TRIPOLI – Supporters of ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gadafy have seized control of the town of Bani Walid after clashes with a militia loyal to the new government in which four people were killed.
A resident of Bani Walid, which is about 200km southeast of Tripoli, said the sides fought using heavy weaponry, including 106mm anti-tank weapons, and that 20 people were wounded.
Another witness said the fighting had now stopped but that Gadafy loyalists were in control of the town centre, where they were flying green flags, a symbol of allegiance to the ousted administration.
“They control the town now, they are roaming the town,” said the witness, a soldier who was with the May 28th militia which was fighting the Gadafy loyalists.
Bani Walid, base of the powerful Warfallah tribe, was one of the last towns in Libya to surrender to the anti-Gadafy rebellion last year. Many people there oppose the country’s new leadership.
The uprising in Bani Walid could not come at a worse time for the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC). It is already reeling from violent protests in the eastern city of Benghazi and the resignation of its second most senior official.
An air force official said jets were being mobilised to fly to Bani Walid. In Tripoli, there were signs of security being tightened.
The violence in Bani Walid was sparked when members of the May 28th militia arrested some Gadafy loyalists. That prompted other supporters of the former leader, who was captured and killed in October, to attack the militia’s garrison in the town, the resident said, on condition of anonymity.
“They massacred men at the doors of the militia headquarters,” the resident added.
During Libya’s nine-month civil war, anti-Gadafy rebels fought for months to take Bani Walid.
Local tribal elders eventually agreed to let NTC fighters enter the town, but relations have been uneasy since and there have been occasional flare-ups of violence.
Last November, several people were killed in Bani Walid when a militia group from Tripoli’s Souq al-Juma district arrived in the town to try to arrest some local men.
Taking back control of the town will be challenging because it has natural defences. Anyone approaching from the north has to descend into a deep valley and then climb up the other side, giving defenders an advantage.
It was this landscape, in part, that prevented anti-Gadafy militias from taking the town during the civil war, despite the fact they were heavily armed and had superior numbers. – (Reuters)