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Diehard loyalists of Muammar Gaddafi fired barrages of rockets and mortars to repel an assault by Libyan interim government forces on one of their last bastions on Friday and also held off an advance on another.
Forced to retreat from Bani Walid by a heavily armed and well dug-in force estimated at several hundred, columns of fighters in pick-up trucks raced back out of the interior desert town after a day that began with talk of ending the siege and of capturing senior figures from the old ruling elite.
Separately, at Gaddafi's home town of Sirte on the coast, the forces of the National Transitional Council (NTC) closed in on pockets of resistance scattered across the city but there was no sign of a rapid end to a siege which has last for weeks.
Nearly four weeks after the rebel coalition overran Gaddafi's capital Tripoli, the reverse at Bani Walid was a blow to the new leadership, which has said a timetable for drawing up a democratic constitution and holding elections will not start until all of Libya's vast territory is "liberated."
"We have received orders to retreat. We have been hit by many rockets. We will come back later," Assad al-Hamuri, one of the fighters pulling out of Bani Walid, said amid a frantic withdrawal, marked by shouting, anger and disappointment.
"We need to reorganise troops and stock up on ammunition," said another fighter, Saraj Abdelrazaq, as fighting followed a rhythm of ebb and flow familiar since the uprising against 42 years of maverick personal rule by Gaddafi began in February.
"We are waiting for orders to go back in again."
Despite the frustrations of trying to capture remaining territory, as well as Gaddafi himself and several of his sons,
Libya's new leaders are getting on with the business of government, trying to impose order on a host of irregular armed forces and restart the oil-based economy.
Their latest foreign visitor was Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who hailed the fate of Gaddafi as an example to Turkey's neighbour Syria. He also called on the people of Sirte to give up the fight and make peace.
HEAVY FIRE
At Bani Walid, a Reuters correspondent watched anti-Gaddafi fighters move forward under mortar, rocket and sniper fire, edging from house to house and sheltering behind walls from shrapnel and bullets. The central market and a faux-ancient castle built for Gaddafi on a hilltop were heavily defended.
Many of the town's 100,000 residents fled in recent days.
It was also unclear how many civilians remain in Sirte, a sprawling city of a similar size, which Gaddafi created out of his native village. NTC fighters, who brought up scores of machinegun-mounted pickup trucks and a handful of tanks, spoke of scattered clusters of heavily armed opponents dug in there.
Contact has not been possible with Gaddafi loyalists inside the two towns, as well as at Sabha, deep in Libya's southern desert where several senior Gaddafi aides have been lately.
Details of developments around Sabha are scant, but a British military spokesman said that British jets had fired about two dozen Brimstone missiles to destroy a group of Libyan armoured vehicles near the desert town on Thursday.
TURKISH VISIT
Erdogan, visiting a day after the French and British leaders credited by the NTC with rallying support for them abroad, displayed Turkey's Muslim credentials by joining NTC chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil for Friday prayers at Tripoli's newly renamed Martyrs' Square, once a showcase for Gaddafi.
While some in Tripoli recalled Ankara's initial hesitation to join its NATO allies against Gaddafi, many see in Muslim, democratic Turkey -- the colonial power in Libya until a century ago -- a model for their country to follow.
"Maybe it's in his own interests," said 84-year-old Mawloud Mohammed Zgalli said as he waited for Erdogan to speak. "He's a decent man, but he helped the Muslims. You have to thank him."
Erdogan addressed people in beleaguered Sirte, where supplies have been cut off: "From here I call out to Sirte," he said. "Come, right now ... embrace your brothers in Tripoli. Spilling blood does not suit us. Let us come together."
COMPLEX LOYALTIES
Gaddafi, 69, remains at large and commands loyalty from at least hundreds of armed men, concentrated in areas from Sirte through Bani Walid and Sabha, creating a corridor in the vast empty spaces of the desert through which members of Gaddafi's family and senior aides have reached Algeria and Niger.
Niger's justice minister said on Friday it would not send one of Gaddafi's sons, Saadi, back to Libya. "You have to understand that Niger, concerning its international obligations, cannot hand over someone to a place or country where the person has no chance of getting a fair trial and risks the death penalty," Marou Amadou told a news conference.
