Gaddafi loyalists have been forced back into two small pockets of Sirte as revolutionary forces pounded the buildings where they were making a last desperate stand.
Libyan revolutionary fighters detain a suspected loyalist in downtown Sirte Photo: AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky
By Ben Farmer, Ruth Sherlock in Sirte
7:53PM BST 12 Oct 2011
7 Comments
By nightfall some rebel brigades had begun to gather in the city's Green Square and prematurely celebrated the fall of the coastal birthplace of Col Muammar Gaddafi.
However further west, loyalists were still fighting in the area estimated to be 1,000 yards by 500 yards, close to the seafront, against an onslaught which has already devastated large sections of the city.
With Sirte clear of loyalist forces apart from the pocket inside a neighbourhood known as "district two", the revolutionary forces were able to mass overwhelming firepower on the area.
Revolutionary brigades fought through knee-deep water from burst water mains and shielded their advance with volleys of anti-aircraft fire into any building which they suspected may be sheltering soldiers loyal to Gaddafi.
Tanks and rockets joined the barrage, blasting chunks of masonry from the buildings before fighters ran forward on foot. Few buildings were unscarred and many appeared ripped open beyond repair.
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"Most of the buildings have been destroyed already," said Ahmed al-Zawi, a fighter from Tripoli who had been an oil drilling engineer before the uprising.
"We have to do it as we advance. We don't know where the snipers are." Sirte, the Gaddafi's birthplace and stronghold of his tribe, was showered with money and flourished during his rule, while cities considered disloyal were starved of resources.
Fighters loyal to the interim government have denied the onslaught on Sirte is revenge for earlier crackdowns in other cities by the former regime.
There was unease at the scale of the devastation among those from the city who had joined the rebels though.
"We are paying the price of having been in Gaddafi's favour," said one rebel fighter who declined to be named.
"If we don't stop shelling like this, in three days Sirte will just be a flattened into the desert."
Another added tearfully: "If we had known what they would do to our houses, maybe we would have stayed with Gaddafi."
As the front advanced, reporters were shown evidence of the execution of captured revolutionary fighters by retreating loyalists. The several-days-old bodies of thirty males, some just boys, bound and shot, were found across three locations.
Areas of the city which had been liberated were deserted apart from occasional looters.
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Showing 7 comments
chilli
16 minutes ago
How is the systematic murder of Sirte's inhabitants by Camoron's Muslim Brotherhood any different to the alleged threat to Bengazzi civilians which Camoron used to justify going to war?
Well, I guess Camoron's murder of civilians is real while Gadaffi's was only his normal rhetorical BS. Well done Dave: You're right up there with your hero Blair and the other war criminals. Recommended by 0 person
rigaud
50 minutes ago
The Quadaffi trolls are out in force today.
______ lordthanos
46 minutes ago
why are we 'trolls' because we have an alternative view ...this is exactly the narrow minded, one-sideness I'd expect from people who support this outrage ...it's nothing to do with Gaddafi - it's to do with the sinister and hypocritical motives of the West
1776liberty
56 minutes ago
Take NATO bombing away and these buffoons Rebels couldn't tie their own shoes. The Libyan native people are not giving up as NATO the ported yesterday. As soon as the murderous bombing is done green flags will fly over every city and the libyan people will be free from the Lies of the West and it propaganda machine main stream media. Libya will be Afghanistan on crack and we all know how easy it was to over though the Taliban RIGHT...
lordthanos Today 09:06 PM
"some just boys"
...so now, we the British Taxpayer are supporting those who would have children fight battles precipitated by the madness of men bent on distruction and commercial gain ...appalling
ram2009
Today 08:30 PM
The new Fallujah, utterly destroyed from the air and from the ground.
(Edited by a moderator)
______ King
54 minutes ago
This reporter did spread lies before.
What goes around comes around. Hope same destruction fall on their homelands.
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conbenho
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Nguyễn Hoài Trang
13102011
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