BANI WALID: Libya’s government declared yesterday that it had taken control of one of the last strongholds of deposed dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s loyalists, as its fighters in the heart of the city fired their guns into the air to celebrate victory after fierce battles that left dozens dead and thousands displaced.
The capture of Bani Walid, some 140 kilometres southeast of Tripoli, was a triumph for the government that replaced Gaddafi’s regime. But the length of time it took the government to secure the town — a full year — underlined the difficulties faced by the new regime in imposing its authority over squabbling tribes and heavily armed militias.
The victory could even spark new violence. The government-backed militia that led the charge came from the city of Misrata, a longtime rival of Bani Walid, and reprisals could result.
The Libyan military’s Chief of Staff Youssef Al Mankoush said military operations in the city were terminated but that some forces were still chasing a few pockets of Gaddafi loyalists. He was speaking in Tripoli.
In the centre of Bani Walid, shops were closed and streets were deserted. A power station was destroyed, the main hospital was not functioning and a doctor was among the wounded. Fighters opened fire on street signs that bore language associated with the Gaddafi regime, such the name he gave to the country. A portrait of the slain dictator had its face punched out with bullet holes.
“Bani Walid is under full control,” the official LANA news agency quoted the spokesman of the pro-government militia, Mohammed Al Kandouz, as saying late on Tuesday.
But Mohammed Al Taib, a commander of a pro-government militia called Libya Shield, said that while his forces control the town centre, there was still fighting going on elsewhere. Columns of smoke billowed near the airport where militiamen said they were meeting resistance.
Omar Boughdad, a commander from the Misrata militia, said his forces would remain in the town to keep Gaddafi loyalists out. “The loyalists have fled to the valleys, but we will clean up these places and we will not leave again,”
he said.
Bani Walid became a bastion of Gaddafi loyalists during and after the eight-month civil war that led to Gaddafi’s killing and the fall of his regime last year.
It was occupied by anti-Gaddafi rebels who negotiated an entry after the leader’s October death, but fighters loyal to the ousted regime rose up and pushed them out in January.
The Libyan government’s new offensive came in the aftermath of the kidnapping, torturing and killing last month of an anti-Gaddafi fighter allegedly by residents of the town.
The country’s newly elected General National Congress issued a decree to arrest the men accused of the killing. AP
