Fighting raged for Moamer Gaddafi’s birthplace on Monday as Libya’s new leaders eyed a symbolic victory in their battle to eradicate the last vestiges of his 42-year rule. Commanders of the advancing National Transitional Council troops said they now controlled most of Qasr Abu Hadi, the small town where Gaddafi was born in a nomad tent in 1942 when it was still a tiny desert hamlet.
It was the latest in a string of loyalist communities to be mopped up by NTC troops as they close in on the toppled despot’s diehard fighters in the centre of the coastal city of Sirte, 20 kilometres (12 miles) to the north.
An international Red Cross team attempted to deliver desperately needed medical supplies to hospitals in the city centre but was forced to turn back when intense exchanges of fire erupted on the front line to the west.
“Seventy-five percent of Qadr Abu Hadi is under our control,” NTC field commander Mufbah Raslan told AFP.
“We have had three days of intense fighting. They have been attacking us with Grad rockets, machineguns and sniper fire,” he said.
Operations commander Osama Swehli Muttawa said NTC forces had seized the military garrison but were still facing resistance on the outskirts.
“We are clearing Qasr Abu Hadi,” Muttawa said. “We took the Saadi Brigade headquarters but they are in the wadi (seasonal river valley) and in the fields.” Qasr Abu Hadi prospered under the rule of its most famous son and the surrounding countryside is dotted with large villas in gated compounds.
Most were empty, their occupants fled. But some housed large numbers of families huddled together for safety amid evident fear of retribution from the victorious NTC troops. Most residents refused to speak to AFP and those that did were clearly afraid. “We are caught in the crossfire. Gaddafi’s men hide in our farms and rebels fire shells from the other side,” one man told AFP, declining to give his name.
“Two days ago, five members of a family in a house next to mine were killed when a rocket struck it. We don’t know who fired that rocket,” said the man, dressed in a traditional dishdasha.
He said he had 30 families hiding in his large villa but would not allow AFP in. “They all are scared. There are many children too with them and they have no milk or food. I only have bread and tea to offer to them.”
Asked why they did not move to a safer place, he stated: “How do I do that? I don’t know anybody. I don’t know these rebels either.”
NTC fighters said some of the villas had been used as arms caches by Gaddafi loyalists.
An AFP correspondent saw one group of fighters firing excitedly in the air as they carried off dozens of boxes of guns and rocket launchers from one villa.
