Libya forces drive on centre of Gaddafi hometown

SIRTE, Libya, Oct 10 (AFP): Libya's new regime forces were battling block by block towards the centre of Sirte on Monday, eyeing the symbolic prize of finally capturing Muammer Gaddafi's hometown after a month-long siege. But Kadhafi diehards were putting up fierce resistance and in their other remaining bastion, Bani Walid, they mounted a fightback, killing 17 National Transitional Council (NTC) fighters. A column of NTC troops backed by tanks thrust towards the centre of Sirte from positions east along the Mediterranean coast, coming under heavy rocket and small arms fire as they moved forwards house by house. "We are less than a kilometre and a half (a mile) from the central square," said NTC commander Tareq Drisa. Burned out vehicles littered the streets as NTC tanks and artillery pounded Kadhafi positions in open ground in the Dollar area of the city from a ridge some four kilometres (two and a half miles) inland, which they seized in a major advance on Sunday. On the third day of what commanders have touted as a final assault, NTC troops captured Sirte's showpiece conference centre, university campus and hospital on Sunday, AFP correspondents said. But the military gains came at a heavy price with medics reporting 13 dead and 90 wounded on the western side of the city alone. The bodies of another four NTC fighters were recovered from the city's Ibn Sina hospital following its capture from Gaddafi's forces. The hospital's upper floors were blasted after a massive firefight broke out late on Sunday, with intense machinegun and rocket fire.