Libyan rebels enter Gaddafi stronghold

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Source: The Guardian

Anti-Gaddafi forces have finally entered Bani Walid, one of the four remaining Gaddafi strongholds, returning to their positions outside the town with their first batch of prisoners.

The anti-Gaddafi forces had hoped to capture the town on Friday but met fierce resistance from up to 600 fighters, sustaining rocket and grenade attacks. At the same time, Reuters reported the sound of at least five Nato airstrikes near the town.

After a week long stand-off over demands for a peaceful surrender of the town, rebels launched their assault on the town and had hoped to capture it on Friday.

On Saturday, more volunteers poured in from the Libyan capital and other towns to join what they expected to be the final battle for the town, one of the ousted leader's last remaining strongholds.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/10/libyan-rebels-under-attack-gaddafi-stronghold

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1. Gaddafi's diehard secret police dig in as Nato jets blast desert stronghold

Nato launched air strikes against Bani Walid, one of the last remaining Libyan towns still held by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi. Loyalists were mounting fierce resistance, fuelling speculation about which regime figures were hiding in the desert bastion.

Rebel commanders believe several hundred fanatical fighters are trapped in the town, a maze of hills and fortified positions 90 miles south-east of the capital, Tripoli. Street-to-street fighting raged and loyalists were accused of firing Grad rockets from civilian homes.

Air strikes hammered fortified positions near the town centre, including buildings thought to shelter Scud missiles that have already been launched against rebel-held Misrata.

Overnight fighting saw eight prisoners, one of them a brigadier, captured by rebel patrols, and one unit of Misrata's Halbus brigade, thought to be operating with forward air controllers of the SAS, is now six miles from the town centre.

full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/10/gaddafi-beni-walid-rebels-nato