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.