Abu Grein, Libya: Forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in his hometown of Sirte are urging people to fight or be killed by bloodthirsty attackers, complicating efforts to arrange a peaceful surrender of the city, opponents of the Libyan leader said on Monday.
Anti-Gaddafi forces are approaching Sirte, 450km east of Tripoli by road, from east and west. They say they would rather not fight for the city but talks seem stalled.
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"I can't say there's any real progress because we have difficulty with the regime people from Tripoli," said Hassan Droy, the National Transitional Council (NTC) representative for Sirte, who is based in the eastern city of Benghazi.
"They're trying to tell the people that the battle is no longer for Gaddafi but to protect themselves," he told Reuters, adding that three days ago a message from Gaddafi was broadcast in Sirte, urging people to fight to save themselves.
Gaddafi's own whereabouts are unknown.
Another spokesman, Mohammad Zawawi, said Gaddafi loyalists were telling people that the rebels wanted to kill them.
"But we are sending a clear message that our troops won't kill anyone."
That message had been passed via satellite telephone to rebel sympathisers in Sirte, who were spreading it, he said.
Sirte, which Gaddafi developed from a small village to a city of 100,000 people, is the ousted leader's last bastion on the coast, where most of Libya's six million people live. Many of the city's residents belong to his Gaddafa tribe.
