Unrest reported in Libya

[High_Gravity]

Libya: NATO Strikes Sirte, Gaddafi Hometown

TRIPOLI, Libya — Libya's transitional justice minister says he has approved a measure to abolish the country's state security prosecution and courts.

Mohammed al-Alagi, part of Libya's new leadership after the ouster of Moammar Gadhafi, said Monday he has signed a document that will disband the bodies that sentenced opponents of the old regime to prison.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

SIRTE, Libya (AP) – Hundreds of civilians fled Moammar Gadhafi's hometown Monday to escape growing shortages of food and medicine and escalating fears that their homes will be struck during fighting between revolutionary forces and regime loyalists.

Anti-Gadhafi fighters launched their offensive against Sirte nearly two weeks ago, but have faced fierce resistance from loyalists holed up inside the city. After a bloody push into Sirte again over the weekend, revolutionary fighters say they have pulled back to plan their assault and allow civilians more time to flee.

NATO, which has played a key role in decimating Gadhafi's military during the Libyan civil war, has kept up its air campaign since the fall of Tripoli last month. The alliance said Monday its warplanes struck eight military targets near Sirte a day earlier, including an ammunition and vehicle storage facility and rocket launcher.

Sirte, 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli on the Mediterranean coast, is one of the last remaining bastions of Gadhafi loyalists since revolutionary fighters stormed into the capital last month, ending Gadhafi's nearly 42-year rule and sending him into hiding. The fugitive leader's supporters also remain in control of the town of Bani Walid, southeast of Tripoli, and pockets of territory in the country's south.

But even as fighting continues, Libyans have been working to restore a sense of normalcy in the North African nation of some 6 million people.

In a boost to the economy, Italian energy giant Eni said Monday it has resumed oil production in Libya after months of interruption for the civil war, tapping 15 wells and producing some 31,900 barrels of oil per day. French energy company Total said it restarted some production last week.

Libya's economic future could hinge on the performance of its lucrative oil and gas sectors, whose production ground to a halt during this year's insurgency against Gadhafi.

Libya sits atop Africa's largest proven reserves of conventional crude, and raked in $40 billion last year from oil and gas exports. Still, experts say it could take about a year or more to get Libya back to its pre-war production of 1.6 million barrels a day.

British Trade Minister Stephen Green also visited Tripoli and said his country's businesses are eager to take part in the rebuilding of Libya and will also assist with British expertise. But he said no strategic decisions would be made in Libya until the country has completed writing a new constitution and an elected government is in place.

Libya's new leaders have struggled to form a new interim Cabinet that could guide the country to elections.

The country's de facto prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, meanwhile, asked the U.N. Security Council to lift some of the economic sanctions on his country but said NATO should stay until civilians are no longer being killed.

Civilians fleeing Sirte Monday described grave shortages of food, fuel, drinking water and medicine.

Eman Mohammed, a 30-year-old doctor at the city's central Ibn Sina Hospital, said the facility was short on most medicines and had no oxygen in the operating rooms. She said most days, patients who reach the hospital find no one to treat them because fuel shortages and fear keep staff from coming to work.

She said many recent injuries appear to be caused by revolutionary forces. "Most of the people killed or injured recently are from the shelling," she said.

Forces on the city's outskirts fire tank shells, Grad rockets and mortar rounds toward the city daily with little more than a general idea of what they are targeting. NATO, meanwhile, is operating in Libya under a mandate to protect civilians.

Mohammed, who is from the Warfala tribe that has traditionally supported Gadhafi, said most of the fighters in the city are armed volunteers fighting for personal reasons.

"There is a bloody aspect to it," she said, standing at a rebel checkpoint outside the city. "Many people died in the battlefield as martyrs, so their relatives are angry. It doesn't have to do with Gadhafi anymore. It's more about revenge than about anything else."

She said she didn't expect the fighters to surrender easily.

Libya: NATO Strikes Sirte, Gaddafi Hometown

 

[High_Gravity]

Libya: Gaddafi Hiding In Southern Desert, Says Official

TRIPOLI, Libya — An anti-Gadhafi field commander says the top military official for revolutionary forces fighting loyalists in a key regime stronghold has been killed in a rocket attack.

Osama al-Fasi says the commander, Daw Saleheen, was killed Wednesday by a heat-seeking rocket while fighting in Bani Walid, southeast of Tripoli.

Saleheen was imprisoned for more than 20 years by Moammar Gadhafi's regime and was leading anti-Gadhafi forces in their battle for Bani Walid, one of the last remaining bastions of Gadhafi loyalists since the fall of Tripoli more than a month ago.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) – Libya's new rulers believe Moammar Gadhafi may be hiding in the southern desert, possibly in a vast area near the Algerian border, under the protection of ethnic Tuareg fighters, an official said Wednesday.

Abdel-Rahman Busin, a military spokesman in Tripoli, also said revolutionary forces knew Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, was in the regime stronghold of Bani Walid two weeks ago because they held negotiations about his possible surrender. But he said the talks had broken down and it was not known whether he was still in the town.

Revolutionary forces gained control of Tripoli and much of the rest of the North African nation late last month, but Gadhafi fled and has been trying to rally supporters from hiding as fighting continues on three fronts. His sons also escaped and there have been several unconfirmed reports about their whereabouts.

Military officials fear Gadhafi may still be able to stoke violence from his hiding place.

Busin said the military has intelligence that Gadhafi is hiding in the vast southern desert with help from Tuareg fighters. Ethnic Tuaregs, whose nomadic community spans the desert border of Niger, Mali, Libya, Algeria and Chad, are among Gadhafi's strongest remaining supporters.

"We do believe that he is somewhere in that region and we do know that Tuaregs are supporting him, probably because he's paying them," Busin said.

