SIRTE, Libya (AP) — Libya's de facto leader said Wednesday he expected to declare total victory over forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi in less than a week, as the International Committee of the Red Cross warned thousands of civilians were still trapped in the fugitive leader's besieged home city.
Despite heavy resistance, revolutionary forces are closing in on Gadhafi's forces in the ousted dictator's hometown of Sirte, the most important of two major cities yet to be cleared of armed supporters of the old regime.
But humanitarian workers are struggling to help civilians who lack food, clean water and other basic necessities. Red Cross staff evacuated 25 war-wounded and other patients, including a newborn baby in its incubator, from the main Ibn Sina hospital in the coastal city on Monday and Tuesday. Few doctors or nurses remained, the Red Cross said in a statement.
"The situation inside the hospital is very chaotic and distressing," the ICRC's Patrick Schwaerzler said. "When we arrived there, we found patients with severe burns and shrapnel wounds. Some had sustained recent amputations. A few were half-conscious. They were lying among crowds of other people who were also asking us for help."
The hospital has been partly destroyed and is no longer functional, he added.
Most families have fled the fighting, but a few remain, either because they are fighting revolutionary forces or had no choice.
"My father is old and disabled and I couldn't leave him. He's 90 years old and lives with me, so we stayed. Whatever happens, we can do nothing about it," 42-year-old Ali Aggi said as revolutionary officials visited his home while his three sons looked on. His father, also named Ali, lay in bed, too old and feeble to talk.
NTC officials promised to arrange to have his father evacuated, giving Ali a chance to leave with the rest of his family. He said he would make a decision in coming days.
Libya's Red Crescent was also transferring 18 Egyptians, Palestinians and Lebanese who had gathered at the hospital and wanted to leave the city to Harawa, some 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of Sirte. They will then go to a camp for displaced people in the eastern city of Benghazi.
"We saw hundreds of civilians fleeing Sirte yesterday and today, but thousands are still caught inside the city," Schwaerzler said, adding there is no electricity and civilians have received no food for weeks.
He called on all parties to take all possible precautions to spare civilians.
More than 20,000 people, among them many women, children and elderly people, have so far left their homes in Sirte. In addition, dozens of people have been arrested in recent days.
Libya's new rulers have promised to declare victory after Sirte is captured and to name a new government that will guide the oil-rich North African nation to elections within eight months.
"I hope that liberation will be declared in less than a week, after we free Sirte, and within less than a month we will form a transitional government and the youth and women will have a role in that," Mustafa Abdul-Jalil said Wednesday.
Ousted leader Gadhafi is still on the run and his supporters also hold the desert enclave of Bani Walid. But the new leaders say Sirte's capture will give them full control of the country's ports and harbors, allowing them to move forward with efforts to restore normalcy and establish a democracy.
Abdul-Jalil made his assertion at a joint news conference with Tunisian Prime Minister Caid Essebsi, who was visiting the eastern city of Benghazi to restore the two countries' once-lucrative trade ties.
Essebsi met with Abdul-Jalil and other Libyan officials during his one-day visit, his first trip since Gadhafi was forced into hiding as Tripoli fell to revolutionary forces in late August.
Several world leaders and dignitaries have traveled to the oil-rich North African nation as the international community rallies around the new rulers. NATO also has promised to continue its mission until Gadhafi forces no longer pose a threat to civilians.
Spain, however, announced Wednesday that it is bringing back the four F-18 fighter jets it sent to Libya to help enforce its no-fly zone because the governing National Transitional Council controls most of the country's airspace.
She said they will be kept on call and Spain will continue to contribute to the NATO mission with two aerial refueling planes. It also will maintain a frigate and a coast guard surveillance plane to enforce the arms embargo against Libya, but will withdraw its submarine.
___
Al-Shahebi reported from Benghazi, Libya. Associated Press writer Kim Gamel contributed to this report.
32 comments