20111016
Reuters
SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan government forces launched their largest assault yet on Muammar Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte on Friday, firing heavy artillery at the last major bastion of support for the deposed leader.

Taking the coastal town would be an important step for Libya's new rulers. It would bring them closer to finally gaining control of the whole country almost two months after their fighters seized the capital Tripoli.

Forces loyal to the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) are under pressure to make swift progress on the battlefield but heavy resistance by Gaddafi loyalists has prevented them from taking the city for weeks.

Columns of black smoke rose above Sirte's skyline as NTC forces fired tank shells and rounds of artillery toward the city centre from their positions to the east of Sirte.

Thousands of civilians have fled Sirte as fighting has intensified, describing increasingly desperate conditions for those inside the city. Many were caught off guard by Friday's assault and fled in panic as explosions boomed around the city.

"There are strong strikes in all directions. Today we will finish it. God willing, today we will capture Sirte," said Colonel Ahmed El-Obeidi, an NTC commander.

NTC trucks with ammunition and artillery batteries were brought forward to the eastern front line, 1.2 km (0.8 miles) from the city centre.

Along with the desert town of Bani Walid, Sirte is one of the last strongholds still controlled by Gaddafi loyalists.

Doctors at a field hospital east of Sirte said they heard a huge explosion inside the city after midnight. Colonel Obeidi said the explosion occurred after his forces hit a weapons storage facility belonging to Gaddafi supporters.

Gaddafi loyalists who pulled back to Sirte after losing control of other cities are putting up fierce resistance.

They have been mainly using sniper fire and rocket-propelled grenades to prevent NTC forces from entering the city centre. The prolonged fighting has raised concerns about civilians in the coastal city of 75,000 people.

At a field hospital several kilometres west of Sirte dozens of ambulances brought in at least 50 fighters and civilians wounded in the fighting. Most were seriously wounded.

Medical workers tried to save an unresponsive woman. A child with a wounded leg sat on the floor. A helicopter landed near the hospital to carry some of the wounded to hospitals in Misrata, which lies west of Sirte.

A Reuters team driving from the south of Sirte toward the front line had to pull back after coming under sniper fire.

NTC commander Mustafa Al-Ameen, standing on a hill on the eastern outskirts overlooking the city, said sniper fire remained the main challenge for government forces.

"The forces that went in managed to advance into Sirte but we couldn't go further because of sniper fire," he said.

ROTTING CORPSES

At a checkpoint near the field hospital, NTC fighters checked dozens of cars carrying families fleeing Sirte.

"We didn't know there was going to be an assault," said Saeed Ramadan, whose vehicle had shrapnel holes and a broken window. "I couldn't sleep last night, there was very heavy shelling. I was afraid for my kids and had to get them out."

A 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."

Medical workers who fled Sirte said patients at the Ibn Sina hospital were dying on the operating table because there was no oxygen and no fuel for the hospital's generators.

Hassan Briek, another fleeing resident, said fewer than half of Sirte's residents remained in the city and most had moved to three neighbourhoods where there had been less fighting.

"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."

Artillery batteries positioned outside a hotel on the coast in the east of Sirte fired intermittent salvoes into the city.

Inside the hotel, a smiling government fighter carried away a statue of Gaddafi sitting on a camel that had been placed in the reception.

Gaddafi and several of his sons are still at large more than seven weeks after rebel fighters stormed the capital and ended his 42-year rule.

De facto Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said on Thursday that Gaddafi was hiding in southern Libya under the protection of tribes, crossing occasionally into Niger, and government forces expected to pinpoint his whereabouts soon.

An audio recording of Gaddafi obtained by Reuters on Thursday from Syria-based Arrai television was the first sign of life from him since September 20, when the same station last aired a speech by him.

"If the power of (international) fleets give legitimacy, then let the rulers in the Third World be ready," Gaddafi said in an apparent reference to NATO's support for NTC forces.

"To those who recognize this council, be ready for the creation of transitional councils imposed by the power of fleets to replace you one by one from now on."