He did not offer evidence and acknowledged the military cannot confirm anything.

"It's a very large bit of land to cover. We don't have the people to cover it all and he could move around quite freely," Busin told The Associated Press.

One report suggested Gadhafi was southwest of the desert town of Sabha, Busin said. He also said a recent attack on the border town of Ghadamis raised suspicion that the fugitive leader was hiding in the surrounding region, a vast area near the Algerian frontier. "Possibly they were just creating a diversion," he said.

Pro-Gadhafi gunmen crossed the border from Algeria to attack revolutionary forces in Ghadamis last week, killing at least nine people, local officials said.

Ali al-Mana, the Ghadamis representative on the National Transitional Council, said there was no confirmation that Gadhafi was in the city.

Many Libyans believe Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam and other regime members are holed up in Bani Walid, 90 miles (140 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli, where revolutionary fighters have been stalemated with loyalist fighters for weeks.

Busin said anti-Gadhafi forces had confirmation Seif al-Islam was in Bani Walid a couple weeks ago but talks about his possible surrender had broken down and his location was no longer known.

On Tuesday, Syrian-based Al-Rai TV, which has become the former regime's mouthpiece, aired video of Seif al-Islam that it said was taken last week. The same video, however, appears to have been uploaded to YouTube on March 6. A second YouTube video appears to show the same event with an upload date of Feb. 27, less than two weeks after the Libyan uprising began.

Seif al-Islam's last known public appearance was on Aug. 23 in Tripoli. Like his father, he has been charged by the International Criminal Court with crimes against humanity for the regime's bloody efforts to crush the uprising.

Revolutionary fighters also have been unable to rout regime forces from Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte on the Mediterranean coast. Libyan fighters pounded regime positions in the city with rocket and artillery fire on Wednesday, sending a black cloud of smoke over Sirte's low-slung skyline.

Libya: Gaddafi Hiding In Southern Desert, Says Official

 

[High_Gravity]

Libya Leaders Promise New Government After Qaddafi Hometown Is Captured

TRIPOLI, Libya — Libya’s provisional leaders said Monday that they would resign once the vestiges of armed support for Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in his hometown city of Surt are defeated, a move that would clear the way for a new interim government that would run the country until elections can be held.

The announcement suggested that the Transitional National Council, as the provisional government is known, had redefined its version of victory in the eight-month-old conflict against Colonel Qaddafi, the quixotic former ruler who fled underground in late August when anti-Qaddafi forces overran Tripoli.

Previously the council had said it would not declare the conflict to be officially over until the country was pacified and Colonel Qaddafi and his top aides were either arrested, killed or confirmed out of the country. Now, however, the council appears to have narrowed the criterion for victory to the conquest of Surt, the last significant enclave of Qaddafi loyalists, on the Mediterranean coast.

The whereabouts of Colonel Qaddafi and two of his most influential sons, Seif al-Islam and Muatassim, remain unclear.

The announcement was made by the head of the council, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, and the temporary prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, at a news conference in the eastern city of Benghazi, where the armed uprising against Colonel Qaddafi took root in February. The provisional leaders also announced some minor changes in the ministries run by the council, including the creation of a new ministry responsible for dealing with victims of the conflict.

Mr. Jalil was quoted by news services at the Benghazi news conference as saying that within a month after Surt is captured, a new interim government would be named. He also was quoted as saying that both he and Mr. Jibril had pledged to “not take part in any future government in any way.”

Both men had said previously that they intended to relinquish their posts, but their statement Monday offered more specifics about the timing. It came against a backdrop of increased political infighting among leaders of the anti-Qaddafi forces that has undermined the Transitional National Council’s efforts to stabilize Libya and return it to some semblance of normalcy after Colonel Qaddafi’s downfall.

Armed militias from different parts of the country have flooded into Tripoli since the former leader’s exit and have basically divided the capital into fiefdoms. While the council is now widely recognized abroad as the new authority in Libya, its main foreign supporters, including the United States, have made clear that they consider regional rivalries, the uncontrolled spread of dangerous weapons looted from Colonel Qaddafi’s armories and the potential influence of militant Islamic groups in Libya to be threats to its future stability.

Council officials reported Monday that some progress had been made in efforts by anti-Qaddafi fighters to advance into Surt, but there was no immediate indication of a decisive turn in that contested city.

In Tripoli, a former Libyan Jewish exile who had returned from Italy and attracted some publicity on Sunday by attempting to reopen the city’s main synagogue, shuttered early in Colonel Qaddafi’s four-decade rule, said Monday he had been warned to stop the effort. The former exile, David Gerbi, 56, said men stationed outside the Dar al-Bishi synagogue told him he might be attacked if he and a group of volunteer helpers tried to renovate the house of worship, which had become a repository for garbage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/w...-after-qaddafi-hometown-captured.html?_r=1&hp

 

[High_Gravity]

Libya: Anti-Gaddafi Fighters Fire Rockets In Sirte, Hundreds Of Residents Flee

SIRTE, Libya — Libyan revolutionary forces fired rockets into the western half of Moammar Gadhafi's hometown Tuesday even as hundreds of residents streamed out of the city to flee the fighting.

Anti-Gadhafi fighters launched their offensive against Sirte last month, but have faced fierce resistance from regime loyalists holed up inside. The battle for the city has become the focal point of efforts to rout die-hard supporters of Gadhafi, whose whereabouts remains unknown more than six weeks since Tripoli's fall.

Nouri al-Naari, a doctor at a field hospital in a mosque on Sirte's outskirts, said that two anti-Gadhafi fighters had been killed and 28 wounded in intense battles in Sirte on Monday.