"If that person was, however, wanted by an independent tribunal or a state that has universal competence to try them, then Niger will do its duty," he said.
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Muammar Gaddafi and his son Saif al-Islam for alleged war crimes, but not for Saadi, who is known abroad chiefly for his obsession with soccer.
In Bani Walid, traditional stronghold of Libya's biggest tribal grouping, a complex mix of loyalties is a proving ground for the ability of the new leadership in Tripoli to hold together a nation whose historic divisions Gaddafi exploited during his four decades of idiosyncratic and often bloody rule.
NTC fighters said they had arrested several suspected Gaddafi loyalists. But one such man, sitting on the back of a pickup truck in handcuffs, protested his innocence.
"I'm not with the militia, I'm innocent. I'm free to support whoever I want," said the man, clutching a green medallion -- a symbol of Gaddafi support.
At Sirte's outskirts, NTC fighters massed around a breeze-block mosque while others drove towards the centre accompanied by two tanks. Mohammed, a 23-year-old fighter from the city of Misrata, said the resistance was coming from pockets of Gaddafi supporters dotted around a city which Gaddafi developed from a village into a would-be "capital of Africa."
"Gaddafi has been gathering heavy weapons for 42 years ... We are regrouping, pulling back, hitting them with heavy weapons and then advancing again."
Gaddafi's spokesman said he had thousands of supporters.
"We are telling you that as of tomorrow there will be atrocious attacks by NATO and their agents on the ground on the resisting towns of Sirte, Bani Walid and Sabha," Moussa Ibrahim told Syrian-based Arrai television late on Thursday.
The television said 16 people had been killed in Sirte, including women and children, as a result of NATO bombing, and that Gaddafi forces had destroyed a NATO warship and vehicles.
A NATO spokesman dismissed those claims and said its air forces struck military targets, including a tank and several missile systems, but was unaware of any civilian casualties.
"It is clear," he said, "that Gaddafi forces are once again trying to spread rumours, claiming unsubstantiated victories and attempting to terrorise the local population."
Forced to retreat from Bani Walid by a heavily armed and well dug-in force estimated at several hundred, columns of fighters in pick-up trucks raced back out of the interior desert town after a day that began with talk of ending the siege and of capturing senior figures from the old ruling elite.
Separately, at Gaddafi's home town of Sirte on the coast, the forces of the National Transitional Council (NTC) closed in on pockets of resistance scattered across the city but there was no sign of a rapid end to a siege which has last for weeks.
Nearly four weeks after the rebel coalition overran Gaddafi's capital Tripoli, the reverse at Bani Walid was a blow to the new leadership, which has said a timetable for drawing up a democratic constitution and holding elections will not start until all of Libya's vast territory is "liberated."
"We have received orders to retreat. We have been hit by many rockets. We will come back later," Assad al-Hamuri, one of the fighters pulling out of Bani Walid, said amid a frantic withdrawal, marked by shouting, anger and disappointment.
"We need to reorganise troops and stock up on ammunition," said another fighter, Saraj Abdelrazaq, as fighting followed a rhythm of ebb and flow familiar since the uprising against 42 years of maverick personal rule by Gaddafi began in February.
"We are waiting for orders to go back in again."
Despite the frustrations of trying to capture remaining territory, as well as Gaddafi himself and several of his sons,
Libya's new leaders are getting on with the business of government, trying to impose order on a host of irregular armed forces and restart the oil-based economy.
Their latest foreign visitor was Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who hailed the fate of Gaddafi as an example to Turkey's neighbour Syria. He also called on the people of Sirte to give up the fight and make peace.
HEAVY FIRE
At Bani Walid, a Reuters correspondent watched anti-Gaddafi fighters move forward under mortar, rocket and sniper fire, edging from house to house and sheltering behind walls from shrapnel and bullets. The central market and a faux-ancient castle built for Gaddafi on a hilltop were heavily defended.
Many of the town's 100,000 residents fled in recent days.
