Libyan militias operating alongside the defense ministry shelled the former Qadaffy stronghold of Bani Walid on Wednesday, with one person killed and another 18 injured in counter-attacks, a local militia leader and a medical source said.The hilltop town was one of the last to surrender last year to the rebels who overthrew longtime leader Muammar Qadaffy
... who had more funny outfits than Louis XIV...
. It has come back into focus with the death last month of rebel fighter Omran Shaban after two months of detention in Bani Walid.
Shaban, from nearby Misrata, was the man who found Qadaffy hiding in a drain pipe in Sirte on October 20, 2011.
Libya's ruling national congress had ordered the defense and interior ministries to find those who kidnapped Shaban and were suspected of torturing him to death, and given Bani Walid a deadline to hand them over.
Elders have tried to negotiate a solution as militias have taken up position around parts of the town, at times clashing with local fighters.
"Bani Walid has been shelled since this morning from three sides - the south, the east and southeast," Colonel Salem al-Wa'er, a front man for Bani Walid's fighters, said by phone.
Without giving details, he said one person had been killed and that Bani Walid fighters had stopped a car which was carrying gas masks. A Misrata hospital source said 18 fighters from Misrata had been injured in counter attacks from Bani Walid.
Militia forces from Misrata and other towns, operating together in a coalition known as Libya Shield affiliated to the Defence Ministry, have deployed around parts of Bani Walid.