Amid concerns about a humanitarian crisis, the International Committee of the Red Cross said its staff had crossed the front lines and delivered urgently needed oxygen and other medical supplies to the hospital in Sirte on Monday. They also evacuated a Dutch nurse who had been working there.

Aid workers also are providing food and other items for thousands of people who have fled Sirte.

Libya's de facto Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said Monday that Sirte, some 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli on the Mediterranean coast, must be seized before the transitional leadership can declare victory and set a timeline in motion for elections for a formal government. Fighting also continues in the town of Bani Walid and in pockets in the south, but Jibril said Sirte's capture would mean the main entry ports to the country were secure.

He and the head of the National Transitional Council, which is governing the country, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil have pledged not to take part in any future government.

Revolutionary forces have seized Tripoli and much of the rest of the country, but they have been locked in a standoff over Sirte and Bani Walid for weeks. NATO also continues to hit the loyalist strongholds with airstrikes.

Tayib Oraibi, a field commander from Tripoli, said the main obstacle facing the fighters now in Sirte is the Ouagadougou conference center, which is the main base for Gadhafi loyalists inside the city.

On Monday, revolutionary forces said they had seized the village of Abu Hadi south of Sirte – a strategically important victory because it cuts off a key supply route for Gadhafi forces, according to Salah Mohammed, another field commander from the nearby city of Misrata.

Families, meanwhile, streamed out of the city in cars packed with mattresses and other household items.

Fatima Gadhafi, 35, described rapidly deteriorating living conditions as she fled with her four children after her cousin's daughter died when a tank shell fell on the house. She said there's very little food or drinking water.

She said there were no army forces or checkpoints on the streets and revolutionary forces had refused to let them talk to the Red Cross.

The Geneva-based ICRC and its Libyan counterpart have stepped up efforts to help the thousands of people trying to escape as well as those trapped in the city.

The ICRC delivered 50 oxygen cylinders and other medical supplies for the hospital to medical staff and representatives of civil society in Sirte on Monday.

"The situation on the ground was very tense with ongoing fighting," Hichem Khadraoui, the ICRC delegate in charge of the operation, said in a statement.

"Under such conditions, we had to limit ourselves – after obtaining clearances from all the parties concerned – to bringing in the most urgently needed humanitarian aid without further assessing needs. We hope to return soon," he added.

Efforts to get Libya's oil industry back on its feet also continued.

Libya: Anti-Gaddafi Fighters Fire Rockets In Sirte, Hundreds Of Residents Flee

 

[freedombecki]

High Gravity, do you think there will be peace in Libya anytime soon? The civil war just seems to keep on keeping on.

 

[High_Gravity]

High Gravity, do you think there will be peace in Libya anytime soon? The civil war just seems to keep on keeping on.

Well this is a still relatively new rebellion, this only started in March so in the grand scheme of things is fairly new. I really can't say when all of this will end, this has turned into a tribal fight now against Gaddafis tribe and the tribes loyal to it, civil wars in countries like Algeria and Yemen lasted decades, Algeria has reached some semblance of peace but Yemen is still struggling, even more so than before. Libya has more resources than both Algeria and Yemen and the international community has investments there, so they will get the help they need to turn things around, so thats one positive thing.

 

[High_Gravity]

Leon Panetta: NATO Libya Mission Can't End Before Fighting

CAIRO — NATO's mission in Libya isn't over so long as fighting continues, including in Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday.

"As long as there is fighting that continues in Libya, I suspect that the NATO mission will continue," Panetta said ahead of meetings later this week with other NATO defense chiefs.

Revolutionary forces supported by NATO airstrikes have seized Tripoli and much of the rest of the country, but they have been locked in a standoff over Sirte and Bani Walid for weeks. NATO airstrikes have continued on those loyalist strongholds.

Anti-Gadhafi fighters launched their offensive against Sirte last month, but have faced fierce resistance from regime loyalists holed up inside. The battle for the city has become the focal point of efforts to rout die-hard supporters of Gadhafi, whose whereabouts remains unknown more than six weeks since Tripoli's fall.

Libyan revolutionary forces fired rockets into the western half of Sirte on Tuesday while hundreds of residents streamed out of the city to flee the fighting.

"I think the fighting has to end," before NATO can withdraw, Panetta told reporters traveling with him in the Mideast and Europe. "They can't continue to have the level of fighting that they're still having there and be able to turn to the kind of governance and issues that they're going to have to confront in order to establish stability."

Leon Panetta: NATO Libya Mission Can't End Before Fighting

 

[High_Gravity]

Libya: Sirte Hit By Intense Fighting, Eight Killed

SIRTE, Libya — Revolutionary fighters on Friday assaulted a convention center in the heart of Sirte that forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi turned into their main base, in what commanders said was a final offensive to crush resistance in the holdout city after weeks of siege.

The forces of Libya's new rulers were pushing into the Mediterranean coastal city from the west, east and south in heavy fighting, trying to squeeze Gadhafi loyalists into a smaller and smaller perimeter. The two sides battered each other with rockets, mortar shells and tank fire, as Gadhafi snipers fired down on fighters advancing through housing complexes. Friday's push marks the largest new assault on the city for weeks.

"We started the attack at 6 a.m. today. The first group hit the outskirts of Sirte. We were fired on by Gadhafi snipers. We had many soldiers wounded," said commander Altaib Aleroebi of the ex-rebels' West Mountain Brigade, which led the morning attack on the western front.

At least eight revolutionary fighters were killed and 125 were wounded, doctors said. Ambulances sped down Sirte's main avenue to a field hospital set up in an abandoned villa five miles (eight kilometers) from the center. Doctors said a senior commander, Ali Saeh of the Free Libya Brigade, was injured, shot twice by a sniper as he led fighters through loyalist forces in a residential area.

