Sunday, March 27, 2011
Libyan rebel spokesman Claims Muammar Gaddafi's hometown had been captured
No independent verification of the rebel statement was immediately available.
"It's confirmed Sirte has fallen into pro-democracy hands," said the rebel spokesman, Shamsiddin Abdulmolah.
He said the rebels had not faced much resistance from pro-Gaddafi forces.
Celebratory gunfire erupted and car horns sounded in the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi as news of the rebel statement about Sirte spread.
The ramshackle rebel army has pushed west to retake a series of towns from pro-Gaddafi forces who are being pounded by Western air strikes.
Emboldened by the help of the air strikes, the rebels have rapidly reversed military losses in their five-week insurgency and regained control of all the main oil terminals in eastern Libya, as far as the town of Bin Jawad.
A Reuters reporter in Sirte, Gaddafi's hometown and an important military base about 150 km (90 miles) further along the coast, heard four blasts on Sunday night. It was unclear if they were in the town or its outskirts.
The reporter also saw a convoy of 20 military vehicles including truck-mounted anti-aircraft guns leaving Sirte and moving westwards towards Tripoli, along with dozens of civilian cars carrying families and stuffed with personal belongings.
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