@WORLDLOVERPEACEAisha
TRIPOLI, Libya -- Libyan fighters have completely surrounded Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte and are engaged in heavy clashes with his loyalists on the city's streets, a revolutionary commander said Saturday.
Last week, the Libyan defense ministry announced that Sirte's port, airport and military base were all under the revolutionary forces' control.
On Saturday, commander Musatafa al-Rubaie told The Associated Press that even though the fighters have surrounded Sirte from all sides, a path out has been left for civilians who still want to leave the coastal city. After weeks of fighting Gadhafi's loyalists inside Sirte, the fighters now hold positions about 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the city center, he said.
Al-Rubaie said fighters from the east seized control of Sirte's first residential district and a hotel where Gadhafi's snipers were based.
"There is heavy fighting going on in the streets of Sirte right now," he said. "The enemy is besieged from the south, east and west but it's still in possession of highly sophisticated weapons and a large amount of ammunition."
Al-Rubaie said Gadhafi forces were also in control of strategic positions inside the city, including high-rise buildings where snipers are positioned, making the revolutionary forces' advance slow and hard.
"The plan is that the eastern and western forces will meet in the middle of Sirte," al-Rubaie said. "When we reach this point, we will celebrate the liberation of Sirte."
On Saturday, residents continued to leave the embattled coastal city. A doctor at a frontline hospital said a family of four from Sirte was killed while driving out from the Gadhafi holdout toward the revolutionaries positions. It was unclear who killed them.