"We are receiving many gunshot wounds, mostly to the head, neck and chest from sniper fire. We have received many injured today," Dr. Ahmed Mohammed Tantoun said Friday, adding he expects many more injured fighters to arrive through the day as fighting intensifies.

Sirte, Gadhafi's home city, is considered the most crucial of the areas that remain in the hands of supporters of the former Libyan leader, more than a month after revolutionaries swept into Tripoli and ousted him from power.

Leaders of the interim government have said that once Sirte falls they can start a timetable for elections. Sirte is key to the physical unity of the country, since it lies roughly in the center of the coastal plain where the majority of Libya's 6.5 million people live, blocking the easiest routes between east and west. Gadhafi loyalists, however, still control another major city, Bani Walid, in the central mountains, and Sabha deep in the deserts of the south.

Revolutionary fighters have been besieging Sirte for three weeks, facing grueling resistance as they inched their way in, let residents flee and simultaneously moved to encircle the city before the final assault. Gadhafi's loyalists have been barricaded in the Ouagadougou Center, a grandiose conference hall that Gadhafi built in the city to host international summits. From there they have been able to dominate the defense of surrounding residential areas.

As the attack continued, civilians fled the besieged city, which is suffering shortages of food and other essentials. Former rebel fighters checked the contents of their bags and cars.

"We had to go today ... there is nothing left, no food, no gasoline," said Sirte resident Ahmed Mohammed.

Libya: Sirte Hit By Intense Fighting, Eight Killed

 

[kola_yusuf]

Alarming

 

[High_Gravity]

Libya: Gaddafi Loyalists Still Fighting, NATO Surprised

BRUSSELS -- The determined resistance by forces loyal to ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is "surprising" because the fighters can't hope to reverse the situation on the battlefield, a NATO spokesman said Tuesday.

The comments by Col. Roland Lavoie appeared aimed at pressuring the former strongman's troops to lay down their weapons and engage in talks with one-time rebels who now rule the Arab country, thanks largely to NATO firepower.

Instead, in places such as Sirte, Gadhafi loyalists are still fighting, even though they can no longer be resupplied after the new government's units won control of key parts of the town's center, Lavoie said.

"So from that perspective, it just does not make sense to see what these few remaining forces are doing," he said. "This could certainly be qualified as surprising both from military and political point of view."

Critics of NATO's campaign have warned of the danger of protracted armed resistance against the new governing authority led by the National Transitional Council. The NTC has refused repeated attempts by the African Union and others to mediate between the warring parties.

NATO has said it would end its 7-month-long bombing campaign once it is clear pro-Gadhafi remnants no longer present a significant threat. But for the time being it is keeping up airstrikes, mainly against targets in Sirte, Gadhafi's hometown, and the town of Bani Walid, where pro-Gadhafi forces remain in control.

The alliance has been criticized for allegedly misusing a U.N. resolution in March authorizing the use of force to protect civilians in Libya to justify months of airstrikes aimed at overthrowing Gadhafi's regime. NATO warplanes have flown about 9,500 strike sorties during that period.

After a long stalemate, the air raids paved the way for the advance of opposition forces and the capture of Tripoli and other major population centers in the past two months. Opposition forces are now moving on Bani Walid, Lavoie said.

"We have no evidence of significant pro-Gadhafi presence or activity in the rest of the country," he said.

The operation in Libya has been cited as proof that the Cold War alliance remains relevant to international security. But the campaign also has revealed deep rifts within the military bloc, only eight of whose 28 members participated. The others stayed away – mostly out of concern of how the new mission would affect the alliance's commitment to Afghanistan.

Lavoie also said NATO has no information about the thousands of portable surface-to-air missiles that are reportedly missing in Libya.

Libya: Gaddafi Loyalists Still Fighting, NATO Surprised

 

[Jos]

NATO bombs? BLOOD WARNING
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hobDCtmx0xo&feature=player_embedded&skipcontrinter=1]See what happend to this child...NATO & Rebels Crimes in Sirt.wmv - YouTube[/ame]

 

[High_Gravity]

Libya: Tripoli Scene Of New Fighting

TRIPOLI, Libya — A gunbattle erupted between revolutionary forces and Moammar Gadhafi supporters Friday in the heart of the Libyan capital for the first time since the longtime leader was ousted and forced into hiding.

Shouting "God is Great," anti-Gadhafi fighters converged on the Hay Nasr district of Tripoli's Abu Salim neighborhood in pickups mounted with weapons, setting up checkpoints and sealing off the area as heavy gunfire echoed through the streets.

Fighters at the scene said the shooting began after a group of armed men tried to raise the green flag that symbolizes Gadhafi's regime. There were conflicting details about how the shooting began.

Assem al-Bashir, a fighter with Tripoli's Eagle Brigade, said revolutionary forces suspected there were snipers in the surrounding high rises after spotting a man trying to raise the green flag.

Another fighter, Ahmad al-Warsly, from the Zintan brigade, said several Gadhafi supporters apparently planned a protest but drew fire because they were armed. They then fled and were pursued by revolutionary forces, prompting fierce street battles.

Al-Warsly said one man carrying a gun was captured and identified as a suspect wanted for the killings of protesters in the nearby city of Zawiya.

"It seems like it was organized," he said. "They were planning to have a big demonstration, then the fight started."

The violence in the capital, which has been relatively calm since then-rebels seized control of the city in late August, underscored the difficulty Libya's new rulers face in restoring order as Gadhafi remains on the run.

