Sirte assault on hold as NATO blasts Muammar Gaddafi's hometown
A day after entering the coastal city in a surprise assault, NTC fighters pulled back on the Western side while east of Sirte others awaited their marching orders.
Plans by new regime forces in Libya to launch a fresh assault on Muammar Gaddafi's hometown appeared to be on hold today on the orders of NATO which was blasting the city, fighters said.A day after entering the coastal city in a surprise assault, NTC fighters pulled back on the Western side while east of Sirte others awaited their marching orders, AFP correspondents said.On the political front, National Transitional Council chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil said an interim government would be announced next week and that Gaddafi 's internationally banned weapons were now under NTC control."There is no fighting today, there is nobody inside the city," said frontline fighter Ahmed Mohammed Tajuri."We were ordered to leave downtown Sirte because NATO has a mission to do there. We left after 7 pm (1500 GMT) last night," he told AFP, as other fighters said plans to attack Sirte were postponed until Monday.Speaking from the Western front, he said fighters were now deployed about one kilometre (less than a mile) from Sirte.As he spoke NATO warplanes few overhead, an AFP correspondent said, adding that coalition forces had carried out several strikes already this morning on targets inside Sirte.East of the city, NTC fighters cleaned and oiled Kalashnikov assault rifles and machine guns as dozens of pick-up trucks ferried other fighters to the eastern gate of the city.