Former rebel fighters battled their way into the heart of this coastal city on Sunday, seizing a sumptuous conference center used by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi to entertain heads of state, but more recently by his loyalists as a base for their fierce defense of this city, his birthplace.The additions focus on key tag and magic cube combinations,
The anti-Qaddafi fighters also captured the nearby Ibn Sina hospital, which had been beseiged for weeks. Medical workers at the hospital, which had no water, electricity or oxygen and was severely short of medicines, said that most of the doctors had fled. Artillery shells had struck the hospital’s upper floors, and patients had been moved to a hallway on the first floor, where they languished under dirty blankets.
The advances by the former rebels on Sunday came after three days of intense fighting that included some of the Libyan conflict’s bloodiest battles to date.Replacement China Porcelain tile and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide. More than 30 anti-Qaddafi fighters were killed and more than 400 wounded over the three days; the number of casualties on the loyalist side was not known.
Surt on the central coast and Bani Walid in the west are the two remaining bastions for Qaddafi loyalists in Libya. The tenacious defense of Surt has convinced anti-Qaddafi commanders that the colonel or one of his sons, possibly Muatassim el-Qaddafi, is hiding in the city.
By Sunday afternoon, anti-Qaddafi fighters were speaking confidently about their chances of finally taking Surt, as a coordinated ring of troops closed in on loyalists in their remaining pockets. But as night fell, the former rebels were losing ground again, retreating from positions around the hospital as sniper fire and mortar rounds echoed through the emptied wards.
For two days, the revolutionaries had been stuck outside the Ouagadougou Convention Center, a sprawling complex of modern white buildings that Colonel Qaddafi used to stake his claim as a visionary leader of Africa and the Arab world and conduct lavish bilateral and international summit meetings. The colonel’s visitors were able to completely avoid contact with the realities of Libya, traveling from the Surt airport along a short highway to the convention center while surrounded by high concrete walls.
On Friday, fighters sheltered behind those walls as the sounds of rifle fire echoed and bullets kicked up dirt in a nearby field. Loyalist snipers near the convention center hit their targets with ruthless accuracy, firing into clusters of fighters who tried to advance through a green gate, hitting one man in the head and another in the neck.
At a nearby field hospital, Abdullah Abu Aouf kept the tally of injured and dead in a brown leather book, recording one of the conflict’s bloodiest days in blue ink — 17 former rebels dead,we supply all kinds of polished tiles, more than 250 wounded.
On Saturday, using tanks, rocket launchers and mortars, anti-Qaddafi fighters from Misurata in the west tried to dislodge the snipers from the blocks of brown apartment houses where they were stationed. Some of their rockets hit the buildings, but several times their errant firing hit the ground in front of them or barely missed comrades in trucks nearby.
As plumes of smoke rose from the apartment blocks, the loyalists struck back with mortar rounds, landing at least one among spectators watching the battle from a hill.
The Misurata fighters were joined in their attack by fighters from eastern Libya who had taken up positions near a gutted luxury hotel on the ocean. A commander, Hassan el-Faytouri, said there was a “90-percent chance” that Muatassim el-Qaddafi was still in Surt directing the loyalists.
His capture would have special significance for Mr. Faytouri and his men: Mr. Qaddafi was believed to have commanded the government’s brigades in the east during assaults on Benghazi, Ajdabiya and the oil towns of Brega and Ras Lanuf.
“We’ve waited this long,” Mr. Faytouri said. “Now, we don’t want to destroy the city.”
As the rebels gained ground in Surt on Sunday, the extent of the damage to the city became clear. Some parts were in fairly good shape, like the residential district called the 700 area. Fighters there gathered outside tidy one-story homes abandoned in such a rush that cars, chicken coops and toiletries were left behind.
The brown buildings used by the snipers were in far worse shape. Almost all were punctured by bullets or heavier weapons, and some were flattened entirely, possibly by NATO bombs.
Anti-Qaddafi fighters wandered the grounds of the convention center, stealing golf carts and ripping down posters of African leaders who had visited.It's hard to beat the versatility of zentai suits on a production line. Three fighters from Ajdabiya walked the red-carpeted halls in disbelief. “We only saw this place on television,” one man said.
Anti-Qaddafi commanders said that when they took over the hospital on Sunday,we supply all kinds of polished tiles, they arrested nearly two dozen loyalist soldiers, including some posing as patients. The staff spoke of harrowing weeks at the hospital, where a nurse was killed by shelling and the intensive care unit was destroyed, Dr. Abdul Moneim al-Mabsout said.