Libya: Tripoli Scene Of New Fighting

 

[High_Gravity]

Libya: Foreign Secretary William Hague Visits Tripoli As Forces Bulldoze Gaddafi Compound

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) - Britain's foreign secretary called Monday on African countries to turn over wanted senior members of Moammar Gadhafi's regime found on their territory, saying it was very important that the deposed Libyan leader and his associates be brought to justice.

William Hague made the comments during a visit to Tripoli in which he confirmed the new British ambassador and presided over a flag-raising ceremony at Britain's charred embassy building, which had been attacked by Gadhafi supporters angry over NATO airstrikes.

"This is further recognition of the great progress the National Transitional Council has made in stabilizing Libya and re-establishing the country's role as a full member of the international community," Hague told reporters, referring to the body ruling the country in the transitional period.

He also offered more humanitarian aid and raised concerns about reports of human rights abuses by revolutionary forces during a meeting with Libya's interim leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil.

Gadhafi remains on the run and fighting with his supporters continues on two fronts more than two months after Tripoli fell to revolutionary forces. Some believe he might try to flee to another African country since he cultivated good relations with many of them during his more than four decades in power.

The International Criminal Court has accused the ousted leader along with his son Seif al-Islam and his former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senoussi of crimes against humanity for unleashing a campaign of murder and torture in an attempt to crush the uprising that broke out in mid-February.

Hague said it was "very, very important" to bring the men to justice and promised Britain would continue to help in the search, although he didn't elaborate on what was being done.

"We've already been very active reminding other countries in Africa of their responsibility, their responsibility to apprehend and to hand over to the Libyans or to the International Criminal Court any of these people who go onto their territory," he said. "Of course we don't know where all of them are but we will continue to assist in looking for them."

Foreign dignitaries have been flocking to the oil-rich North African nation since revolutionary forces swept into Tripoli in late August and seized the reins of power. Britain has taken a lead role in the NATO air campaign that has been critical to the revolutionary successes.

Despite continued airstrikes and several Libyan offensives, Gadhafi's supporters are still putting up a fierce fight for the leader's hometown of Sirte and the desert enclave of Bani Walid. That has prevented Libya's transitional leaders from announcing full liberation and setting a timeline for elections for a new government.

Hague announced that John Jenkins was the new ambassador and expressed confidence in the transitional leadership, saying it was "now on the brink of having liberated the country."

He also said the final shipment of Libyan cash that had been frozen in the United Kingdom because of sanctions imposed on the Gadhafi regime would be returned soon.

With Libyans struggling to care for an overwhelming number of people wounded in the fighting, Britain said it would accept as many as 50 more Libyan amputees needing prosthetic limbs and other medical care. It also offered help in removing mines and destroying shoulder-fired missiles amid fears of weapons proliferation.

Britain said it has allocated 40.6 million pounds ($65 million) to support stability as well as political and economic reforms in Libya.

International rights groups have issued reports documenting cases in which revolutionary forces have mistreated prisoners, especially suspected Gadhafi loyalists. U.N. human rights official Mona Rishmawi said Friday that "there is a lot of room for abuse" of the estimated 7,000 people detained in sometimes makeshift prisons throughout Libya.

Libya: Foreign Secretary William Hague Visits Tripoli As Forces Bulldoze Gaddafi Compound

 

[High_Gravity]

Hillary Clinton In Libya To Offer New Aid Package

TRIPOLI, Libya -- The Obama administration on Tuesday increased U.S. support for Libya's new leaders as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made an unannounced visit to Tripoli and pledged millions of dollars in new aid, including medical care for wounded fighters and additional assistance to secure weaponry that many fear could fall into the hands of terrorists.

U.S. officials said the fresh aid Clinton is bringing totals about $11 million and will boost Washington's contribution to Libya since the uprising against Moammar Gadhafi began in February to roughly $135 million. The officials told reporters traveling with Clinton that it is evidence of the administration's commitment to working with the National Transitional Council as it consolidates control over the entire country and moves to hold free and fair elections.

Clinton met Tuesday with Mahmoud Jibril, who has taken over as Libya's prime minister, and interim leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil.

"Now the hard part begins," Clinton said heading into the meeting, a reference to the country's transition to democracy.

As part of the new aid package, the U.S. will re-launch several educational programs, including Fulbright scholarships and English language training, and help fund an archeological project that will survey eastern Libya, the officials said. In addition, they said Clinton will be stressing the importance of good governance, inclusion, democratization and diversifying Libya's economy so it no longer is almost entirely dependent on oil revenue.

Officials said Clinton would also raise the case of the Lockerbie bombing with Libyan officials. Last month, Scotland asked Libya's new authorities to help track down those responsible for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town. It killed 270 people, most of them American.

The only person charged with the bombing – former Libyan intelligence officer Abdel Baset al-Megrahi – was freed on compassionate grounds in 2009 because of illness. His release infuriated the families of many Lockerbie victims.

The U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of Clinton's public events in Tripoli, which also were to include meetings with civic leaders that have been kept secret for security reasons.

Most of the new money will go toward finding and destroying thousands of Gadhafi-era shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles that are unaccounted for since the fighting began. Clinton and other senior U.S. officials have repeatedly stressed the importance of dealing with stockpiles of Libyan weapons.

The State Department already has sent 14 weapons experts to Libya and is looking for other countries to contribute to the effort. The new U.S. contribution of some $10 million means Washington will have spent $40 million on the effort alone since the former rebels began making major military progress, according to the officials.

The dollar amount of the medical portion of the new assistance is not yet known but will go to a multipronged program to assist former rebel troops badly wounded in fighting with Gadhafi loyalists, the officials said. There have been about 15,000 wounded during the conflict so far, about 1,500 of whom are now amputees and require specialized care that is not available in Libya.

The medical portion will include transportation to treatment for the most seriously wounded, spare medical parts to fix equipment for trauma care, and chemicals needed to run and drive equipment, the officials said. It also will go to establish a patient tracking program.

