Libyan forces prepare assault on Gaddafi bastion

WARY of alienating a powerful local tribe, fighters backing Libya’s new rulers are urging families to leave the besieged town of Bani Walid before resorting to full-scale military force to take one of Muammar Gaddafi’s last strongholds.

The drawn-out standoff at the town — home of Libya’s biggest tribe, the Warfalla — has turned the obscure oasis 150km south of Tripoli into a new flashpoint in the north African nation’s seven-month-long war.

Libya’s new rulers are keen to bring the stubborn town into the fold as quickly as possible but have hesitated to employ heavy-handed tactics that could estrange the Warfalla and derail their efforts to create an all-inclusive government.

National Transitional Council (NTC) fighters at the northern gate of the city said they were giving civilians two more days to leave Bani Walid before mounting a full-scale assault.

A radio address transmitted from nearby Tarhouna was appealing to people to leave to safer areas.

“We don’t want to kill anyone. We do not want to turn them into enemies,” said Abumuslim Abdu, an anti-Gaddafi fighter.

“We are under orders from our commanders to proceed very carefully and avoid harming civilians.”

Bani Walid resident and NTC-supporter Isa Amr, 35, said the town was running out of fuel, food and water, making it impossible for his family to stay any longer.

“Rebels gave us some petrol, enough to drive to Tripoli. The rebels are really helping us,” he said.

Amr said the NTC was handing out free fuel at the northern entrance to Bani Walid.

Along with Gaddafi’s home town of Sirte on the Mediterranean coast and the loyalist bastion of Sabha in the Sahara, Bani Walid is one of the last pockets of Gaddafi resistance.

Die-hard loyalists of the leader have put up stiffer than expected resistance, firing rockets and mortars from inside Bani Walid.

Fighters and residents said Gaddafi forces in the town centre still had plenty of support among local households.

After Tripoli’s relatively quick fall last month, Bani Walid’s fierce resistance has been a mystery, even to local fighters. Residents say many people in the Warfalla tribe fear retribution because of their traditionally close links to Gaddafi’s tribe.