SIRTE, Libya - Libyan government forces pushed tanks deep into the city of Sirte on Friday to try to smash the last pocket of resistance by loyalists of ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi in his home town. The mostly untrained militia army of the National Transitional Council (NTC) has gradually tightened its strangle-hold around Sirte for weeks in a chaotic struggle that has cost scores of lives and left thousands homeless. It has also held up the attempt by Libya's new leaders to try to build a democratic government, as they say the process will begin only after the city is captured. NTC commanders say Gaddafi's die-hard loyalists now only control an area measuring about 700 metres (yards) north to south, and around 1.5 km east to west in a residential neighbourhood mostly of apartment blocks. “We are going to engage them with tanks and heavy artillery first, after that we will send in the pick-up trucks with anti-aircraft guns, then the infantry,” said Abdul Hadi Doghman, commander of the Dat al-Ramal brigade, one of the many loosely organised militias besieging the trapped Gaddafi forces. The biggest obstacle to taking the town has been Gaddafi's snipers hiding in the buildings. Tanks are used to hit the buildings from close range and dislodge the snipers. Green flags, the banner of Gaddafi's 42-year rule, flew above many of the buildings in the loyalist enclave. An occasional sniper shot zipped past as the government forces cleaned their weapons and prepared to do battle another day. But there was no extra build-up of troops on Friday and the NTC forces did not appear to be preparing for a final push. Gaddafi himself is believed to be hiding somewhere in the vast Libyan desert. A senior NTC official denied reports by other officials in the new government that Gaddafi's son Mo'tassim had been captured in Sirte. Gaddafi's encircled forces in Sirte can have no hope of victory, but still fight on, inflicting dozens of casualties with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and small arms. One field hospital received two dead NTC fighters and 23 wounded on Thursday. One of those killed had been hit while taking food up to the fighters on the front line, doctors said.
