Fighting raged Wednesday near Muammar Gaddafi’s Bab al-Azizya compound a day after it was captured by rebels, as loyalist troops staged a fightback and the strongman boasted he went walkabout.
Thick smoke hung over the Bab al-Azizya complex, where rebels and Gaddafi’s forces were fighting early afternoon with light weapons, heavy machineguns, rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) and mortars, an AFP reporter said.
Fighting also spread to the nearby Abu Slim area, where loyalist troops were on the attack, in marked contrast to Tuesday’s battle for Bab al-Azizya when they fled as the rebels breached the gates.
Rebel commanders said however they were determined to push the loyalist troops out of the area, which houses the Rixos hotel where around 30 foreign journalists remain trapped.
Many streets were deserted in the city centre, with commanders saying dozens of pro-Gaddafi snipers have taken up positions.
“There are snipers above and around the perimeter of Bab al-Azizya; there are dozens of them but we don’t know where they are,” said the chief of a rebel group, Nuri Mohammed.
Two powerful blasts thought to be caused by an air attack rocked the capital early Wednesday as a NATO warplane flew overhead.
The whereabouts of the strongman himself and his family remained a mystery on Wednesday.
Rebel fighters said they had found no trace of Gaddafi when they swarmed through his compound on Tuesday, raiding his armoury, raising their flag and ripping the head off a statue of the strongman.
“Bab al-Azizya is fully under our control now. Colonel Gaddafi and his sons were not there; there is nobody,” said military spokesman Colonel Ahmed Bani “No one knows where they are.”
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