Hillary Clinton In Libya To Offer New Aid Package

 

[High_Gravity]

Libya: NATO Campaign 'Very Close' To Termination

BANI WALID, Libya — Libyan rebels finally in control of a key stronghold of ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi's backers dug up yards in searches for hidden weapons Tuesday, a concrete sign that the months-long battle for Bani Walid was virtually over.

On another similar front, revolutionary forces launched another assault on Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte, hoping to dislodge his dug-in loyalists.

Libya's new rulers are holding up declaring victory and setting a timetable for elections until both centers are under their control. Gadhafi himself remains in hiding.

In the capital Tripoli, visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. wanted to see Gadhafi killed or captured.

In Bani Walid, field commander Said Younis said fighters were searching for high level Gadhafi loyalists who had escaped to the city, including Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam, one of his closest political aides and spokesman.

"Seif was seen was on Thursday. He was eating in a desert village close to the city," Younis told The Associated Press.

Bani Walid is a valley city protected by many steep mountains and valleys, where Gadhafi loyalist snipers took positions during the fiercest battles. Younis said many loyalist fighters have fled to caves in the mountains to hide from the revolutionary forces.

In the backyard of a house in Bani Walid, 10 fighters dug a hole, revealing a cache of Kalashnikov assault rifles and ammunition.

"We've been finding weapons and ammunition hidden in people's yards since we liberated the city, all over," said Ayman Mahdi, as he dug.

Ahmed Saad, a field commander from Zlitan in the western mountains, who helped in Bani Walid forces take back their town, said forces were also searching for underground tunnels similar to those found under Gadhafi's former Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli.

"Prisoners we captured from Bani Walid admitted the existence of these tunnels where some of the loyalists may still be hiding," Saad said.

Bani Walid's center, which was deserted on Tuesday. Buildings were pockmarked from bullets and rocket fire. The only doctors in the main hospital were foreigners.

A revolutionary commander on the scene, Ali Abdel-Rahman, said fighters were able to gain control over Bani Walid on Sunday evening after receiving much-needed ammunition and supplies the day before. He said they faced little resistance, although three revolutionary fighters were killed.

"We didn't find a regular army but only loyalists of Gadhafi, snipers with automatic weapons," he said. "Some of the Gadhafi brigades took off their uniforms and vanished."

He said even families had fled the area. "There was a widespread perception that there would be a massacre here and pools of blood, but on the contrary, it was very bloodless, swift and with no resistance."

It has been more than two months since the former rebels gained control of the capital and much of the rest of the oil-rich North African nation. Persistent fighting has prevented Libya's new leaders from declaring final victory.

While welcoming successes in Bani Walid, Libya's new leaders have said they would declare liberation only after the fall of Sirte. The capture of the coastal city 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of the capital would have symbolic value, as well as giving them control of the country's ports and harbors.

In Sirte, the coastal hometown of the ousted dictator, revolutionary forces pushed in from the east on Tuesday to try to overcome last pockets of resistance.

Revolutionary fighters have been locked in battle in Sirte, suffering heavy casualties, after launching what they said would be an all-out final assault on Oct. 7.

The longtime leader has been on the run since Tripoli fell in late August and he has issued several audio recordings trying to rally supporters from his hiding place.

NATO has pledged to continue airstrikes for as long as necessary, saying pro-Gadhafi forces continue to pose a threat to civilians in Libya. The alliance said it hit a command center comprising nine vehicles near Bani Walid on Monday.

Libya: NATO Campaign 'Very Close' To Termination

 

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Libya: Sirte Battle Rages Building By Building

SIRTE, Libya — Libyan revolutionary forces fought building by building Wednesday against the final pocket of resistance in Moammar Gadhafi's hometown – the last major city in Libya to have been under the control of forces loyal to the fugitive leader.

While Libya's transitional leadership worked to consolidate control over the entire country, the country's acting prime minister warned in a newspaper interview that Gadhafi can still cause trouble from his hiding place.

Mahmoud Jibril was quoted by the pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat paper Tuesday as saying that the ousted leader is moving between Niger, Algeria and the vast southern Libyan desert and has been trying to recruit fighters from Sudan to help him establish a separate state in the south, or to march to the north and destabilize the new regime.

The report could not be confirmed, but it underscored fears that the inability to catch Gadhafi, who escaped with two of his sons after revolutionary forces swept into Tripoli in late August, would allow him and his supporters to wage an insurgency.

"Gadhafi has two options: either to destabilize any new regime in Libya or to declare a separate state in the south," Jibril was quoted as saying, adding there was evidence about this but he didn't elaborate.

Suggesting that the U.S. also was concerned about the possibility, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said during a visit to Tripoli Tuesday that she hoped Gadhafi would be captured or killed.

Although two months have passed since Gadhafi fled the capital, Libya's new leaders have refrained from declaring national "liberation" until the fall of Sirte, which Gadhafi transformed from a fishing village into a modern city after he seized power in 1969.

Revolutionary forces on Tuesday pushed from the east into the small pocket of the city under the control of Gadhafi loyalists and captured a vegetable market, though they came under heavy fire from snipers and rocket-propelled grenades on the rooftops of residential buildings and homes along major streets.

On Wednesday, Wissam bin Hmade, the commander of one of the revolutionary brigades from the eastern city of Benghazi, said they had the Gadhafi supporters corralled in a 700 square meter residential area but were still facing heavy rocket and gunfire from snipers holed up in surrounding buildings.

It took the anti-Gadhafi fighters, who also faced disorganization in their own ranks, two days to capture a single residential building.

Another commander, Khaled al-Maghrabi, said 15 fighters were killed in a friendly fire incident.

