TRIPOLI, Libya — British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy offered broad support for Libya’s new rulers Thursday, promising to unfreeze billions in assets and give help in finding Moammar Gadhafi, even as revolutionary forces attempted their first significant assault on the ousted leader’s hometown.
The Western leaders — the first to visit since Tripoli fell late last month — got a welcome worthy of rock stars from jubilant Libyans grateful for NATO airstrikes that helped turn the tide of the war in their favour.
Staff at a hospital in Tripoli applauded the two men as they visited patients who had been wounded in the fighting, and schoolchildren in the eastern city of Benghazi wore T-shirts that said “Generations will never forget the favours and support from Great Britain” and “Sarkozy: Benghazi loves you.”
But tight security in both cities was a reminder of the fact that Gadhafi is still on the run and his supporters are holding out in three major strongholds, including his hometown of Sirte.
Gadhafi’s spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, chided the foreign leaders for their short trip, claiming that pro-Gadhafi fighters “are everywhere.”
He told the Syrian al-Rai TV station late Thursday, “This visit by Sarkozy and Cameron is a launch of an imperialist project in Libya.” Ibrahim did not say where he was, nor where Gadhafi was hiding.
In a surprise advance, revolutionary forces entered the outskirts of Sirte, 250 miles (400 kilometres) southeast of Tripoli along the Mediterranean coast, on Thursday and were facing rocket fire, according to a member of the military council from the nearby city of Misrata, which was leading the assault.
Ali Gliwan said fighters crossed a major highway overpass at the southwestern entrance of the city of about 100,000 people, met by rocket fire from Gadhafi loyalists. Jalal el-Gallal, a spokesman for Libya’s new leaders, said several thousand fighters were involved, backed with tanks and mechanized vehicles.
The fighters advanced into the city centre, clashing with snipers holed up in a high-rise office tower — and with members of an elite unit of Gadhafi troops barricaded in a residence of the leader on the beach, Gliwan said. He reported four fighters on his side had been killed and seven wounded.
An Associated Press Television News reporter saw the bodies of four Gadhafi loyalists near a vehicle that apparently had been struck by NATO. Snipers fired at fighters in the centre of town, although the revolutionary forces had largely pulled back to the outskirts by nightfall.
It was unclear how decisive the entry into Sirte was, however. Last week, fighters claimed to have fought their way into another loyalist stronghold, Bani Walid, west of Sirte, but they were driven back by powerful resistance and their movement there has stalled.
Gadhafi’s whereabouts remain a mystery, but his loyalists hold those two cities, the city of Sabha and other pockets in central and southern Libya.
Cameron acknowledged the fight wasn’t over and pledged NATO would continue to support the anti-Gadhafi fighters.
He also offered the former rebels help in finding Gadhafi and bringing him to justice, although he wasn’t more specific.