Anti-Gaddafi fighters travel on a vehicle at a strategic checkpoint after retreating from the north of thebesieged city of Bani Walid September 19, 2011.
TRIPOLI - The Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) said Monday it has still no solidinformation about the whereabouts of former leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Amid reports that the NTC was kept out of the southeastern town of Bani Walid by the strongresistance of the remnant Gaddafi forces, military spokesman Ahmed Bani told a pressconference here that no matter where Gaddafi is, he is "part of the past now."
Meanwhile, the spokesman said Gaddafi's soldiers were "shooting " and "stealing" in Bani Walid.
Bani failed to confirm whether or not Gaddafi was in Bani Walid, where loyalists of Gaddafi hadambushed the NTC troops on Saturday and forced them into a retreat after killing at least sixNTC soldiers and wounding 20 others. He was neither able to give the exact number of theresisting Gaddafi fighters currently there.
On the prolonged clashes in Bani Walid, the NTC spokesman said there were "tactics andprocedures."
He said the NTC's offensive bid was upset by the geographical difficulties there. "Bani Walid isbetween mountains," he stressed, adding that the Gaddafi forces there still possesses snipersand long-range missiles.
But what is certain is that the town has been "100 percent surrounded" by the NTC fighters, Banisaid.
The NTC promises that it will not give up Bani Walid, and " would like to send the message to thepeople there that we (the NTC fighters) are coming," Bani added.
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