Fight on for Gaddafi stronghold

Fighters advanced on one of Muammar Gaddafi's last remaining bastions on Sunday, as Libya's new leaders called for the ousted strongman to stand trial in his homeland when captured.

A commander of the fighters said talks aimed at securing the peaceful surrender of Gaddafi's forces in Bani Walid had been abandoned and an assault on the oasis town southeast of Tripoli was imminent.

"We are getting ready," said Mohamed al-Fassi, checkpoint commander in the village of Shishan, 70 kilometres (45 miles) north of Bani Walid.

"Negotiations between Kadhafi's men and our forces have ended. These people aren't serious. Twice they promised to surrender only to go back on their word," he said.

A local spokesman for the National Transitional Council (NTC) now governing Libya said the frontline stood 15 to 20 kilometres (10 to 12 miles) north of Bani Walid and that troops were poised for an advance.

"We are waiting for orders to go into the city," Mahmud Abdelaziz said.

"Last night the Gaddafi forces tried to move out. Our fighters responded and there were some clashes lasting a few minutes."

The new government's interim interior minister Ahmed Darrat told AFP he was confident the town's capture was imminent. "We expect Bani Walid to be freed today or tomorrow," he said.

The deputy chief of the military council in the town of Tarhuna, north of Bani Walid, said a last round of negotiations would be held with tribal leaders to try to secure the peaceful entry of the new government's troops.

"We are waiting for them," Abdulrazzak Naduri told AFP

"Everything depends on the negotiations. If they refuse (to surrender), we will advance, If the negotiations go well, we will enter and hoist the flag without a fight. It's the last chance, we can't extend our ultimatum again."

On Saturday, Naduri said Gaddafi's son Saadi was still in Bani Walid, along with other senior figures of the fallen regime, while prominent son Seif Al-Islam had fled the town.

Preparations for the offensive appeared to be well underway even though NTC chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil said in Benghazi on Saturday that a truce declared until September 10 remained in force.

"We are in a position of strength to enter any city but we want to avoid any bloodshed, especially in sensitive areas such as tribal areas," he said, adding military deployments would continue during the ceasefire.

Civilians who managed to flee Bani Walid said that most of Gaddafi's forces had now fled taking their heavy weaponry with them into the surrounding mountains.

Nato said its warplanes had hit an ammunition storage facility near Bani Walid on Saturday.

Alliance aircraft also hit a barracks, a military police camp and 11 other targets in Gaddafi's hometown Sirte on the Mediterranean coast and carried out bombing raids on two other towns that remain in the hands of Gaddafi forces, Buwayrat west of Sirte and Hun in the Al-Jufra oasis.

NTC forces east of Sirte on Sunday moved to disarm members of the Hussnia tribe suspected of loyalty to the ousted strongman, an AFP correspondent reported.

The NTC spokesman in London Guma Al-Gamaty said that when captured, Gaddafi should stand trial in Libya not before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague that has issued an arrest warrant for suspected crimes against humanity committed during the Libyan uprising.

In fresh revelations from documents obtained by media and rights groups in Tripoli, Britain's Sunday Times said London invited two of Gaddafi's sons to the headquarters of the SAS special forces unit in 2006 as former premier Tony Blair tried to build ties with the Libyan regime.

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