Libya's Bani Walid 'liberated'
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Xinhua, October 17, 2011
An official of Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) said Sunday that Bani Walid, one of a couple of remaining strongholds of fallen leader Muammar Gaddafi, has been "liberated."
Mahmoud Tawfiq, a spokesman of the southern front in Bani Walid, some 180 km southeast of the capital Tripoli, told Xinhua that the NTC fighters will "dock with" each other on Monday after entering the city from three sides.
The information was accompanied by earlier reporters on the local media that the NTC has been able to erect their tricolor flags in the Bani Walid, which has been a challenge for offensives for its difficult geography.
An official announcement (of the liberation) might be made Monday, Tawfiq said.
The fighters will then begin searching for the remaining pockets of Gaddafi loyalists who have been fought the NTC soldiers in the oasis town for weeks.
Tawfiq said that the southern front fighters, in collaboration with fighters from other towns such as Gharyan, were able to enter the city heart and will be meeting with the eastern and western squads.
He added that field hospitals near Bani Walid have received many civilians who fled on Saturday the front line town, where the humanitarian situation has been terrible due to the acute shortage of water, food, fuel and power.
The information of the "liberation" of Bani Walid cannot be independently verified at the current stage, but Salah Matouk, a field commander in Bani Walid also indicated the NTC's control over the town, where a number of pro-Gaddafi soldiers and mercenaries had been captured.
Matouk told local channel Liberal that the Bani Walid battle has been resolved completely in favor of the NTC fighters, who are now waiting for Monday morning to start the mopping-up operations.
On Saturday, a NTC source has said that the authorities had besieged Gaddafi's loyalists in Bani Walid, who had run short of ammunition and supplies.
The NTC is able to free the majority of the city, Mahmoud Boras, a member of the Media Committee of the local council of Bani Walid, was quoted as saying by the local media.
The fighters have "liberated" a hospital and an industrial district in Bani Walid, while they have also made progress in a market area with the exception of some sites occupied by snipers, Boras said.
He pointed out that it is the time to negotiate with the fugitive Gaddafi remnants scattered in parts of Bani Walid, stressing that the "liberation" of the city is imminent.
