Clashes in streets of Gaddafi’s hometown

LIBYAN fighters have surrounded Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte and were engaged in heavy clashes with his loyalists on the city’s streets yesterday, a revolutionary commander said.

Last week, the Libyan defence ministry announced that Sirte’s port, airport and military base were all under the revolutionary forces’ control.

Commander Mustafa al-Rubaie said 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 Gaddafi loyalists inside Sirte, the fighters now hold positions about three miles from the city centre, he said.

Al-Rubaie said fighters from the east seized control of a residential district and a hotel where Col Gaddafi’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 Col Gaddafi’s forces were also in control of strategic positions inside the city, including high-rise buildings where snipers were 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.”

Residents yesterday continued to leave the embattled city. A doctor at a front-line hospital said a family of four from Sirte was killed while driving out from the Gaddafi loyalist-held areas towards the revolutionaries’ positions. It was unclear who killed them.

Hundreds of cars full of Sirte residents formed long lines at revolutionary forces’ checkpoints leading out of the city.