Libyan fighters raised the new government’s flag over the oasis of Bani Walid on Monday and hoped for the swift fall of the other remaining redoubt of Moamer Gaddafi loyalists, Sirte, as relatives of his henchmen fled. In the evening Gaddafi forces fired rockets and small arms at National Transitional Council fighters deployed on the eastern edge of two Sirte neighbourhoods as a NTC commander said he expected tense fighting Tuesday.
Bursts of celebratory machinegun fire filled the desert air over the centre of Bani Walid, as NTC troops feted their capture of the loyalist bastion after a six-week siege. “The city of Bani Walid has been completely liberated,” said Saif al-Lasi, a commander of the Zliten Brigade, one of the NTC units which took part in the final assault launched on Sunday. The overall commander of NTC forces in the city, Musa Yunis, said all resistance from loyalist forces had now ceased.