It was also unclear how many civilians remain in Sirte, a sprawling city of a similar size, which Gaddafi created out of his native village. NTC fighters, who brought up scores of machinegun-mounted pickup trucks and a handful of tanks, spoke of scattered clusters of heavily armed opponents dug in there.
Contact has not been possible with Gaddafi loyalists inside the two towns, as well as at Sabha, deep in Libya's southern desert where several senior Gaddafi aides have been lately.
Details of developments around Sabha are scant, but a British military spokesman said that British jets had fired about two dozen Brimstone missiles to destroy a group of Libyan armoured vehicles near the desert town on Thursday.
TURKISH VISIT
Erdogan, visiting a day after the French and British leaders credited by the NTC with rallying support for them abroad, displayed Turkey's Muslim credentials by joining NTC chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil for Friday prayers at Tripoli's newly renamed Martyrs' Square, once a showcase for Gaddafi.
While some in Tripoli recalled Ankara's initial hesitation to join its NATO allies against Gaddafi, many see in Muslim, democratic Turkey -- the colonial power in Libya until a century ago -- a model for their country to follow.
"Maybe it's in his own interests," said 84-year-old Mawloud Mohammed Zgalli said as he waited for Erdogan to speak. "He's a decent man, but he helped the Muslims. You have to thank him."
Erdogan addressed people in beleaguered Sirte, where supplies have been cut off: "From here I call out to Sirte," he said. "Come, right now ... embrace your brothers in Tripoli. Spilling blood does not suit us. Let us come together."
COMPLEX LOYALTIES
Gaddafi, 69, remains at large and commands loyalty from at least hundreds of armed men, concentrated in areas from Sirte through Bani Walid and Sabha, creating a corridor in the vast empty spaces of the desert through which members of Gaddafi's family and senior aides have reached Algeria and Niger.
Niger's justice minister said on Friday it would not send one of Gaddafi's sons, Saadi, back to Libya. "You have to understand that Niger, concerning its international obligations, cannot hand over someone to a place or country where the person has no chance of getting a fair trial and risks the death penalty," Marou Amadou told a news conference.
"If that person was, however, wanted by an independent tribunal or a state that has universal competence to try them, then Niger will do its duty," he said.
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Muammar Gaddafi and his son Saif al-Islam for alleged war crimes, but not for Saadi, who is known abroad chiefly for his obsession with soccer.
In Bani Walid, traditional stronghold of Libya's biggest tribal grouping, a complex mix of loyalties is a proving ground for the ability of the new leadership in Tripoli to hold together a nation whose historic divisions Gaddafi exploited during his four decades of idiosyncratic and often bloody rule.
NTC fighters said they had arrested several suspected Gaddafi loyalists. But one such man, sitting on the back of a pickup truck in handcuffs, protested his innocence.
"I'm not with the militia, I'm innocent. I'm free to support whoever I want," said the man, clutching a green medallion -- a symbol of Gaddafi support.
At Sirte's outskirts, NTC fighters massed around a breeze-block mosque while others drove towards the centre accompanied by two tanks. Mohammed, a 23-year-old fighter from the city of Misrata, said the resistance was coming from pockets of Gaddafi supporters dotted around a city which Gaddafi developed from a village into a would-be "capital of Africa."
"Gaddafi has been gathering heavy weapons for 42 years ... We are regrouping, pulling back, hitting them with heavy weapons and then advancing again."
Gaddafi's spokesman said he had thousands of supporters.
"We are telling you that as of tomorrow there will be atrocious attacks by NATO and their agents on the ground on the resisting towns of Sirte, Bani Walid and Sabha," Moussa Ibrahim told Syrian-based Arrai television late on Thursday.
The television said 16 people had been killed in Sirte, including women and children, as a result of NATO bombing, and that Gaddafi forces had destroyed a NATO warship and vehicles.
A NATO spokesman dismissed those claims and said its air forces struck military targets, including a tank and several missile systems, but was unaware of any civilian casualties.
"It is clear," he said, "that Gaddafi forces are once again trying to spread rumours, claiming unsubstantiated victories and attempting to terrorise the local population."
