Net closing on Gaddafi loyalists

LIBYAN government forces said yesterday they believed they had one of Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi’s sons cornered in the deposed leader’s home town, but determined resistance was keeping them at bay.

After weeks of fighting, National Transitional Council forces have taken most of Sirte and driven Gaddafi loyalists into a small area of the city, but international concern about civilians caught up in the fighting has mounted.

Capturing Sirte, which Gaddafi had turned into a showcase second capital, will consolidate the council’s control in Libya and allow it to focus on rebuilding the country, but worries about civilians trapped between the two forces have grown.

One commander said Gaddafi fighters were defending their last two districts in Sirte tenaciously because Mo’tassim Gaddafi, his father’s national security adviser, was with them.