Hundreds of Libyans Flee Gadhafi’s Hometown Sirte
Published: October 5, 2011 (Issue # 1677)
SIRTE, Libya — Libyan revolutionary forces fired rockets into the western half of Moammar Gadhafi’s hometown Tuesday even as hundreds of residents streamed out of the city to flee the fighting.
Anti-Gadhafi fighters launched their offensive against Sirte last month, but have faced fierce resistance from regime loyalists holed up inside. The battle for the city has become the focal point of efforts to rout die-hard supporters of Gadhafi, whose whereabouts remains unknown more than six weeks since Tripoli’s fall.
Nouri al-Naari, a doctor at a field hospital in a mosque on Sirte’s outskirts, said that two anti-Gadhafi fighters had been killed and 28 wounded in intense battles in Sirte on Monday.
Amid concerns about a humanitarian crisis, the International Committee of the Red Cross said its staff had crossed the front lines and delivered urgently needed oxygen and other medical supplies to the hospital in Sirte on Monday. They also evacuated a Dutch nurse who had been working there.
Aid workers also are providing food and other items for thousands of people who have fled Sirte.
Libya’s de facto Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said Monday that Sirte, some 400 kilometers southeast of Tripoli on the Mediterranean coast, must be seized before the transitional leadership can declare victory and set a timeline in motion for elections for a formal government. Fighting also continues in the town of Bani Walid and in pockets in the south, but Jibril said Sirte’s capture would mean the main entry ports to the country were secure.
He and the head of the National Transitional Council, which is governing the country, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil have pledged not to take part in any future government.
Revolutionary forces have seized Tripoli and much of the rest of the country, but they have been locked in a standoff over Sirte and Bani Walid for weeks. NATO also continues to hit the loyalist strongholds with airstrikes.
Tayib Oraibi, a field commander from Tripoli, said the main obstacle facing the fighters now in Sirte is the Ouagadougou conference center, which is the main base for Gadhafi loyalists inside the city.
On Monday, revolutionary forces said they had seized the village of Abu Hadi south of Sirte — a strategically important victory because it cuts off a key supply route for Gadhafi forces, according to Salah Mohammed, another field commander from the nearby city of Misrata.