Attack on Sirte

"LandepNews"

Attack on Sirte

The hometown of Muammar al-Qaddafi, Sirte, is putting up a fierce fight against the troops of the National Transitional Council, who have been trying for weeks to take it. The resistance of the city is threatening to spark new division among the tribal leaders, which could lead to the weakening of the unity of the NTC.

There are reports that shelling occurs every day in Sirte and that bombs fall on people, killing civilians, and destroying dozens of homes. It is believed that thousands of civilians are considered trapped within the walls of the city as the NTC troops are trading rocket and machinegun fires with fighters loyal to Qaddafi for a month.

Some people are believed to still support the former president Qaddafi because he turned Sirte into a modern city from a fishing village. The city is also the home of the powerful Qaddafa tribe.

Sirte was meant by Muammar al-Qaddafi to become the capital of Africa, as he gathered the leaders from the African countries here to sign the African treaty that led to the creation of the African Union.

As the NTC soldiers are attempting to take the city, people are fleeing it with their families to escape death. The NTC troops said that they will try to attack the city again when they feel that it is deserted, so that the casualties be as few as possible.

Qaddafi’s spokesman said, from an undisclosed location, that the coordinated attack of NTC troops and NATO air strikes have killed 151 people within 48 hours.

The division between tribes is a very important aspect of the Libyan society, given that Qaddafi has exploited them for decades in order to maintain control over the country. This has benefited the friendly tribe leaders who were receiving salaries for which they were not working.

The Sirte attackers advanced very slowly at the outskirts and were even able to take the airport. The coordination of the attack seems better than the one on Bani Walid, where people have been forced to withdraw in disarray.

Meanwhile, NATO authorized the extension of its mandate by 90 days, that is until Christmas, but the secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned that the troops could be brought home at any time.

Rasmussen said that the troops would stay and help the Libyan people as long as it is necessary, but not a day longer. He added that the organization had a “remarkable success” in carrying out the UN mission, even though there are comments related to the fact that it got involved too much in helping the rebels, a criticism often made especially by Russia.

In the past six months, NATO has executed more than 20,000 flights over the Libyan territory, enforcing a no-fly zone over the Libyan territory, thus preventing the killing of the civilian population.

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