Libya battle for Kadafi hometown of Surt sees heavy fighting

Heavy fighting was reported Saturday in the battle for Moammar Kadafi’s hometown, while a military spokesman for Libya’s new government conceded that it has no idea where the former leader is hiding.

Fighters allied with the new government pushed farther into Surt, along Libya’s central Mediterranean coast, but again met stiff resistance from well-armed loyalists ensconced in the pro-Kadafi bastion.

The military command in nearby Misurata said that at least 24 of its fighters had been killed in Surt and at least 54 wounded, with many injured by loyalist mortar rounds or Grad missiles. There was no word on the casualties among civilians and pro-Kadafi forces.

The bloody battles for Surt and other loyalist strongholds have raised fear of a possible long-term insurgency in Libya. From hiding, Kadafi has called on his followers to fight to the death.

Col. Ahmed Omar Bani, the transitional government’s chief military spokesman, told reporters in Tripoli that authorities had no “certain information” about the whereabouts of Kadafi. Libya’s longtime ruler is believed to have fled the capital last month when it fell to the rebels.

At another besieged pro-Kadafi town, Bani Walid, fighters loyal to the new government looked to regroup Saturday after being routed Friday in their latest frontal assault on the heavily defended bastion southeast of Tripoli.

Pro-Kadafi forces have maintained control of three cities and a loose corridor of territory running from Surt through Libya’s immense hinterlands down to the southern desert town of Sabha, the other major Libyan town in the hands of Kadafi loyalists.

Sabha is a Saharan crossroads on the way to neighboring Niger, the West African nation that has been a favored destination of escaping Kadafi confidants. Saadi Kadafi, a son of the ex-leader, is among those who have sought refuge there.

There has been little confirmed news from isolated Sabha, but spokesman Bani said Saturday that the town has seen “furious fighting” in recent days. Sabha is now “on course to liberation,” he declared.

The military situation in Libya should improve “within a few days,” Bani said. “I assure you that it will not take long before the full liberation of Libya.” He gave no specific reason for his optimism.

The inevitably upbeat predictions from both sides have often proved erroneous during Libya’s more than 6-month-long civil conflict. The fighting has cost at least 30,000 lives, the provisional government says.

A spokesman for Kadafi told Reuters news agency Saturday that NATO bombs had struck a residential building and a hotel in Surt, killing 354 civilians. An alliance spokesman, Col. Roland Lavoie, cast doubt on the allegation, which was impossible to corroborate independently.

Allegations of civilian casualties from North Atlantic Treaty Organization strikes have been “systematically revealed to be unfounded or inconclusive,” Lavoie said in a statement.

NATO says it has bombed many military targets, including radar sites, armed vehicles and rocket launchers, in Surt and other Kadafi redoubts in recent weeks.

patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com