The anti-Qaddafi fighters also captured the nearby Ibn Sina hospital, which had been beseiged for weeks. Medical workers at the hospital, which had no water, electricity or oxygen and was severely short of medicines, said that most of the doctors had fled. Artillery shells had struck the hospital’s upper floors, and patients had been moved to a hallway on the first floor, where they languished under dirty blankets.
The advances by the former rebels on Sunday came after three days of intense fighting that included some of the Libyan conflict’s bloodiest battles to date.Replacement China Porcelain tile and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide. More than 30 anti-Qaddafi fighters were killed and more than 400 wounded over the three days; the number of casualties on the loyalist side was not known.
Surt on the central coast and Bani Walid in the west are the two remaining bastions for Qaddafi loyalists in Libya. The tenacious defense of Surt has convinced anti-Qaddafi commanders that the colonel or one of his sons, possibly Muatassim el-Qaddafi, is hiding in the city.
By Sunday afternoon, anti-Qaddafi fighters were speaking confidently about their chances of finally taking Surt, as a coordinated ring of troops closed in on loyalists in their remaining pockets. But as night fell, the former rebels were losing ground again, retreating from positions around the hospital as sniper fire and mortar rounds echoed through the emptied wards.
For two days, the revolutionaries had been stuck outside the Ouagadougou Convention Center, a sprawling complex of modern white buildings that Colonel Qaddafi used to stake his claim as a visionary leader of Africa and the Arab world and conduct lavish bilateral and international summit meetings. The colonel’s visitors were able to completely avoid contact with the realities of Libya, traveling from the Surt airport along a short highway to the convention center while surrounded by high concrete walls.
On Friday, fighters sheltered behind those walls as the sounds of rifle fire echoed and bullets kicked up dirt in a nearby field. Loyalist snipers near the convention center hit their targets with ruthless accuracy, firing into clusters of fighters who tried to advance through a green gate, hitting one man in the head and another in the neck.
At a nearby field hospital, Abdullah Abu Aouf kept the tally of injured and dead in a brown leather book, recording one of the conflict’s bloodiest days in blue ink — 17 former rebels dead,we supply all kinds of polished tiles, more than 250 wounded.
On Saturday, using tanks, rocket launchers and mortars, anti-Qaddafi fighters from Misurata in the west tried to dislodge the snipers from the blocks of brown apartment houses where they were stationed. Some of their rockets hit the buildings, but several times their errant firing hit the ground in front of them or barely missed comrades in trucks nearby.
As plumes of smoke rose from the apartment blocks, the loyalists struck back with mortar rounds, landing at least one among spectators watching the battle from a hill.
The Misurata fighters were joined in their attack by fighters from eastern Libya who had taken up positions near a gutted luxury hotel on the ocean. A commander, Hassan el-Faytouri, said there was a “90-percent chance” that Muatassim el-Qaddafi was still in Surt directing the loyalists.
His capture would have special significance for Mr. Faytouri and his men: Mr. Qaddafi was believed to have commanded the government’s brigades in the east during assaults on Benghazi, Ajdabiya and the oil towns of Brega and Ras Lanuf.
“We’ve waited this long,” Mr. Faytouri said. “Now, we don’t want to destroy the city.”
As the rebels gained ground in Surt on Sunday, the extent of the damage to the city became clear. Some parts were in fairly good shape, like the residential district called the 700 area. Fighters there gathered outside tidy one-story homes abandoned in such a rush that cars, chicken coops and toiletries were left behind.
The brown buildings used by the snipers were in far worse shape. Almost all were punctured by bullets or heavier weapons, and some were flattened entirely, possibly by NATO bombs.
Anti-Qaddafi fighters wandered the grounds of the convention center, stealing golf carts and ripping down posters of African leaders who had visited.It's hard to beat the versatility of zentai suits on a production line. Three fighters from Ajdabiya walked the red-carpeted halls in disbelief. “We only saw this place on television,” one man said.
Anti-Qaddafi commanders said that when they took over the hospital on Sunday,we supply all kinds of polished tiles, they arrested nearly two dozen loyalist soldiers, including some posing as patients. The staff spoke of harrowing weeks at the hospital, where a nurse was killed by shelling and the intensive care unit was destroyed, Dr. Abdul Moneim al-Mabsout said.
