New Libyan leadership prepares for offensive in the south

The war for southern Libya began in earnest yesterday, as rebel fighters clashed with Muammar al-Gaddafi’s supporters inside Bani Walid, one of the last towns holding out against the country’s new rulers.

A barrage of Grad rockets fired from loyalist enclaves in Bani Walid and Gaddafi’s coastal hometown of Sirte, on the eve of today’s deadline for them to give up their arms, triggered the fighting. Meanwhile, rebel forces were reportedly converging on the key southern desert garrison town of Sabha.

Abdullah Kenshil, the former rebels’ chief negotiator, said his forces were fighting gunmen positioned in houses in Bani Walid, south east of the capital, Tripoli, and the hills that overlooked it.

“They are inside the city. They are fighting with snipers,” he said.

With ambulances screaming back from the front line, weeks of negotiations between tribal elders inside Bani Walid and representatives of the National Transitional Council now controlling most of Libya appeared to have collapsed as anger and frustration took hold.

Meanwhile, four more of Gaddafi’s top aides, including his air force commander and a general in charge of his forces in the south, were among a new group of Libyans who have fled to neighbouring Niger, it emerged.

Members of the transitional council moved to Tripoli this week, vowing to begin operations to get the country back on track. However, interim prime minister Mahmoud Jibril warned in his first speech that the battle for Libya was far from over.

The rebels’ military council has turned its attention to the Libyan south, where more than 450,000 people still live under the regime’s control.

Fleeing from the capital, thousands of hardline loyalists, African fighters, and members of the Gaddafi family have gathered in Sabha, it is said.

“They have Grad BM21 rockets in defensive positions around the town,” a civilian inside Sabha told The Scotsman. “There are thousands of Libyan soldiers and African men fighting for Gaddafi all around.”

The nearby borders of Chad, Niger and Algeria, have become both exit routes for fleeing ministers, and resupply routes for regime forces.

“There are vehicles fleeing daily into Niger,” said Ofniat al-Koli, commander of a military brigade based in the south watching the country’s borders.

“Each night, new pick-up trucks are also being fed through the Niger border, as well as men,” said Mr Koli. “Sources in Niger have told us the regime is paying money to smuggle support across the border.” Rebel networks inside Sabha are working to spark an uprising, he said.

In Tripoli, hundreds of miles north, in a sprawling military base, the rebel army made preparations for an imminent attack.

“Now that we have liberated Tripoli, fighters from cities across Libya are turning their attentions to Sabha,” said General Ahmed Hesnawi, who has been charged with leading the battle. As he spoke, Tripoli volunteers in the base courtyard awkwardly sported rocket propelled grenades for training.

With the majority of the Libya’s water sources, and vast oil fields, controlling the south of the country is vital if the new leadership is to re-establish stability in the country, and build a flourishing economy.

General Ali Kana, the southern commander, and Ali Sharif al-Rifi, the air force chief, were among 14 Libyans who arrived in the northern Niger town of Agadez after crossing the border in a convoy of four-wheel drive vehicles.

A news agency reporter in Agadez said the four senior men were staying at the luxury Etoile du Tenere hotel, said to be owned by Gaddafi, who stayed there during a Muslim holiday in 2007.