[Libya Herald] Despite claims by Zintani forces connected to the Libya National Army to have taken Kikla, the mountain town has not fallen, the Libya Herald has been told by a reliable source who visited it two days ago."Kikla is holding out", the source said, but the situation was "very bad".
Fran and Ollie have it even worse.
Many people had been killed, he stated, adding that "it's mostly fighters now in the town". Almost all the residents had left. But those still there were taking a tremendous battering, mainly by Grad missiles. The main mosque had been turned into a hospital which hevisited twice during the day. Each time there had been fresh maimed brought in.
The situation had reached stalemate he explained. Because of the mountainous terrain, both Kikla's defenders and the Zintani attackers occupied key high ground from which they could not be expelled but which enabled them to prevent the enemy from advancing.
He said small groups of fighters from towns across the Jebel had gone to fight the Zintanis and that that following a meeting convoked by Misratans this week of representatives from such towns, Jadu had agreed to send a force to help defend Kikla. It would not, however, comply with Misratan requests that it attack Zintan.
It was likely that the fellow Amazigh town of Nalut would join Jadu in sending a group of fighters, he added, but it too would refrain from going on the offensive against Zintan.
Whoever sent troops, he said, there was now a war of attrition, with stalemate facing both side.