It is unclear whether loyalists who slipped out of the besieged cities of Bani Walid, which was captured this week, and Sirte might continue the fight and attempt to organize an insurgency using the vast amount of weapons Gadhafi was believed to have stored in hideouts in the remote southern desert.

Unlike Iraq's Saddam Hussein, Gadhafi had no well-organized political party that could form the basis of an insurgent leadership. However, regional and ethnic differences have already appeared among the ranks of the revolutionaries, possibly laying the foundation for civil strife.

Gadhafi has issued several audio recordings trying to rally supporters. Libyan officials have said they believe he's hiding somewhere in the vast southwestern desert near the borders with Niger and Algeria.

Libya: Sirte Battle Rages Building By Building

 

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Muammar Gaddafi Killed, Captured In Sirte: Conflicting Reports

Following the capture of Muammar Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte, contradictory reports suggest that Colonel Gaddafi may have been killed or captured in Libya.

Al Jazeera and Libyan state television are reporting that the Libyan dictator has been killed during a gunbattle in Sirte. A senior National Transitional Council official, Abdel Majid, told Reuters by telephone that Gaddafi has died of wounds suffered during his capture in Sirte. Reuters reports that he was wounded in both legs as he "tried to flee in a convoy which NATO warplanes attacked."

The U.S. State Department has not confirmed Colonel Gaddafi's capture or death.

According to The Associated Press:

The Misrata Military Council, one of multiple command groups for revolutionary forces, says its fighters captured Gadhafi in Sirte. Another commander, Abdel-Basit Haroun, says Gadhafi was killed when an airstrike hit a convoy trying to flee.
Despite conflicting reports regarding whether Gaddafi has been killed or captured, in Tripoli, celebrations are already underway with gunfire and honking. "We've heard quite a lot of celebratory gunfire," Caroline Hawley reports for the BBC.

Muammar Gaddafi Killed, Captured In Sirte: Conflicting Reports

 

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Sirte Captured: Gaddafi Hometown Falls To Libyan Fighters

SIRTE, Libya -- Libyan officials and NATO say they cannot confirm reports from revolutionary fighters that ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was captured or killed in the fall of his hometown Thursday.

The Misrata Military Council, one of multiple command groups for revolutionary forces, says its fighters captured Gadhafi in Sirte. Another commander, Abdel-Basit Haroun, says Gadhafi was killed when an airstrike hit a convoy trying to flee.

The spokesman for Libya's transitional government, Jalal al-Gallal, and its military spokesman Abdul-Rahman Busin say the reports have not been confirmed. A NATO official also said the alliance could not independently confirm.

Repeated past reports of Gadhafi family deaths or captures have later proved incorrect.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

SIRTE, Libya (AP) - Libyan fighters drove the last holdouts of Moammar Gadhafi out of his hometown of Sirte in a few hours of fierce gunbattles Thursday, then declared victory over the last major resistance two months after the fall of Tripoli. The ecstatic former rebels celebrated by firing endless rounds into the sky, pumping their guns, knives and even a meat cleaver in the air and singing the national anthem.

In the central quarter where the final battle took place, the fighters looking like the same ragtag force that started the uprising eight months ago jumped up and down with joy and flashed V-for-victory signs. Some burned the green Gadhafi flag, then stepped on it with their boots.

They chanted "Allah akbar," or "God is great" in Arabic, while one fighter climbed a traffic light pole to unfurl the revolution's flag, which he first kissed. Discarded military uniforms of Gadhafi's fighters littered the streets. One revolutionary fighter waved a silver trophy in the air while another held up a box of firecrackers, then set them off.

"Our forces control the last neighborhood in Sirte," Hassan Draoua, a member of Libya's interim National Transitional Council, told The Associated Press in Tripoli. "The city has been liberated."

Despite the fall of Tripoli on Aug, 21, Gadhafi loyalists mounted fierce resistance in several areas, including Sirte, preventing Libya's new leaders from declaring full victory in the eight-month civil war. Earlier this week, revolutionary fighters gained control of one stronghold, Bani Walid, and by Tuesday said they had squeezed Gadhafi's forces in Sirte into a residential area of about 700 square yards but were still coming under heavy fire from surrounding buildings.

Reporters at the scene watched as the final assault began around 8 a.m. and ended about 90 minutes later. Just before the battle, about five carloads of Gadhafi loyalists tried to flee the enclave down the coastal highway that leads out of the city. But they were met by gunfire from the revolutionaries, who killed at least 20 of them.

After the battle, revolutionaries began searching homes and buildings looking for any hiding Gadhafi fighters. At least 16 were captured, along with cases of ammunition and trucks loaded with weapons. Reporters saw revolutionaries beating captured Gadhafi men in the back of trucks and officers intervening to stop them.

Deputy Defense Minister Fawzi Abu Katif on Wednesday told the AP that authorities still believe Gadhafi's son Muatassim is among the ex-regime figures holed up in the diminishing area in Sirte. He was not seen on the ground after the final battle on Thursday.

In an illustration of how difficult and slow the fighting for Sirte was, it took the anti-Gadhafi fighters, who also faced disorganization in their own ranks, two days to capture a single residential building.

Gadhafi loyalists who have escaped could still continue the fight and attempt to organize an insurgency using the vast amount of weapons Gadhafi was believed to have stored in hideouts in the remote southern desert.

Sirte Captured: Gaddafi Hometown Falls To Libyan Fighters

 

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Muammar Gaddafi Is Dead, Says Libya PM; Tripoli Celebrates

Libyans exploded in excitement on Thursday afternoon at reports that Muammar Gaddafi had been captured and killed in his home town of Sirt, where rebels have fought a grueling battle for weeks to crush his remaining armed loyalists.

