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Tuesday, 4 October, 2011, 4:0 ( 2:0 GMT )
Editorial/OP-ED




'NTC Fighters Making Progress East of Sirte'
02/10/2011 18:46:00
National Transitional Council fighters returning from the front east of Sirte on Sunday are reported telling journalists that had captured a neighbourhood in the southwest of the city that was sheltering many Al Qathafi loyalists supporters.

Drisi Mayar is reported saying that ninety-five percent of Buhadi was under the NTC fighters' control. “This was an Al Qathafi stronghold. A lot of his relatives and clan members lived there,” he said, adding that there also was a small military base. “We took control yesterday. We had small clashes but it is under our control,” he said.

Hundreds of vehicles also streamed out of Sirte on the eastern front during a lull in fighting on Sunday.

People leaving the city with their families agreed that the situation in the city was “absolutely pathetic, especially in the hospitals”.

He told AFP: “We have no oxygen, no medicines. Wounded people die even before reaching the hospital. Many people have broken open the pharmacies in the city to bring medicines to the hospital but even that is exhausted now."

Meanwhile, journalists summoned by the National Transitional Council to a hanger on the outskirts of Benghazi on Saturday were shown about 200 recently discovered SAM-7 anti-aircraft missiles, a small slice of a much larger and potentially deadly stockpile that remains unaccounted for since the uprising against that toppled former Libyan leader Muammar Al Qathafi from power.

The Al Qathafi regime is thought to have purchased about 20,000 SAM-7 missiles, developed by the Soviet Union in the 1970s, which are capable of downing civilian aircraft at certain altitudes.

The NTC believes that 5,000 such missiles are loose in Libya, though according to the Sunday issue of the German newspaper Der Spiegel, NATO has privately put that number at 10,000,.

From NATO headquarters, the top U.S. commander for Africa said Saturday that the military mission in Libya was largely complete and NATO’s involvement could begin to wrap up as soon as next week after allied leaders meet in Brussels.

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