WADI BEY, Libya, Sept 15, (Agencies): Fighters loyal to Libya’s new rulers stormed into Sirte from three fronts on Thursday, the military said, launching a massive assault on Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown and one of his final pockets of resistance.
“Misrata’s thwar (fighters) arrived at the Al-Gharbiyat Bridge inside Sirte,” the Misrata Military Council said, adding that “our revolutionaries have entered Sirte today on three main axes.”
A spokesman for the convoy of forces loyal to the National Transitional Council, which set out from Misrata earlier in the day, confirmed that the pro-NTC troops had entered Sirte.
“I confirm our forces are in Sirte; it is a big force,” said the spokesman, Fathi Bashaga.
“There is still resistance but our fighters will be able to overcome it,” he told an AFP correspondent in Wadi Bey, a desert town where part of the Sirte-bound convoy was held up in a battle with Gaddafi loyalists.
“They are attacking us with 40- and 43-mm mortars and all kinds of weapons.”
The military said Misrata hospital had so far received “one martyr and five wounded” from the fight in Sirte, based on initial reports from the battlefront.
Pro-NTC forces had earlier raised their flag on the outskirts of Sirte, the military said in a separate statement.
“Misrata’s thwar at a distance of 3-km from the Sirte — Independence flag flying over the last petrol station before the city,” the Military Council said in an English statement, referring to the new regime’s forces.
The convoy of battle-hardened fighters had set out from Misrata early Thursday before splitting at the crossroads town of Abu Qurin, where a commander said they would approach Sirte in a pincer movement.
The Misrata Military Council said the convoy comprised of more than 900 armoured cars aimed at “freeing the city and raising the banner of independence.”
As it rolled out of Misrata, the convoy of troops loyal to the National Transitional Council (NTC) was cheered on by residents who flashed “V” for victory signs and chanted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest).
Comprised of heavy artillery and pickup trucks loaded with machine guns, rocket launchers and Katyusha rockets, the convoy and its fighters were well stocked with food, water and ammunition.
But roadside support dropped off as the convoy headed through villages towards Sirte, with children and teenagers running alongside but adults standing further back with arms folded and showing little emotion.
David Cameron Thursday pledged British help in hunting down Muammar Gaddafi as he and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy became the first foreign leaders to visit the new Libya and forces advancing on the fallen strongman’s hometown came under heavy fire.
“We must keep on with the Nato mission until civilians are all protected and until this work is finished,” the British prime minister told a joint news conference in Tripoli on a lightning visit.
“We will help you to find Gaddafi and to bring him to justice,” he said.
The French president said the toppled despot remained a “danger” and that there was a “job to finish” in eliminating his forces’ remaining strongholds.
Sarkozy, accompanied by Foreign Minister Alain Juppe on what Finance Minister Francois Baroin called an “historic” visit, insisted there was “no ulterior motive” in Western assistance to the new Libya.
“We did what we did because we thought it was right,” he declared.
Cameron and Sarkozy, whose forces spearheaded the Nato air war that helped topple Gaddafi, are immensely popular among ordinary Libyans for their role in ending the fugitive strongman’s 42 years of iron-fisted rule.
They met the head of the National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, who earlier gave assurances that Tripoli had been sufficiently secured since its capture from Gaddafi forces last month for their visit to go ahead.
Cameron said Nato would continue its UN-mandated air operations until Gaddafi’s remaining redoubts around his hometown of Sirte on the Mediterranean coast and in a slew of Saharan oases extending to Libya’s southern borders are neutralised.
“We will go on with the Nato mission for as long as is necessary under UN Resolution 1973 to protect civilians,” he said.
“This work isn’t finished yet. There are still parts of Libya under Gaddafi control.
“And the message I think to Gaddafi and all those still holding arms on his behalf is it is over. Give up. The mercenaries should go home.
“Those who still think Gaddafi has any part in any part of government of any part of this country should forget it. He doesn’t. It is time for him to give himself up.”
