The protracted battle for Sirte, built up by Gaddafi as a showpiece town on the Mediterranean coast, has raised concerns that civilian casualties could breed long-term hostility making it hard for the National Transitional Council (NTC) to unite the vast North African state once the fighting is over.
“Gaddafi’s forces are cornered in two neighbourhoods near the sea, an area of about 2-km square, but there is still resistance,” Abdul Salam Javallah, commander of NTC units from eastern Libya, told Reuters on the front line of their attack.
“We are dealing with them now with light weapons because there are still families inside,” he said.
Shortly after he spoke, a group of three women, three small children and two male civilians emerged from a house on the front line. They were searched by the rebels and hurriedly got into a car and drove off waving the V-for-victory sign.
Another family of three women and one man, stopping at a checkpoint as they fled Sirte, said they had been trapped in their house by the fighting.
“We didn’t know where the strikes were coming from. Everyone is being hit all day and all night. There is no electricity and no water. There is nothing. There is not one neighbourhood that hasn’t been hit,” said one of the women who gave her name as Umm Ismail.
NTC commanders say they are only using light weapons, but government tanks have also moved into road intersections and pounded Gaddafi positions, while pick-up trucks mounted with heavy weapons as well as foot soldiers darted out of cover to fire wildly up ahead.