Troops fire on refugees returning to siege town

Libya surged further into chaos yesterday as fighting resumed in a former stronghold of Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi, and troops fired over the heads of refugees trying to return home.

The thump of rockets and crash of anti-aircraft guns from inside the town of Bani Walid confirmed that battles between the army and pro-Gaddafi elements were continuing despite the government’s insistence it had captured the town.

Outside the town refugees, told to return home by state television, found the desert highway blocked by an impromptu army checkpoint where teenage government militiamen opened fire over their heads, triggering panic and sending men, women and children running for their lives.

“This is a crazy situation, they are firing over us,” said 29-year-old Mohammed Hamzen. “The government told us we can go home, what is this?”

The battle for Bani Walid was launched last week with government forces saying they wanted to capture an estimated 300 Gaddafi loyalists who had made the town their home – it remains the last town in Libya outside central control.

But the battle has already cost an estimated 20 lives with more than 200 wounded, and earlier this week UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon called for both sides to show restraint.

Libya, whose parliament is still to elect a cabinet three months after being voted into office, is desperate to end Bani Walid’s resistance. Instead, it has found itself at war not just with Gaddafi loyalists but with thousands of townsfolk.

Last week more than 500 Bani Walid demonstrators tried to storm the parliament in Tripoli, and wrecked a pro-state TV station in Benghazi.