SHISHAN, Libya: Fighters for Libya’s new rulers began an assault to overrun a bastion of Muammar Qaddafi, as secret files shed light on his fallen regime’s links to US and British spy agencies.
“We are preparing to enter Bani Walid and we will fight,” Mahmud Abdel Aziz, a local spokesman for the National Transitional Council (NTC) told Agence France-Presse at a checkpoint in Shishan, just dozens of kilometers north of Bani Walid.
A dozen vehicles, including pick-ups mounted with heavy machine guns, were seen heading further south toward Bani Walid while a commander, Ossama Ghazi, also set off on Saturday, saying: “There is fighting.”
Abdel Aziz said that he expected Bani Walid to “fall within hours.”
“People there have asked for more time but our patience has worn out,” he added.
Earlier, the deputy chief of the military council of the town of Tarhuna, further north, said that fighters for Libya’s new leaders have given forces in Bani Walid until Sunday morning to surrender.
Abdulrazzak Naduri said that Qaddafi’s son Saadi was still in Bani Walid, along with other regime cronies, while prominent son Seif al-Islam had fled the town.
“The revolutionaries have given an ultimatum to the tribal chiefs in Bani Walid,” Naduri told Agebce France-Presse in Tarhuna, some 80km north of Bani Walid.
The offensive appeared to be well underway even though NTC chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil said in Benghazi that a truce declared until September 10 was still in force.
“We are in a position of strength to enter any city but we want to avoid any bloodshed, especially in sensitive areas such as tribal areas,” he said, adding that military deployments would continue during the ceasefire.
Naduri said that Saadi Qaddafi, the toppled strongman’s spokesman Mussa Ibrahim, and Mansur Dau, head of the revolutionary committees that propped up Qaddafi’s regime, were still in Bani Walid.
But Seif al-Islam, the regime’s most prominent face and vocal interlocutor, had fled two days ago, he said.
Meanwhile, Qaddafi regime intelligence files seen by Agence France-Presse on Saturday appear to document deep cooperation between the Central Intelligence Agency, MI6 and the former Libyan regime, including the shipping of terror suspects for regime interrogation.
