Libya rebels launch ‘all-out’ attack on Kadafi stronghold Surt

Troops allied with Libya’s transitional government launched an “all-out” assault Thursday on Moammar Kadafi’s birthplace, Surt, reaching the coastal city’s outskirts on several fronts, government spokesmen said.

It was the largest military operation since Tripoli fell last month to rebel forces, forcing Kadafi, his family and loyalist officials to flee.

Troops advanced on four fronts from the west and south, said Jalal Gallal, a spokesman for the transitional administration, who called the offensive “an all-out attack.”

Mohammed Darrat, a spokesman for the rebel administration in the city of Misurata, about 110 miles northwest of Surt, said troops had advanced into Surt and met minimal resistance. Rebels reported their forces had suffered one dead and eight wounded.

The attack involved several thousand troops, the spokesmen said. A statement from the military command in Misurata said more than 900 gun trucks had taken part in the assault.

It was unclear at nightfall whether attacking troops remained within the city limits or had withdrawn to positions out of shelling range from pro-Kadafi forces.

The transitional government’s claims could not be immediately verified. Battlefield reports during the Libyan conflict have been notoriously inaccurate.

Surt is one of three major cities still held by forces loyal to Kadafi, who has urged his supporters to fight to the death.

The spokesmen said all of the attacking fighters at Surt were from Misurata, Libya’s third-most populous city, which became a symbol of the uprising when its volunteer forces pushed Kadafi’s troops from the city after a long and bloody siege. The Misurata brigades are widely considered to be among the most effective among the rebel militias.

In one case on Thursday, the troops had to withdraw from a traffic circle in an outlying area of Surt known as Abu Hadi, Gallal said. But he said the troops occupied the house of a well-known loyalist figure, Ahmed Ibrahim, a cousin of both Kadafi and the deposed leader’s chief spokesman, Musa Ibrahim.

The Kadafi and Ibrahim families are part of the same small tribe, which has enjoyed considerable privileges during Kadafi’s 42-year reign.

Gallal said one of Kadafi’s sons, Mutassim, a military commander, is believed to be in Surt and helping to coordinate the city’s defense.

Surt is about halfway between Tripoli and Benghazi on the Mediterranean coast. The other cities still in the hands of pro-Kadafi forces are Bani Walid, about 95 miles southeast of Tripoli, and Sabha, in the southern desert.

Officials of the transitional government have said they hoped to negotiate the surrender of all three cities. But talks have stalled, and rebel forces have moved closer and closer to Bani Walid as well as Surt.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has been bombing many military targets, including tanks, radar facilities and rocket launchers, in the vicinity of the three cities. But the alliance denies its airstrikes are coordinated with rebel forces and says the attacks are meant to protect civilians from gunmen loyal to the former leader.

Libya’s provisional government has said it cannot start the process of drafting a constitution and holding elections until all three areas declare their loyalty to the new administration.

patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com