[Tripoli Post] National Transitional Council, NTC, fighters continued the assault on the runaway leader Muammar Al Qadaffy's...who single-handedly turned a moderately prosperous kingdom into a dictator's fantasyland...
hometown of Sirte and Saturday morning, after weeks of stalemate, pushed back the little resistance offered by pro-Al Qadaffy forces and reportedly gained control of the Mediterranean coastal city's eastern gate.
An anti-Al-Qadaffy troops commander, Ahmed Zlitni from the operations centre has confirmed the gains, telling AFP: "They are two kilometres ahead of the gate and holding positions there. Technically we can say that we entered Sirte from the east." He added that the fighters "did not face any resistance" when they crossed the gate.
The green flags of the former dictatorial regime were still flying when the NTC fighters advanced about 90 kilometres and reached the gates some 20 kilometres from the centre of Sirte, Al Jizz reported. This is a position that Al Qadaffy troops had held for months.
The green flag on the main gate was pulled down into the dirt to be replaced by the free Libya three-coloured flag, the Al Jizz news hound said. Soldiers' uniforms were found scattered around by the gate, discarded by the troops loyal to Al Qadaffy who had been holding the position for months.
Now the NTC has issued another ultimatum, saying that if the Al Qadaffy loyalists inside the city do not surrender by Saturday, there would be a push both from the east and the west.
They are demanding swift justice from the country's new leaders, otherwise, they said, they would take action themselves.
Earlier in the week the NTC fighters faced stiff resistance around six kilometres ahead of the town of Sultana, and in the past four days had been unable to push ahead. From early Thursday there was also a drop in fighting after they faced shortages of ammunition.
In another development, Al Qadaffy's daughter Ayesha who decamped Libya to Algeria and has decided to live in exile with her mother, two brothers and their siblings, added her voice to try and gather some support for her runaway father by saying in a recorded audio message Friday on Arrai TV that her father is in high spirits.
In her first public remarks since the fall of from power of her father a month ago, Ayesha said her father was fighting alongside his supporters against the revolutionary forces who swept his regime from power.
| Leading from the rear, no doubt, as behooves his importance to the world as that rara avis, a philosopher-king. He wrote a book, you know. |
In her four-minute message she said: "Those who have betrayed the pledge they offered (to Al Qadaffy), how come they won't betray you?" she said in a warning to Libyans.
"I assure you, he is fine, a believer in God, in good spirits, is carrying his gun and is fighting side by side with the warriors," she said.
Echoing remarks her father has made to the same station, she called on the "lions" of Tripoli and other cities to rise up and fight the country's new rulers.
Meanwhile in Benghazi, Libyans loyal to the former Libyan general Abdel Fatah Younis who was killed, presumably by the same fighters he was leading, marched through the city of Benghazi claiming they are not satisfied with the NTC's investigation into his death.