Warnings
Britain downgraded its travel warnings for Libya on Thursday, scrapping a blanket ban in favour of advice against all but essential travel to certain towns, including Tripoli and Benghazi.
The change came as Cameron and Sarkozy became the first foreign leaders to visit the country since rebels overthrew Gaddafi.
“Since 3 March, we have advised against all travel to Libya,” Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement.
“However in light of the improving security situation on the ground I have decided to change our travel advice to advise against all but essential travel to Zuwarah, Az-Zawiyah, Tripoli, Al-Khums, Zlitan and Misrata, and the coastal towns from Ras Lanuf to the Egyptian border, including Benghazi.
“We still advise against all travel to all other areas of Libya.”
Hague added that although Britain has reopened its diplomatic mission in the Libyan capital Tripoli, it was only able to provide “very limited consular assistance at this time.”
Around 15 percent of deposed Libyan strongman Gaddafi’s forces are still operational, Nato said Thursday.
The remaining forces are concentrated in a zone that stretches from Tripoli to the southern desert town of Sebha and to the coastal city of Sirte, Nato General Vincent Tesniere said in a press teleconference from Italy.
Asked what measures Nato was taking to locate Gaddafi, the general replied from the Nato base in Poggio Renatico in Italy that the alliance “does not seek to find persons.”
Fighters loyal to Libya’s new rulers are currently battling the remnants of Gaddafi’s army.
On Thursday they were inside Sirte, the country’s military said, after a massive convoy of its forces launched a bid to take Gaddafi’s hometown.
Attack
An attack on a Libyan oil refinery this week by militia loyal to former leader Gaddafi was an isolated incident and steps are being taken to protect oil infrastructure, the head of the National Oil Corp (NOC) has said.
Forces loyal to Gaddafi attacked the front gate of Libya’s largest oil refinery near the coastal town of Ras Lanuf on Monday, killing 15 guards, witnesses said.
The attack shocked Libya’s interim leaders, who now control nearly all the country’s oil industry, including coastal export terminals. Many oilfields lie deep in the desert in an area known as the Sirte Basin and are seen as vulnerable to attack.
NOC chairman Nouri Berouin told Reuters the authorities were improving protection of infrastructure across the country.
“It’s an isolated incident. I don’t think it will be repeated. We are preparing to give more protection to installations, especially after we finish in Sirte and Sabha,” Berouin said in an interview late on Wednesday.
Neither the city of Sirte nor Sabha are yet under the control of Libya’s interim leaders.
Gaddafi has frequently threatened to attack oil facilities, which cash-strapped interim leaders hope will give them an economic lifeline in the coming months.
NOC has said it will begin exporting crude oil from the eastern port of Tobruk within 10 days and could be producing 1 million barrels a day (bpd) within six months.
A spokesman for the ruling NTC said the road stretching about 200 kms (125 miles) from the contested city of Sirte to the Mediterranean export terminals of Es Sider, Brega and Ras Lanuf was now being guarded.
“The national army has secured the road to Ras Lanuf, which Gaddafi troops attacked,” Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, NTC vice-chairman and official spokesman, told Reuters.
NOC subsidiary the Arabian Gulf Oil Company has said it has a “small army” protecting its eastern fields, including Sarir which began pumping earlier this week.
Libya’s interim leaders are working hard to bring the oil and gas industry back to life and begin exporting quickly.
Berouin said gas production had begun in fields operated by Sirte Oil in the desert south of Brega, an area which includes the Hateiba fields.
A pipeline connecting Libya with Italy, which would allow Libyan gas to be exported, is not expected to resume operations before the second half of October.
“We have started gas production from Sirte Oil. This will help bring electricity to Libya and help keep our diesel bill down,” he said.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr travels Thursday to Tripoli on the first visit by an Arab official since the “victory” of the Libyan revolution, the foreign ministry said.
