Street-to-street fighting raged on Thursday between Libyan rebels and loyalists of fugitive leader Muammar Gaddafi in the city of Sirte as the battle entered its final stages, Arab media reported.
“Our fighters are carrying out fierce battles inside Sirte with the fighters of the tyrant,” a rebel fighter in Sirte told the Dubai-based Al Arabiya channel.
Rebel forces are saying they now control more than half the city but were still fighting to reach the centre of Gaddafi's birthplace.
The International Committee of the Red Cross warned of a humanitarian catastrophe inside Sirte because of the intensity of the fighting.
“People are dying in hospitals inside Sirte because they do not have the right treatment” the Red Cross said in a statement.
Sirte and Bani Walid are the final two Gaddafi bastions that the rebels have been struggling for weeks to control. - Sapa-dpa