Libyan fighters on September 9 clashed with Muammar Qaddafi’s supporters inside Bani Walid, one of the last towns holding out against the country’s new rulers, the former rebels said. Abdullah Kenshil, the former rebels’ chief negotiator, said they were fighting gunmen positioned in houses in the town and the hills that overlooked it. Anti-Qaddafi forces were moving in from the east and south, and the fighters deepest inside Bani Walid were clashing with Qaddafi’s men about 2 km from the centre of the town, Kenshil said. “They are inside the city. They are fighting with snipers.”
The National Transitional Council (NTC) had set a Saturday (September 10) deadline for the town to surrender or face an offensive. Kenshil said the Friday evening attack was provoked by Qaddafi’s forces firing rockets from inside Bani Walid at NTC positions around the town. “They forced this on us and it was in self-defence,” he said. He said three Qaddafi loyalists had been wounded and three killed, while the former rebels had one dead and four wounded. He said the NTC had taken seven prisoners. Kenshil said the NTC believed there were about 600 Qaddafi supporters in and around Bani Walid. “Snipers are scattered over the hills and we want to chase them,” he said. “There is hand-to-hand combat. The population is afraid so we have to go and protect civilians.”