Libyan fighters withdraw from Gaddafi stronghold

Anti-Gaddafi forces said earlier today they were planning to take Bani Walid, a mountain town of strategic importance, but as dusk fell columns of fighters withdrew from the town. A pro-regime radio station in the town urged followers to fight to the end.

The revolutionary units also launched fresh attacks on two fronts in Sirte, where loyalists respond with sniper attacks and rocket fire.

Until earlier this week, advances by anti-Gaddafi forces had been blocked more than 50km from the town, but Libya’s provisional government say its forces had reached the outskirts of the city.

The Misrata Military Council, which is co-ordinating the revolutionary offensive, said anti-Gaddafi forces had control of the old airport on the western edge of Sirte. On Thursday, it claimed to have struck multiple rocket launchers, air missile systems, armored vehicles and a military storage facility.

Nearly four weeks after the rebel coalition overran Gaddafi’s capital Tripoli, the reverse at Bani Walid was a blow to the new leadership, which has said a timetable for drawing up a democratic constitution and holding elections will not start until all of Libya’s vast territory is “liberated”.

“We have received orders to retreat. We have been hit by many rockets. We will come back later,” Assad al-Hamuri, one of the fighters pulling out of Bani Walid, said amid a frantic withdrawal, marked by shouting, anger and disappointment.

“We need to reorganise troops and stock up on ammunition,” said another fighter, Saraj Abdelrazaq, as fighting followed a rhythm of ebb and flow familiar since the uprising against 42 years of maverick personal rule by Gaddafi began in February.

“We are waiting for orders to go back in again.”

Despite the frustrations of trying to capture remaining territory, as well as Gaddafi himself and several of his sons, Libya’s new leaders are getting on with the business of government, trying to impose order on a host of irregular armed forces and restart the oil-based economy.

Their latest foreign visitor was Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who hailed the fate of Gaddafi as an example to Turkey’s neighbour Syria. He also called on the people of Sirte to give up the fight and make peace.