Troops Engaged in Clashes in Tripoli

"LandepNews"

Troops Engaged in Clashes in Tripoli

Gunfire was traded on Friday between the new government’s troops and the forces loyal to toppled Muammar al Qaddafi in the capital of Libya, a few days after the National Transitional Council had announced that important parts of the last stronghold of the former regime, the city of Sirte, hometown to Qaddafi, had been captured.

The shots were isolated and involved only a few people in a neighborhood that had been loyal to Qaddafi, but it was the first sign of rebellion against the new power in the capital since August, when the capital fell to NTC and the civil was came to an end.

The locals told Reuters that there was a group of 50 fighters who appeared in the neighborhood of Abu Salim district earlier that day chanting pro-Qaddafi slogans. NTC announced that fight broke out in other three neighborhoods.

A NTC member said that Qaddafi had told these people to rise and fight after the Friday prayer, and that this was the reason for this incident. NTC announced that two supporters of the former regime and one NTC trooper were killed as a result of the incident .

The same source announced in a press conference that the status of alert had been raised to maximum, and that Qaddafi’s supporters were advised to lay down their weapons or be considered as terrorists and treated accordingly.

As the NTC was taking control of the area, its troops are said to have committed another act of aggression toward one of Qaddafi’s fighters as two NTC men dragged out of a building a man who was armed with a grenade propeller and tried to stab him.

NTC was heavily criticized by the international community for the treatment it offered the prisoners of war.

The situation was under control later Friday afternoon, after the NTC went on a house to house search in the neighborhood. The NTC headquarters in the eastern city of Benghazi dismissed the idea that the shooting was the result of an operation meant to bring the former regime back. The shooting the leaders said, was not executed by a “fifth column” that is operating to the purpose of reinstalling Qaddafi.

Meanwhile there are parts of Sirte which are still holding on, which is the reason why the National Transitional Council have not announced yet the victory over the resistance and the new government in the country. The people in Sirte are said to resist because they are afraid of the reprisal the new regime could exact on them.

NATO troops have warned that the situation in Libya will not be clear until Muammar al Qaddafi has been apprehended and brought to justice for his actions. No one knows where he is though.

Since the final attack on Tripoli, which was the end of his regime, Qaddafi went into hiding and no one knows where exactly. Some believe he is in a neighboring country, others, who know him better say he would never leave Libya and that he would fight to the death.

He used to send some messages by ways of audio recordings broadcasted by Syrian television, but even the messages stopped.

Last week the NTC announced that one of his sons has been captured in battle at Sirte, but the NTC refused to confirm the information.

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