Libyan Fighters Assault Main Gadhafi Base In Sirte

Tripoli, Oct 7: Revolutionary fighters on Friday assaulted a convention center in the center of Sirte that forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi turned into their main base, in what commanders said was a final offensive to crush resistance in the holdout city after weeks of siege.

The forces of Libya's new rulers were pushing into the Mediterranean coastal city from the west, east and south in heavy fighting, trying to squeeze Gadhafi loyalists into a smaller and smaller perimeter. The two sides battered each other with rockets, mortars and tanks, as Gadhafi snipers fired down on fighters advancing through housing complexes .

At least eight revolutionary fighters were killed and 125 were wounded, doctors said. Ambulances sped down Sirte's main avenue to a field hospital set up in an abandoned villa five miles (eight kilometers) from the center. Doctors said a senior commander, Ali Saeh of the Free Libya Brigade, was injured, shot twice by a sniper as he led fighters through loyalist forces in a residential area.

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