SIRTE: Plans by new regime forces in Libya to launch a fresh assault on Moammer Qaddafi’s hometown appeared to be on hold on Sunday on the orders of NATO which was blasting the city, fighters said.
A day after entering the coastal city in a surprise assault, NTC fighters pulled back on the Western side while east of Sirte others awaited their marching orders, AFP correspondents said.
On the political front, National Transitional Council Chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil said an interim government would be announced next week and that Qaddafi’s internationally "banned weapons" were now under NTC control.
"There is no fighting today, there is nobody inside the city," said frontline fighter Ahmed Mohammed Tajuri.
"We were ordered to leave downtown Sirte because NATO has a mission to do there. We left after 7 pm (1500 GMT) last night," he told AFP, as other fighters said plans to attack Sirte were postponed until Monday.
Speaking from the Western front, he said fighters were now deployed about one kilometer (less than a mile) from Sirte.
As he spoke NATO warplanes few overhead, an AFP correspondent said, adding that coalition forces had carried out "several strikes already this morning" on targets inside Sirte.
East of the city, NTC fighters cleaned and oiled Kalashnikov assault rifles and machine guns as dozens of pick-up trucks ferried other fighters to the eastern gate of the city.
"We have been told by our commanders to keep our guns ready. We expect fierce urban battle once we fully enter Sirte," fighter Maatiz Saad told AFP.
"Some artillery tanks and heavy machine guns have moved ahead inside through the eastern gate or are controlling the gate, but there will be a lot of street-to-street gunfights once we are inside the city centre."
On Saturday NTC fighters entered Sirte in what appeared to be a pincer movement from the south and the east.
"Our troops went seven kilometers inside through the eastern gate and there were sporadic to sometimes heavy clashes with Qaddafi’s forces," said commander Mohammed Al-Marimi of the Fakriddin Sallabi Brigade.
Misrata Military Council spokesman Abdel Ibrahim said seven NTC fighters were killed and 145 wounded in the fighting.
The fighters used tanks and pick-up trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns to clear away roadblocks set up by Qaddafi forces and drove towards Sirte city centre, erecting their own defenses in advanced positions.
On a beach road surrounded by craters and pock-marked buildings, a 106mm anti-tank cannon repeatedly pounded Qaddafi positions, backed by a barrage of mortar fire 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.
"There is also an advance from the south."
One Sirte resident who managed to flee early on Sunday said fighting subsided around 7 pm on Saturday.
"There are African mercenaries roaming across the city. They are firing at houses with anti-aircraft guns in district one" on the western edge of Sirte, he said by telephone, refusing to give his name for security reasons.
"I think they are taking revenge," added the man, stressing that almost 80 percent of Sirte’s current population is originally from Misrata further west, a bastion of the rebellion against Qaddafi.
The man, a computer sciences university lecturer, also said he twice saw over the past three weeks one of Qaddafi’s sons, Mutassim, once inside a command centre in a hospital basement.
Front line fighters in Sirte have repeatedly said Mutassim is holed up in the city’s southern outskirts.
Saturday’s assault came after reports of a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in the city of around 75,000 inhabitants.
NATO forces struck at Qaddafi 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-Qaddafi bastion. Medics reported a total of 30 NTC troops killed so far there.
A pro-Qaddafi radio station called for a gathering at one of Bani Walid’s squares, after a similar call from Qaddafi’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 after haggling over portfolios prevented a deal last week.
"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.
He added that the new authorities had control over internationally "banned weapons" from Qaddafi’s regime and would seek help to get rid of them safely.