As television broke on news that Sirt had finally fallen to the rebel forces, gunfire begun resounding around the capital. About 20 minutes later came the news, from a rebel commander in Sirt, that Gaddafi had been captured hiding in a hole in the coastal city, Gaddafi's home town about 230 miles east along the Mediterranean. Soon after came word that he was dead. The interim government says it is drafting a pathology report. In this city of two million people, thousands of people poured into the streets, firing guns in the air. The ships in Tripoli harbor blared their horns for more than an hour, and the mosques played prayers praising Allah, over the deafening noise of car horns. Crowds of people converged on the seafront to move towards Martyrs Square in the heart of the capital, where only two months ago, Gaddafi's supporters held continual demonstrations in support of the dictatorship.

A spokesman for the National Transitional Council (NTC), the interim government of Libya, insisted that the Colonel was dead, that it would have preferred him alive and brought to trial but that one "cannot go against God's will." The likelihood that Gaddafi has indeed been run to ground will make Oct. 20 one of the most historic moments of Libya's history, the final demise of a 42-year dictator who transformed this oil-rich nation into a terrifying authoritarian state even as he modernized what had been a largely illiterate desert country into a regional economic force.

Exactly two months have passed since rebel forces stormed Tripoli and drove Gaddafi and his family from power. Yet while the rebels' NTC quickly assumed control over the capital, Gaddafi and his hugely powerful son Saif al-Islam vanished, slipping out of the city while Tripoli was still in turmoil. The International Criminal Court has indicted both men for crimes against humanity, for allegedly ordering the killing of unarmed civilians before the rebel force took up arms in mid-February.

In the meantime, a well-armed group of loyalists in Sirt have held out, waging a grueling war of attrition against the rebel forces — even though the rest of the country had fallen to Gaddafi's foes. With the war dragging on, NTC officials were increasingly hampered in administering their new country. Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril told journalists on Wednesday evening that Libya could "move from a national struggle to chaos." He said he was particularly concerned about the convoys of heavy weaponry which slipped into the neighboring country of Niger in August, after Tripoli fell.

Read more: Muammar Gaddafi Is Dead, Says Libya PM; Tripoli Celebrates - TIME

 

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In Tripoli, Libya's Interim Leader Says He Is Quitting

Two months after rebel fighters stormed into Tripoli and drove Muammar Gaddafi from power, the man effectively running the country in his role as temporary prime minister warned on Wednesday night that Libya could turn to chaos unless the war ended soon. Mahmoud Jibril, a U.S.-educated economist who helped persuade NATO members to launch their Libya campaign last March, also announced in an interview with TIME that he was quitting — potentially leaving Libya in a perilous state of limbo.

Jibril, who heads the executive board of the rebels' National Transitional Council, did not say exactly when he would resign, but hinted that it could be as soon as Thursday, when a televised meeting of his group would detail what it had accomplished since Gaddafi's ouster, he said. In a grim assessment of Libya's current state, Jibril suggested that as the war dragged on, he had found governing the country was increasingly difficult. "We have moved into a political struggle with no boundaries," Jibril said, looking glum, rather than a man rejoicing liberation. "The political struggle requires finances, organization, arms and ideologies," he said. "I am afraid I don't have any of this."

His warning underscores just how much Libya is now in limbo — and just how dangerous that might be. The exhilarating sense of victory, which gripped the world's attention when rebel columns rolled into Tripoli on Aug. 20, has largely dissipated. In its place is a sense of being in suspended animation, as men in battle fatigues move through Tripoli — a city of two million people — in pickup trucks topped with machine guns. The breezy Mediterranean harbor is all-but dormant, and those few ships which are in the dock are frozen in place. Cranes sit suspended over half-built construction sites, including one for a sprawling InterContinental hotel off the former Green Square (now called Martyrs Square) which has been frozen since the revolution began in February. And Tripoli's international airport remains closed. "Shoulder-fired missiles have gone AWOL, and all it takes is one of them to attack," says Sami Zaptia, a business consultant who recently helped form a Tripoli organization called the National Support Group, to pressure rebel leaders into forming democratic institutions. "There is very little business happening."

The country's paralysis, at least around Tripoli, is in part because Gaddafi and his powerful son, Saif al-Islam, are still on the run, with no idea among rebel leaders where they are. And although it has been only two months since Gaddafi's 42-year rule imploded, many assumed that by now Libya's war would long be over and a transitional government would be in place, especially since the eight-month revolution seemed to unfold at surprising speed. Instead, rebel fighters have been ground down for weeks in a protracted battle in Sirt, Gaddafi's home town 230 miles east along the coast, as they try to crush the dictatorship's last armed loyalists.

Throughout Wednesday, Tripoli's old whitewashed mosques blared out prayers from the minarets, calling on Allah to protect the fighters on the front line. Yet in the city itself, the unity which appeared to hold through months of the revolution, has seriously frayed, as rival brigades lay claim to different territories around the capital, and as rebel fighters sharpen their allegiances to local commanders.

Jibril's words on Wednesday evening made it clear that Libya needed more than the prayers blasting out of the mosques, for the country to unite around a new democracy. He warned that the longer the fighting lasted, so the possibility increased for Libya turning "from a national struggle to chaos," and becoming a battleground for "all the foreign powers which have their own agendas towards Libya." Rebel leaders have said that once Sirt falls, they will declare the war over and announce a temporary government. The delay involves concrete complications, including the fact that governments cannot easily hand over billions of dollars of Gaddafi's money, which are frozen in foreign bank accounts, so long as there is no Libyan government to administer the money.

Read more: In Tripoli, Libya's Interim Leader Says He Is Quitting - TIME