Anti-Gaddafi forces ’seize Sirte’

20 October 2011 Last updated at 05:35 ET

Libya’s transitional government soldiers have taken full control of Sirte, the last city where Gaddafi loyalists had remained holed up, eyewitnesses and reporters say.

They say the final push lasted about 90 minutes on Thursday morning.

Government soldiers have been engaged in a fierce battle for Sirte – Col Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown – for weeks.

Some Gaddafi loyalists are still resisting government forces in the town of Bani Walid, south-east of Tripoli.

Troops loyal to the National Transitional Council (NTC) had been facing heavy resistance from snipers in the centre of Sirte, about 360km (220 miles) east of the capital.

But on Thursday morning, the head of government operations in the eastern half of the city told Reuters news agency: “Sirte has been liberated.”

“There are no Gaddafi forces any more,” Col Yunus al-Abdali added. “We are now chasing his fighters who are trying to run away.”

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