NTC forces capture Gaddafi bastion

Fighters with Libya's interim government have captured the town of Bani Walid, firing their guns into the air and hoisting the country's new flag over the centre of one of the final bastions of Muammar Gaddafi's loyalists.

A Reuters team that drove into the heart of Bani Walid, in desert hills 150 km (90 miles) south of Tripoli, saw no signs of resistance from supporters of the deposed leader who have been holed up inside the town for more than six weeks.

"Bani Walid is completely free. It is liberated, 100 percent," said Mohammed Shakonah, a military commander with the National Transitional Council (NTC).

The apparent capture of Bani Walid brought Libya's new rulers a step closer to being in full control of the vast, oil-producing North African country almost two months after rebels entered Tripoli and ended 42 years of one-man rule by Gaddafi.

Along with Gaddafi's home town of Sirte, Bani Walid was one of Libya's last sources of armed resistance to the NTC.

Bursts of gunfire, fireworks and car horns merged into a cacophony on streets littered with empty bullet casings and lined with buildings damaged or destroyed by the fighting.

Some buildings were still ablaze just before sundown on Monday, others were flattened by NATO air strikes. Several shops looked like they had been looted. Thick black smoke billowed in the distance.

An NTC fighter in camouflage fatigues and with an AK-47 assault rifle hanging from his shoulder, embraced a medical worker and both men wept in joy.

"If Gaddafi could see this, he would give up," said Abdelfattah, another NTC fighter in the central square.

There was no evidence of civilians joining in the street celebrations in Bani Walid, home to the Warfalla, Libya's biggest tribe, whose members are traditional supporters of Gaddafi.

"This is a very important day because it now means Gaddafi doesn't have even one town in Libya," said Ayad Sayed al Russi, a senior NTC commander. "We hope that the residents who fled will come back now that the town is free."

The town had been under siege for weeks, with hundreds of Gaddafi loyalists dug into its steep valleys and hills resisting advancing interim government forces.

NTC officials had been negotiating with Bani Walid's tribal leaders for its surrender.