On Thursday, Colonel Gaddafi urged Libyans to take
to the streets “in their
millions” to resist the current leaders and
if Sirte falls, Libya
lives. Yesterday the
UTC – the National
Transitional Council looked like it rode
a rapid sweep through Sirte, like
it could be tidy with a giant
dustpan in the city hall by the
weekend, but the sweeping has slowed
and now its more like a stumbling
sweep with a hairbrush instead of a
broom and there’s dirt in the
cracks between the tiles
so go find your toothbrush.
Efforts last week to negotiate
failed
like a doughnut boat.
So Pro-Gaddafi snipers fight
unseen, using burning
tires or trenches to give themselves cover to
travel between buildings, taking advantage of the
dust and advancing, then aiming from rooftops,
ity and a complex of flats crammed.
500 yards separate these Gaddafi
Loyalists from the UTC fighters. Today the conference
center where the Loyalists have been holed up is
isolated. The rest of
the city they fight one
street, building, alley at
a time.
Thousands of civilians stay trapped in the city.
Some leave in cars crammed
with people and possessions. Others leave
on feet. Their faces
look
terrified – they were convinced that they would be killed
outside the city. To
reassure them, the UTC gives them generous bottles
of water and flags
of the new Libya
at checkpoints and searched meticulously
for any evidence of sympathies pro-Gaddafi
before they can go on – but most
often they have no
place to go.
From the article "Lybia NTC fight Gaddafi forces in the streets of Sirte" at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15229351
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