Fighting resumes in Gadhafi stronghold of Bani Walid

TRIPOLI – Fighters of Libya’s new regime Sunday said they had entered the town of Bani Walid, one of the last holdouts of Moammar Gadhafi diehards, but encountered heavy resistance.

“We attacked this morning from the southwest. Our men where inside the town this afternoon. But there was heavy resistance” from the Gadhafi loyalists, Jamal Salem, a commander of the National Transtional Council (NTC) forces, told AFP.

Salem said the new regime forces “have not retreated,” but by the evening he was unable to specify how far his fighters had managed to advance into Bani Walid, a desert town some 170 kilometres (100 miles) southeast of Tripoli.

The NTC forces mounted a fresh assault on the pro-Gadhafi stronghold on Sunday, approaching from the north and south after launching a barrage of artillery fire against the positions of Gadhafi loyalists.

Abdallah Kenshil, an NTC official, told local television channel Libya Al-Ahrar that the fighters had reached the town centre, but the claim could not be independently verified.

A commander from the city of Zawiyah said three of his men were killed in the fighting.

“Three of my best friends were killed by snipers, two of them from Zawiyah and one of them from Homs,” a district of Misrata, he told AFP.

Bani Walid is surrounded by NTC fighters, but their commanders pulled them back last week after suffering heavy losses and to prepare for a new offensive against the 1,500 pro-Gadhafi fighters thought to remain there.

Last Sunday, the disparate forces of the new regime paid a heavy price for their lack of coordination, having to abandon control of the airport and losing 17 of their men. Another 80 were wounded.

The Jado Brigade, the most well-organised of the NTC fighters, then withdrew to the town of Mezda, but clashes continued, with 30 fighters from the Zawiya Brigade killed since Tuesday, according to their commander.