Celebrations in Bani Walid

in the air to celebrate and hoisting the Libyan flag on abandoned public buildings, he said.
Some of the fighters blasted the walls and windows with anti-tank rockets and Kalashnikov rifles.
Several rebel chiefs, whose fighters patrolled in vehicles mounted with heavy weapons, said the town was “almost liberated”, with only a few pockets of resistance left in its southern sector.
The town itself was deserted, with residents and foreign workers having fled since Sunday.
Fierce clashes in Bani Walid, which was accused of harbouring die-hard Gaddafi loyalists, cast a pall over celebrations for the first anniversary this week of the overthrow of his regime in a bloody conflict.
The fighting fanned old tribal feuds and underscored the difficulties of achieving national reconciliation.
A scaled-up offensive against Bani Walid since last week came in response to the death of Omran Shaaban, a former rebel from the city of Misrata who was credited with capturing Gaddafi.
Tribal leaders and commanders in Bani Walid, 185 kilometres southeast of Tripoli, had accused “lawless Misrata militias” of seeking to annihilate their historic rival. — AFP.