo.gl/YCzhK #Libya
Libya: rebel fighters push on as final battle for Sirte looms
Revolutionary forces swept several hundred yards further into Col Muammar Gaddafi's birthplace of Sirte, but remain unable to secure a final victory as fierce fighting continued on Monday night.
5:59PM BST 10 Oct 2011
3 CommentsAround four hundred yards north of the landmark Ouagadougou convention centre which was captured on Sunday, a brigade of fighters from Misurata became pinned down in street fighting between more densely built town houses.
At least three significant residential neighbourhoods remained to clear they said.
To the west a television and radio station occupied by fighters loyal to Col Gaddafi changed hands at least once during the day.
The Daily Telegraph witnessed one failed assault on the station.
After being pushed out of the compound at around midday, the revolutionary fighters from Misurata regrouped and began to pound it with heavy mortars.
Spotters perched behind the rooftop balustrade of a well-appointed house to direct the fire of their colleagues towards the compound and its huge satellite dishes.
Rebels lounging below said the house had belonged to a senior officer in Col Gaddafi's security forces called Naqib Ramadan Nasr.
While rifling through his drawers for souvenirs, they found a portrait of the owner posing next to the ousted Libyan dictator. Another photo showed one of Col Gaddafi's sons, Khamis, uniformed but in a religious pose, ascending into the clouds.
After firing mortars for around an hour, the rebels drove up anti-aircraft guns on pickup trucks and launched a cacophonous barrage at the television centre and a nearby building where marksmen were thought to be hiding.
They pushed up a few hundred yards, but retreated, running low as bullets fizzed over their position and rocket propelled grenades burst above.
Revolutionary commanders said it was unclear how many loyalist fighters were resisting them, with estimates varying from 400 to 2,000.
Cut off and with no supply lines, they appeared to have run short of ammunition for their heavy weapons.
A convoy of deserters passing alongside the Ouagadougou centre under revolutionary guard were huddled in two cars, with some sitting in the boot. All appeared gaunt and sullen.
Civilian patients had all been removed from the civilian hospital by Monday morning, but on the ground floor corridors remained around 30 young wounded men, apparently abandoned by medical staff.
Mohammad Asrek Ali, a young man from Sudan, said he had been wounded in the stomach 50 days earlier by an accidental shot.
"I just came here for money, I just came here to be a labourer," he said.
Revolutionary fighters in the hospital said his wounds were far more recent and that all those that remained were wounded loyalists.
