TRIPOLI, Libya - Libyan military officials said Wednesday that revolutionary forces could capture Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte within days.
The three-week-old siege of the Gadhafi stronghold on the Mediterranean coast has been largely stalemated. Fighters loyal to Libya's interim government traded shelling Wednesday with Gadhafi loyalists holed up in the centre of the city, but the fighters made no significant advances.
Defence Ministry spokesman Col. Ahmed Bani told reporters in Tripoli that fighters surround Sirte and "no more than 20 per cent is outside of rebel control."
"We've reached the point where we will be able to completely dominate Sirte in the next few days," he said.
Still, the 20 per cent referred to the main residential area of Sirte that the fighters have been unable to take despite heavy battles. Loyalists have been based in the Ouagadougou Conference Center, a hall Gadhafi built for international summits, and a nearby hospital, from which they have been able to dominate the surrounding residential areas.
Deputy Defence Minister Fawzy Abu Kataf said the forces are delaying an all-out assault on the city to allow residents to flee. But he insisted the city could fall within days.
"It is an ethical and humanitarian issue that is delaying the liberation," he said. "We just need the Libyan residents from Sirte to get out of the way. ...It is going to two to three days till liberation."
Fighters earlier this week took the strategic suburb of Abu Hadi, 10 miles (16 kilometres) south of the city centre, allowing them to encircle the city on three sides -- with the fourth side blocked by the Mediterranean Sea.
Abu Hadi is a centre for Gadhafi's tribe, the Gadhadhfa, and the capture set off a looting spree by fighters, who broke into and burned homes of tribe members, making off with gold and other possessions.
