Libyan rebels fall back in battle for Gaddafi towns

LIBYAN interim government forces bent on seizing Muammar Gaddafi’s remaining strongholds fell back after another chaotic attack on the desert town of Bani Walid yesterday, but renewed their battle for the deposed leader’s birthplace of Sirte.

Motley forces of the ruling National Transitional Council have met stiff resistance in Gaddafi’s last bastions, which they must capture before the NTC can declare Libya “liberated” and begin work on a constitution before elections.

Since Tripoli fell to rebels on August 23, rumours have swirled about whether Gaddafi is in Bani Walid, Sirte, the southern desert town of Sabha, or elsewhere. His fugitive spokesman told Reuters on Saturday the ousted leader was still in Libya, directing resistance.

Anti-Gaddafi fighters have tried several times to storm Bani Walid, 150km southeast of Tripoli in recent days. Their latest attempt ended yesterday with a retreat in disorder under heavy rocket fire from the town’s defenders.

NTC fighters said they had planned for tanks and pickup trucks with anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers to lead the attack, but foot soldiers had piled in first without orders.

“There is a lack of organisation so far. Infantry men are running in all directions,” said Zakaria Tuham, a senior fighter with a Tripoli-based brigade.

“Our commanders had been told that heavy artillery units had already gone ahead, but when we advanced into Bani Walid they were nowhere to be seen.

“Gaddafi forces were hitting us heavily with rockets and mortars, so we have pulled out.”

A Reuters reporter saw fighters withdraw around 2km after they had stormed into the town, setting off a new round of recriminations. Anti-Gaddafi fighters from Bani Walid blamed their comrades from elsewhere in Libya for being disorganised.

Blair’s meetings with Gaddafi

FORMER prime minister Tony Blair twice visited Libya for talks with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in the months leading up to the release of the Lockerbie bomber, it was disclosed yesterday.

The Sunday Telegraph reported that documents discovered in Tripoli showed the ousted dictator had arranged to fly Blair on his private jet for meetings in June 2008 and April 2009.

The talks came at a time when Libya was threatening to sever all commercial links with Britain if Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was not released from the Scottish prison where he was being held for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103.

A spokesman for Blair acknowledged that the Libyans had raised the issue of al-Megrahi’s release but said the former premier had simply told them it was a matter for the Scottish Executive.

The spokesman added that there had been no “commercial or business element” to the meetings.

However, the latest disclosure is likely to add to pressure for Blair to make public the full extent of his dealings with Gaddafi since leaving Downing Street in 2007.

The Sunday Telegraph said the documents showed that in 2008 and 2009, Blair negotiated to fly to Tripoli from Sierra Leone in west Africa in a jet provided by Gaddafi.

Picture: Medics treat a wounded rebel fighter in a village near Sirte, Libya, as fighters struggled to make gains. Picture: AP