Fighters gear up for 'final Libya battle'

Volunteer fighters poured in from the Libyan capital and other towns held by the former rebels today to join what they expect to be the final battle for Bani Walid, one of Muammar Gaddafi's last remaining strongholds.

After a week-long stand-off over a peaceful surrender of the town, the Libyan fighters on Friday launched a two-pronged assault on Bani Walid that soon dissolved into street fighting.

Revolutionary forces had initially given tribal leaders and pro-Gaddafi loyalists in Bani Walid until Saturday to surrender, but said they were drawn into fighting on Friday night after former regime fighters attacked with rockets.

Volunteers asking to join the battle said today they were getting increasingly impatient with the stand-off. Dozens crowded around a desk at a mosque in Wishtata, a hamlet about 25 miles from Bani Walid, to register their names, blood type and other information.

Abdel Wahab Milad, a 26-year-old teacher from the town of Gharyan, drove dozens of miles to the front in a pickup truck with six friends. Dressed in army fatigues, he said he signed up for battle because it was time to "get rid of Gaddafi once and for all."

Gaddafi has not been seen in public for several months, and has been a fugitive since the fall of the capital of Tripoli in late August. In audio messages broadcast over a loyalist TV station, Gaddafi has urged his followers to keep fighting.

On Friday, revolutionary forces also battled loyalists near the Gaddafi hometown of Sirte, 250 miles southeast of Tripoli, but withdrew after heavy casualties.

Meanwhile, officials in neighbouring Niger said four senior Libyan military officers have entered the country.

Justice Minister Amadou Morou said late Friday that the Libyan chief of staff of the air force, his pilot and the commanders of two Libyan military regions have arrived in Niger. Morou declined to name the officers.

Morou condemned an attempted attack on the Embassy of Niger in Tripoli on Wednesday night by a group of 20 armed men who tried to force their way in. He said the compound is now being offered protection by Libya's National Transitional Council.

Libya's new rulers had set a Saturday deadline for Gaddafi loyalists in Bani Walid, Sirte, and Sabha, deep in Libya's southern desert - the three key remaining Gaddafi bastions - to surrender or face an offensive.

At the Libyan fighters' checkpoint outside Bani Walid, the spokesman for the revolutionaries, Abu Seif Ghneya, said there was no fighting or casualties overnight but that there would be a final push toward the town centre today.

Before the Friday evening assault on Bani Walid, Gaddafi holdouts inside had fired mortars and rockets toward the fighters' position in a desert dotted with green shrubs and white rocks, killing at least one and wounding several. Loud explosions were heard about six miles from the front line during the day, followed by plumes of black smoke in the already hazy air. Nato planes circled above.

Nato says it is acting under a UN mandate to guarantee the safety of Libya's civilian population. Its bombing campaign has been crucial to the advance of Gaddafi's military opponents.

Also Friday, Interpol said it had issued its top most-wanted alert for the arrest of Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and the country's ex-chief of military intelligence, Abdullah al-Senoussi. The three are sought by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity, and there have been reports Seif al-Islam is in Bani Walid.

AP