Al-Arabiya, Sirte and Bani Walid, 18 Sept 2011 – Libyan interim government fighters fired rockets from the southern entrance to Sirte on Sunday and exchanged heavy fire with Muammar Qaddafi loyalists holed up in a conference center.

“The situation is very, very dangerous,” Mohamed Abdullah, a rebel, told Reuters on the edge of the coastal city, where the ousted leader was born.

“There are so many snipers and all the types of weapons you can imagine,” he said, as rockets whooshed in the air and black smoke rose above the city, which is controlled by soldiers loyal to Qaddafi.
The rebels fired several mortars and tried to ambush revolutionary forces Sunday at the northern gate of the loyalist stronghold of Bani Walid, The Associated Press reported.

With their numbers stretched thin, the former rebels sent reinforcements, some who arrived with a tank that had been seized from the ousted regime.

Libya’s new rulers, meanwhile, pressed forward with efforts to assert authority over the country. The National Transitional Council (TNC) planned a press conference later Sunday to announce a new Cabinet lineup. That would show progress in forming a new government ahead of the U.N. General Assembly this week.
Sirte versus Bani Walid
While Sirte would be a major symbolic prize, Bani Walid has proven particularly difficult for revolutionary forces.

The loyalists hold the strategic high ground along the ridges overlooking a desert valley called Wadi Zeitoun that divides the town between northern and southern sections. The terrain has made the city a historical hold-out: In the early 20th century, Italian forces occupying Libya struggled to take Bani Walid.

On Sunday, Qaddafi forces blasted fighters at the northern entrance with mortar fire while the revolutionary forces returned fire with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Fighters also fired into the desert north of the gate where Qaddafi loyalists were believed to be trying to surround them ahead of an ambush.

Five mortar shells landed about 20 yards (meters) from a building where anti-Qaddafi fighters were resting, prompting them to run to a feed factory they have occupied. Black smoke filled the sky.

The standoff has been chipping away at the morale of fighters, who have been massed in the area for weeks and are stretched thin. While the northern gate was coming under attack, many sat on the sidelines drinking tea and using plastic bottles for target practice at the feed factory checkpoint.

The reinforcements from Tajoura, meanwhile, posed on a tank they said had been captured after revolutionary forces swept into Tripoli on Aug. 21. Fathi Mselati, 31, from the Tajoura brigade, said more captured tanks were on their way to the front.

The persistence of the former regime has raised fears of a protracted insurgency of the sort that has played out in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Muatassim Qaddafi
Hassan Dourai, Sirte representative in the new, interim government, said fighters reported seeing one of Qaddafi’s sons, Muatassim, shortly before the offensives began Friday, but he has not been spotted since the battles intensified. The whereabouts of Qaddafi and several of his sons remain unknown. Other family members have fled to neighboring Algeria and Niger.

On a third front in Libya’s southern desert, hundreds of revolutionary fighters were negotiating with villagers in the still pro-Qaddafi region to surrender peacefully. The fighters collected on a road near the Nahrouqa village on Sunday.

Col. Bashir Awidat has said they seek to secure the surrounding hinterlands before moving against Sabha, the main southern urban center about 400 miles (650 kilometers) south of Tripoli.