Anti-Gaddafi troops meet fierce resistance in major assault on Sirte

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Parent Category: Africa and The World

Category: The World

Created on Friday, 07 October 2011 00:00

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Intense sniper fire by Gaddafi's men defending his home city exacts a bloody price on NTC troops

Peter Beaumont in Sirte

Libyan government forces have launched their biggest and most sustained attack on the coastal city of Sirte in what has been described as the long-awaited final assault on its pro-Gaddafi defenders.

Following a sustained barrage early morning by scores of tanks, rocket trucks and anti-aircraft guns, columns of revolutionary fighters poured into the city from the east and west. Despite the scale of the attack, pro-Gaddafi forces continued to put up fierce resistance.

Forces loyal to the ruling National Transitional Council are under pressure to make swift progress on the battlefield, but for weeks heavy resistance by Gaddafi loyalists has prevented them from taking the city. "This is it," said one fighter waiting to enter the city. "It's day zero."

By 10am, columns of smoke were visible across Sirte, Gaddafi's home town where his supporters fled after the fall of Tripoli. Near the Ougadougou conference centre, they have fought off several attempts to capture the compound. Several black-painted T-55 tanks advanced to shell the complex – but failed to break through the defences.

Ahmed Saed, a commander from Misrata, explained the slow progress. "The Gaddafi forces are in buildings behind the conference centre that have reinforced concrete walls with loops for sniping," he said.

Further forward, troops were pinned down by a wall opposite the complex in their vehicles. "They are in that row of buildings behind," said Ahmad Shah, pointing to a large pink house. "That's where the snipers are. We are finding it difficult to move forward. Perhaps we need another plan."

As the fighting began, dozens of ambulances ferried the wounded and dead towards a field hospital outside the city. By mid afternoon, at least 50 fighters and civilians arrived. They had been wounded in the fighting, most of them seriously.

On the eastern side of Sirte, in a seafront neighbourhood of apartment blocks in the Emirates neighbourhood close to a luxury hotel occupied by revolutionary fighters, the Guardian witnessed fierce street-to-street fighting as government troops attempted to move closer towards the city centre.

Among those fighting in the east of the city was Matthew VanDyke, an American videographer turned revolutionary fighter who spent six months in solitary confinement in a Gaddafi prison after being captured earlier in the war.

"The day before yesterday, they turned everything on us," he said. "Today, we've had oncoming anti-aircraft fire towards the hotel. It's urban. It's very tough. It's street-to-street fighting that's going slowly."

At the luxury hotel, Faraj Adel was separated from his fellow fighters and lost his weapon during a counterattack. "We had three units inside," he said. "I was fighting in the Mauritanian area. Then I was on my own and lost my weapon. I was being shot at by snipers. We lost two in my katiba [unit] today. One shot in the neck and another in the leg. We are trying to go from house to house. Often it is hit and run."

Further forward, amid the pink apartment buildings of the Emirates area, several hundred fighters were trying to move out towards a tower flying the green flag of the Gaddafi forces. Their heavy-calibre weapons were trading fire on the street corners with hidden snipers. The streets were littered with hundreds of spent cartridges, the abandoned apartment blocks pocked with bullet holes.

Wearing a black denim hat, Ahmed Ankaza, a 23-year-old oil worker, said: "At the moment we are seeing a lot of RPG fire from the other side. We could go in and take this city in a moment but that would end up with a lot of civilian deaths.We have to do it this way."

As he spoke, a middle aged man appeared with his weapon to show his ID, accompanied by a younger man. "He says he is here with his sons Walid and Mohammed," says Ahmed. "He was a policeman then now he is a fighter.

"See these people," adds Faraj, pointing to another group. "They're from Tripoli. Tajoura and other places. It shows all Libya is united."

At a checkpoint near the field hospital, government fighters checked dozens of cars carrying families fleeing Sirte. "We didn't know there was going to be an assault," Saeed Ramadan, whose vehicle had shrapnel holes and a broken window, told Reuters. "I couldn't sleep last night: there was very heavy shelling. I was afraid for my kids and had to get them out."

Another Sirte resident who gave his name as Abdel Nasser said: "Last night there was heavy, random firing and shelling. We had a hundred narrow escapes. Conditions are tragic. You can smell the rotting corpses at the hospital."

Hassan Briek, another fleeing resident, said fewer than half of Sirte's populace remained in the city and most had moved to three safer neighbourhoods.

"There are lots of families in those districts of the city," Briek said. "No one knew there was going to be an assault today. No one is sleeping. Food isn't the problem – it's the shelling."


Source: The Guardian UK, 07 September 2011