National Transitional
Council (NTC) chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil said an interim government would be
announced next week and that the new authorities had control over Kadhafi's
internationally "banned weapons".
Misrata military
council spokesman Abdel Ibrahim said seven NTC fighters were killed and 145
injured in what appeared to have been a pincer movement launched from the south
and east.
Using tanks and
pick-up trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns, the NTC forces cleared away
roadblocks set up by Kadhafi forces and drove toward the city centre before putting
up their own defences in advanced positions.
On a beach road
surrounded by craters and pock-marked buildings, a 106mm anti-tank cannon
repeatedly pounded Kadhafi positions, backed by a barrage of mortars and
multiple rocket-launchers.
"We are pushing them
back" after a "surprise" order to attack issued by the NTC's
military top brass, commander Mohammed al-Aswawi said in a radio truck
monitoring units on the front.
"First we get the
families out, and then the order is to attack and free Sirte," he told
AFP.
"There is also an
advance from the south," he added, as the Misrata Military Council said
that front was being reinforced by NTC fighters who had taken part in "the
liberation of Al-Jafra."
Frontline fighters in
Sirte are convinced that one of Kadhafi's sons, Mutassim, is holed up in the
city's southern outskirts.
"Mutassim is in
there. We hear him on the radio giving orders," NTC operations commander
Osama Muttawa Swehly told AFP on Saturday.
As the battle raged
into the evening, another commander, Hassan Tarhar Zaluk, said NTC forces would
have to resume the fight for Sirte on Sunday.
"We're going to
stop for the evening. There's no light in there. We'll start again
tomorrow," he said.
NTC fighters also came
under heavy fire as they advanced inside Sirte's eastern gates, another AFP
correspondent reported.
"Our troops went
seven kilometres inside through the eastern gate and there were sporadic to
sometimes heavy clashes with Kadhafi's forces," said commander Mohammed
al-Marimi of the Fakriddin Sallabi Brigade.
The assault was
launched after reports of a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in the
city of around 75,000 inhabitants.
NATO forces struck at
Kadhafi forces after reports they had moved against civilians there,
endangering "hundreds of families", a statement from the alliance
said.
"Among the
reports emerging from Sirte are executions, hostage-taking, and the calculated
targeting of individuals, families, and communities within the city," it
added.
Heavy fighting also
raged in Bani Walid, the only other remaining pro-Kadhafi bastion. Medics
reported a total of 30 NTC troops killed so far on that front.
A pro-Kadhafi radio
station called for a gathering at one of Bani Walid's squares, after a similar
call from Kadhafi's most prominent son, Seif al-Islam, for people to rise up
for the town's "liberation".
On the political
front, the NTC held talks on forming a new government amid doubts over whether
disagreements that prevented a deal last week could be immediately overcome.
"Differences in
views" between members of the NTC and the executive council had delayed a
deal, Abdel Jalil told reporters, but the composition of the interim government
would be announced in the coming week.
That had been due to
be set up last Sunday, but was postponed indefinitely because of haggling over
portfolios.
Abdel Jalil said the
new authorities had control over internationally "banned weapons"
from Kadhafi's regime, when asked about the presence of such weapons in the
south.
The International
Atomic Energy Agency on Friday confirmed the existence of raw uranium stored in
drums at the southern city of Sabha.
"These weapons
are between Waddan and Sabha," said Abdel Jalil, referring to the other
central town.
"We will call for
Libyan technicians and the international community to get rid of these weapons
safely," he said.
While Libya's new
authorities do not know where Kadhafi is, they are focusing on taking Sirte and
Bani Walid, two places where some think he might be. Reports have also emerged
that he may be in the south.
"General Belgasem
al-Abaaj, who we captured on Monday, said that Kadhafi had contacted him by
phone about 10 days ago, and that he was moving secretly between (the oases of)
Sabha and Ghat," an NTC commander, Mohammed Barka Wardugu, told AFP.
Abaaj had said Kadhafi
"is helped by Nigerian and Chadian mercenaries who know the desert
routes," added Wardugu, spokesman for the Desert Shield Brigade.
Friday's statement
from Kadhafi's daughter Aisha that said her father was well and fighting on the
ground -- and denouncing the new administration in Libya as traitors -- got a
sharp reaction from the Algerian authorities.
Algerian Foreign
Minister Mourad Mdeleci described her comments as "unacceptable", the
country's APS agency reported. Her telephone message was broadcast by
Syria-based Arrai television.
Algeria received Aisha
Kadhafi, her mother and other members of their family when they fled Libya in
August.
Algeria, which after
criticism from the NTC in Libya defended its decision to receive the Kadhafis
on humanitarian grounds, on Friday said it was willing to work with the new
administration.
In New York, NTC prime
minister Mahmoud Jibril told the United Nations General Assembly that a new
Libya was coming to life.
But he added:
"The asset freeze on our funds must be lifted as urgently as
possible."
source:France 24
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