Battle rages as Gaddafi hits out
The battle is continuing for the Libyan town of Bani Walid as former rebel fighters hunt for fugitive dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
The clashes came as Gaddafi rallied followers to the fight in a new audio message broadcast on a loyalist TV channel.
Gaddafi loyalists have been firing rockets from inside one of his last remaining bastions, targeting former rebel fighters who have surrounded the desert town.
At least 10 loud explosions shook the ground along the desert front line and smoke billowed from where the projectiles landed in Wadi Dinar, about 12 miles outside the town.
The former rebels said the projectiles fired were Grad rockets.
The barrage comes hours after Gaddafi issued an audio message on a loyalist Syrian-based TV channel, denying rumours that he had fled Libya and vowing “never to leave the land of his ancestors”.
The ousted Libyan leader urged followers to take up arms and denounced rumours that he had fled the country.
The broadcast came amid conflicting statements about the fugitive Libyan dictator’s whereabouts.
Gaddafi, who ruled Libya for nearly 42 years, hasn’t been seen in public for months, and has released only audio messages trying to rally his supporters and lash out at opponents.
In the five-minute audio, aired on Al-Rai TV, a voice purportedly of Gaddafi denounced reports that he had fled to neighbouring Niger and claimed he is still in Libya.
He also blasted former rebels who ousted him from power as “a bunch of mercenaries, thugs and traitors” and urged his followers to take up arms.
“We are ready to start the fight in Tripoli and everywhere else, and rise against them,” Gaddafi said.
“All of these germs, rats and scumbags, they are not Libyans, ask anyone. they have co-operated with Nato ... Gaddafi won’t leave the land of his ancestors.”
Gaddafi went into hiding after opposition fighters swept into Tripoli on August 21. The former rebels are still battling regime loyalists in three Gaddafi strongholds – Bani Walid, Sabha and Sirte.
Fresh clashes broke out overnight and early today near the town of Bani Walid, 90 miles south east of Tripoli. Shootings and loud explosions lasted for several hours.
Thousands of fighters have converged on areas outside Bani Walid and have threatened to attack if residents don’t surrender by Saturday. Officials have said the town emerged as a focus because of the number of prominent regime loyalists believed to be inside.
Convoys of former regime loyalists, including Gaddafi’s security chief, fled across the Sahara into Niger this week in a move that Libya’s former rebels hoped could help lead to the surrender of the last bastions of his support.
On Wednesday, more truckloads of former rebels arrived outside Bani Walid, a dusty city of 100,000 strung along the low ridges overlooking a dried-up desert river valley on the road connecting Gaddafi’s home town of Sirte and Sabha to the south.
Bani Walid is the homeland of Libya’s largest tribe, the Warfala. In 1993, some Warfala attempted a coup against Gaddafi but were brutally crushed.
