NATO Warplanes Pound Gadhafi’s Hometown

With the focus moving away from Tripoli (and quickly, before the massacres there make the rebels look bad), the new focus of the war in Libya is on Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte, the site of several failed rebel offensives and now one of the regime’s last major holdings.

This led NATO warplanes to pound the city as top British officials, including Defense Minister Liam Fox, demanded that Gadhafi “accept defeat” and recognize that “the game is up.” There doesn’t appear to be any indication that Gadhafi himself is actually in Sirte, however.

Still, rebel troops from Misrata are massing on the outskirts, preparing for a full scale invasion of the town. The rebels promised to “keep going” until Gadhafi is eventually found and captured.

The rebels are likely not to be greeted warmly in Sirte, which has opposed past offensives. With the rebel faction on record with their plans for post-Gadhafi Libya involving mass arrests of former Gadhafi loyalists, the fall of the town is going to likely mean many of its citizens are going into the ramshackle prisons of the NATO-backed rebel faction.