Gunbattles rage in Sirte as hospitals overflow with wounded

Libyan transitional government forces said they had cornered Muammar Gaddafi loyalists in the centre of the deposed leaders hometown on Monday, but many desperate civilians were still trying to flee the fierce street fighting.The protracted battle for Sirte, built up by Gaddafi as a showpiece town on the Mediterranean coast, has raised concerns that civilian casualties could breed long-term hostility making it hard for the National Transitional Council (NTC) to unite the vast North African state once the fighting is over.NTC commanders say they are only using light weapons, but government tanks have also moved into road intersections and pounded Gaddafi positions, while pick-up trucks mounted with heavy weapons as well as foot soldiers darted out of cover to fire wildly up ahead. At times, NTC units came under fire from their own side, a hazard becoming more acute as the rag-tag groups of government volunteers attacking from the east and west close in on one another.Most of the government forces attacking Sirte are from other towns and do not have much help from the inside as they did they when they captured the capital Tripoli on Aug. 23 and ended 42 years of one-man rule by Gaddafi after six months of civil war.Many civilians from Sirte are also fighting alongside the remnants of Gaddafis army in the belief the outsiders will commit atrocities once they capture the city of 75,000 people. NTC fighters paraded three young men in civilian dress who they said were Gaddafi loyalists.