[Tripoli Post] The deposed leader Muammar Al Qadaffy's...Custodian of Wheelus AFB for 42 long years...
loyalists inside the runaway leader's hometown of Sirte gave no sign they would heed the national Transitional Council's ultimatum to surrender Saturday soon after the anti-Al Qadaffy troops reached Sirte's eastern gate. Therefore the interim government's troops opened their attack in the city on the Mediterranean coast of the country.
While NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
warplanes roared overhead zoning in on Al Qadaffy loyalist positions, the columns of military vehicles belonging to the NTC fighters who were advancing further inside the city were advised to pull back some kilometres to allow the air strikes to do their job unhindered.
Journalists close to the NTC fighters could hear kabooms inside the town, which, along with the desert town of Bani Walid is the last remaining bastion supporting the deposed Libyan leader that appears to have loyalists still wanting to fight for the runaway leader, who despite his daughter's claim from Algeria, that he is fighting with his loyalists, is nowhere to be seen.
After making progress during the night and early morning to reach Sirte's eastern gate, as they had threatened, the former rebels launched their attack on the city of Sirte from both the east and the west, where gunners reportedly fired artillery towards the town.
Both opposing factions exchanged volleys of rockets and large plumes of black rose from inside the town, and there are fears that a lot of civilians who are being kept as hostages by the Al Qadaffy forces could end up victims of the conflict.
There have already been reports that the former leader's forces had blocked most of the roads inside the city order to keep the civilians from leaving the town and to use them as human shields.
Families coming from Misrata and living in Sirte have been the civilians worse hit as if to avenge for the defeat Al Qadaffy's men suffered when they had to surrender the town after months of fierce fighting.
Meanwhile,
...back at the scene of the crime, Lieutenant Queeg had an idea: there was a simple way to tell whether Manetti had been the triggerman -- just look at his shoes!...
a Libyan doctor by the name of Mabruk Kernaf has reportedly told AFP that in the campaign to capture Bani Walid southeast of the Libyan capital fighting has claimed the lives of 30 interim government fighters.
In the first overall toll given on NTC casualties since the start of fighting, the NTC's northern front commander also said that another 50 had been maimed.
AFP also reported that rockets were being fired by troops loyal to Al Qadaffy at an NTC position some five kilometres outside the desert city, 140km south-east of Tripoli.