Street fighting rages in Tripoli as Gaddafi loyalists fight rearguard action

Parts of the Libyan capital hold out in last attempt to stop rebels tightening their grip on the city Fierce street battles are continuing to rage in parts of Tripoli after Muammar Gaddafi vowed to fight to the death and his supporters fought a rearguard campaign with snipers, mortars and rockets in a last attempt to stop rebel forces consolidating their grip on the Libyan capital. A day after the rebels had celebrated their capture of the regime’s stronghold at Bab al-Aziziya, the compound came under heavy fire from the pro-Gaddafi area of Abu Salim and extensive woods around the city zoo, which rebels said were “infested” with snipers. Green flags, the symbol of the ousted regime, and pro-Gaddafi gunmen could still be seen in front of a large building on the edge of the woods once used by Saif al-Islam, one of Gaddafi’s son and the presumed heir to his reign, to receive guests. Gaddafi loyalists, who the rebels said were mostly Arab mercenaries, also fired on the main road leading to Tripoli airport. Rebels said 400 people had been killed and 2,000 injured in the battle for Tripoli so far. Meanwhile, rebel columns closed in on the coastal city of Sirte, Gaddafi’s birthplace, where loyalist troops were continuing to fire Scud missiles at the rebel-held town of Misrata. It was unclear whether the fighting represented a desperate last stand by regime’s supporters or the start of a guerrilla campaign by a “stay-behind” force, modelled on the tactics Saddam Hussein and his top lieutenants used in Iraq in 2003. A pro-Gaddafi radio station broadcasted statements by the deposed leader claiming he had “discreetly” toured the capital and “did not feel that Tripoli was in danger”. He reportedly said the retreat from his citadel at Bab al-Aziziya had been a “tactical move” and vowed to fight to the death, calling on his supporters to “cleanse” Tripoli of “devils and traitors”. In London, the foreign secretary, William Hague, repeated his assertion that the continued fighting represented “the death throes” of the regime. “I think it is time now for Colonel Gaddafi to stop issuing delusional statements and to recognise what has happened, that control of the country is not going to return,” he said in a statement. “He should be telling his dwindling and remaining forces now to stand down.” Rebel fighters continued a manhunt for the fugitive despot, reportedly involving a search of an extensive tunnel network beneath Bab al-Aziziya, but without any sign of success. Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the head of the opposition National Transitional Council (NTC), announced a reward for Gaddafi’s capture of 2m Libyan dinars (£790,000), funded by a businessman in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, and an amnesty for past crimes for anyone in his entourage who killed or detained him. Rebel fighters attempted to move into the Abu Salim neighbourhood but were kept at bay by heavy sniper and mortar fire from the woods and from high buildings in the district. In the midst of the fighting, about 35 journalists and diplomats were freed yesterday from the Rixos Hotel, on the edge of Abu Salim, where they had been held for five days by pro-Gaddafi gunmen. Their release was negotiated by the International Committee of the Red Cross, who ferried the journalists to another hotel elsewhere in the city. As skirmishes continued in Tripoli, more details emerged on the operation to take control the city, codenamed Mermaid Dawn. According to a rebel military spokesman, quoted by the Associated Press, men from Tripoli who supported the revolution slipped out of the capital three months ago for training in Benghazi. Once trained, they reinfiltrated the city either by sea, posing as fishermen, or through the western mountains. “They went back to Tripoli and waited; they became sleeper cells,” said the military spokesman Fadlallah Haroun, who helped organise the operation. He said that when the signal for the operation was given, on 21 August, about 150 men rose up from inside Tripoli, blocking streets and pinning down Gaddafi units within the city. Meanwhile, the commander of the battalion charged with defending the entrance to the city, Mohammed Eshkal, was said by another NTC official to have agreed not to put up resistance, because Gaddafi had ordered the death of his cousin 20 years ago. A US official was quoted as confirming reports that Qatari special forces had helped spearhead the rebel storming of Bab al-Aziziyah, and that British, French and Italian advisers had also played a supporting role. In Paris the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, promised the NTC prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, that French troops would continue to support the rebels as long as pro-Gaddafi forces continued to resist. An international conference in the French capital on September 1, co-ordinated by the British and French governments, would meanwhile mark the transition from military to civilian support for the Libyan revolution. NTC leaders had been expected to arrive in Tripoli on Wednesday to help bolster the council’s legitimacy as an interim government, but it was not clear whether they had arrived or had put off their trip because of security concerns. Some NTC officials were involved in talks yesterday in Doha with diplomats from a contact group of major powers, aimed at arranging short-term finance for the incoming government. Meanwhile, at the United Nations headquarters in New York, US, British and French diplomats were drafting a security council resolution ordering the unblocking of $1.5bn (£0.9bn) in Libyan funds that were frozen in western bank accounts at the beginning of the war. Around the world, Libyan embassies that had not hitherto changed sides, including Tokyo and Addis Ababa, replaced the Gaddafi green flag with the tricolour used by the NTC. In London, NTC officials, who already had control of the embassy, laid a doormat bearing Gaddafi’s image at the entrance so that visitors would trample on his likeness. Libya Muammar Gaddafi Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Africa William Hague Nicolas Sarkozy Martin Chulov Luke Harding Julian Borger guardian.co.uk

Posted by on August 24, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.