Amr was due to arrive Thursday evening in Tripoli, has been tasked by Egypt’s new military rulers with examining ways of “pursuing and bolstering” ties with Libya’s new authorities in the NTC, ministry spokesman Amr Rushdi said.
He will be accompanied by Labour Minister Ahmed al-Borai and will offer assistance from Egypt and outline steps for “immediate” cooperation in various sectors including ones considered a “priority” for Libya, Rushdi said.
Russia said Thursday it backed lifting the Nato-imposed no-fly zone over Libya in a new resolution on the conflict being drafted by Britain.
“Considering the changed situation in Libya, Russia has proposed to include in the draft and clauses the lifting of the no-fly zone regime,” foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told reporters in remarks broadcast on state television.
The resolution drafted by Britain sets up a UN mission to help Libya’s transitional council set up an administration and organise elections. It was sent to members of the council on Tuesday.
Britain is releasing a further £600 million ($944) worth of Libyan assets, a spokesman for Cameron’s office said on Thursday.
“We are unfreezing their assets. They need to do things like pay public sector workers and the police force,” the spokesman said in London as Cameron visited Tripoli with Sarkozy for talks with Libya’s new leaders.
Britain released around $1.5 billion in Libyan bank notes last month, flying the first consignment on an RAF aircraft to the port city of Benghazi.
Mass graves are being discovered every week in Libya, the international Red Cross said Wednesday, noting that it has dealt with the remains of 125 people at 12 sites in and around Tripoli.
“As mass graves are being discovered on a weekly basis, the International Committee of the Red Cross is striving to bring answers to grief-stricken families of people who have gone missing and to ensure that any human remains uncovered are properly handled,” said the relief agency in a statement.
“The ICRC has helped to ensure that the remains of 125 people found at 12 different sites in and around Tripoli have been handled properly,” it added.
In addition, the group has helped to recover the remains of 34 people at another location — in Al-Qala’a in the Nefusa mountains.
Two forensic experts have also been sent to the field to support others already working on the treatment of human remains.
Libya’s new rulers are “starving” loyalist areas to wrest control of them, toppled leader Gaddafi’s spokesman said Wednesday in an interview with the Syria-based Arrai Oruba television channel.
“Daily life in (the Gaddafi strongholds of) Sirte and Bani Walid is very difficult,” said Mussa Ibrahim, a cousin of the fugitive deposed strongman.
“They are starving entire regions to force the people to give themselves up,” he said.
“They have cut off electricity and water as well as supply routes and are preventing food and medicines from coming in, thereby violating all international norms.”
The United States said Wednesday it has received assurances from Niger that Saadi Gaddafi, a son of Gaddafi, will be prevented from traveling.
“We received assurances from the government of Niger that Saadi Gaddafi will be prevented from travel. That’s in accordance with the travel ban in UN Security Council Resolution 1970,” State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said.
Niger’s prime minister Brigi Rafini said on Monday that 32 members of Gaddafi’s inner circle, including his son Saadi, have arrived in Niger since Sept 2, adding they were admitted for “humanitarian reasons.”
“It’s also worth mentioning that the government of Niger has also assured us that they’ll continue to take ... necessary measures to try to strengthen the security of their borders going forward,” Toner told reporters.
Countries belonging to a left-leaning Latin America trade group oppose giving Libya’s UN member seat to the former rebels who ousted Gaddafi’s government, the Venezuelan ambassador said in a Wednesday letter to the new General Assembly president.
Ambassador Jorge Valero wrote to General Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser that foreign ministers of the countries in the ALBA group agree that Libya’s United Nations seat should not be occupied by “an illegitimate transitory authority imposed by foreign intervention.”
Rather, they say, the seat should not be filled until “a legitimate government is established” that “reflects the free and sovereign will of the Libyan people.”
Libya’s UN seat still belongs to Gaddafi’s government. Opposition diplomats who months ago disavowed the strongman, and who have close ties with the former rebels’ National Transitional Council, have continued to staff the country’s UN mission offices.