Libyan revolutionary fighters struggled to expand the offensive into Muammar Gaddafi’s home town today with street-by-street battles and commanders seeking to break open a new front against loyalist forces fiercely defending the most symbolic stronghold remaining from the shattered regime.

Libyan fighters have launched a two-pronged assault on one of the last towns to resist the country’s new rulers, clashing with Muammar Gaddafi’s supporters inside Bani Walid as a week-long standoff dissolved into street-to-street battles, the revolutionary forces said.

Muammar Gaddafi supporters rocketed a front line south of Tripoli today, testing the patience of the country’s new leaders as a grace period for the holdouts to surrender runs out.