Gaddafis home town poised to fall to rebels

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Gaddafis home town poised to fall to rebels

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Moamer Gaddafis home town where he is believed to be hiding is set to fall.

20 October,2011 02:37 pm

New regime troops are poised to declare victory in their long siege of Moamer Kadhafi loyalists in their last redoubt in his hometown Sirte, a commander told AFP on the front line on Thursday.This is the last day of the fight, said Lieutenant Colonel Hussein Abdel Salam of the Misrata Brigade. Within some hours we will announce that Sirte is free.Abdel Salam said that National Transitional Council troops were carrying out a mopping up operation in the citys Number Two residential neighbourhood, the last redoubt of Kadhafi loyalists in all of Libya.We are now inside to look for Kadhafi fighters hiding in the houses and for guns and weapons. We started at 6 am (0400 GMT) this morning, he said. Sporadic gunfire in the neighbourhood was heard during the morning.Libyas new rulers have said that only once Sirte has fallen will they declare the countrys liberation and begin the transition to an elected government after 42 years of Kadhafis iron-fisted rule.Abdel Salam said that vehicles suspected to be carrying senior Kadhafi regime figures had broken out of their neighbourhood and that NTC troops were giving chase.An NTC fighter told AFP that troops advancing from the eastern and western sides of the neighborhood had met in the centre. In the middle of the night we took control of the neighbourhood, said NTC fighter Abdul Basht.Now the fighters from the west and the east have mixed and have filled the neighbourhood, he added.We are conducting house-to-house searches and cleaning operations. We have captured many important people. There is hardly any resistance from the Kadhafi forces. The major fight is over.