BANI WALID/SIRTE – Libyan interim government forces fled yesterday in a chaotic retreat from the town of Bani Walid, after failing in yet another attempt to storm the final bastions of loyalists of ousted leader Muammar Gadafy.
Since taking the capital, Tripoli, last month, motley forces of the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) have met stiff resistance in Bani Walid and Gadafy’s birthplace, Sirte, which they must capture before they can declare Libya “liberated”.
Anti-Gadafy forces have tried several times to storm Bani Walid, 150km (95 miles) southeast of Tripoli, in recent days only to retreat in disorder under fire from defenders. Yesterday’s failed attempt appeared to be among the worst yet, setting off angry recriminations among the attackers.
NTC fighters said they had planned for tanks and pickup trucks with anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers to lead yesterday’sattack but footsoldiers had piled in first.
“There is a lack of organisation so far. Infantry men are running in all directions,” said Zakaria Tuham, a senior fighter with a Tripoli-based unit. “Our commanders had been told that heavy artillery units had already gone ahead, but when we advanced into Bani Walid they were nowhere to be seen. Gadafy’s forces were hitting us heavily with rockets and mortars, so we have pulled out.”
A Reuters reporter saw fighters withdraw about 2km after they had stormed into the town.
Anti-Gadafy forces from Bani Walid blamed comrades from elsewhere in Libya for being unwilling to co-ordinate. Those from elsewhere accused some local fighters of being traitors and passing information to Gadafy loyalists.
“Commanders who are from the Warfalla tribe, they tell us one thing and then commanders from the other cities say something else. We do not understand anything,” said pro-NTC fighter Mohamed Saleh. “So we are just going in and pulling back without a single purpose. It’s impossible to take this city this way. It will continue like this until they send more experienced troops who know how to use their weapons.”
Some fighters openly disobeyed orders. In one incident, an officer from Bani Walid was heckled by troops from Tripoli after he tried to order them to stop randomly shooting in the air as they celebrated seizing a mortar from pro-Gadafy forces.
“You are not my boss. Don’t tell me what to do,” one of the Tripoli fighters snapped back at him.
NTC forces and Nato warplanes also attacked Sirte, Gadafy’s birthplace. Fighters launched rockets from the city’s southern entrance and traded fire with Gadafy loyalists holed up in a conference centre.
“The situation is very dangerous. There are so many snipers and all the types of weapons you can imagine,” said fighter Mohamed Abdullah as rockets whooshed through the air and black smoke rose above the city.
Medics mopped the floor of a small field hospital on Sirte’s western outskirts as they prepared for more casualties, following bloody but inconclusive clashes a day earlier. A doctor said 16 NTC fighters and an ambulance driver had died in Saturday’s fighting. He had also received 62 wounded.
As in many episodes during Libya’s conflict, the frontlines at Sirte and Bani Walid have ebbed back and forth, with shows of bravado colliding with the reality of battle.
An incoming shell landed within 200m of NTC-held lines only to be met with return fire from NTC fighters shouting “God is greatest!” Speaking against the roar of Nato jets overhead, one anti-Gadafy fighter at Sirte, Mahmoud Othman, said his men were helping families who had fled ahead of the next assault.
“We don’t want any more bloodshed between us. But if the Gadafa want more blood, we are ready,” he said, referring to the deposed leader’s tribe.
Gadafy’s spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, said Nato air raids had killed 354 people in Sirte on Friday night, an accusation that could not be verified. A Nato spokesman in Naples said previous such reports had been false.
“We will be able to continue this fight and we have enough arms for months and months to come,” said Mr Ibrahim by satellite telephone. – (Reuters)