Rebels poised for battle as Sirte deadline looms

The rebels were getting impatient. With the clock ticking towards Saturday's deadline for the surrender of Sirte they made one sortie too many.

With a whistle and a crash, the smooth tarmac ahead exploded into flashes of fire. Smoke plumes shot high into the air no more than 200 yards in front of The Daily Telegraph's vehicle, prompting a chaotic retreat. The incoming Grad rockets and tank shells were a reminder that the road to Sirte is long, straight and extremely dangerous.

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi might have disappeared but his troops, dug in on the eastern approach, show no signs of giving up his well-defended home town.

There was some of the heaviest fighting in three weeks on Friday as rebels retaliated with their own rocket salvos.

For two weeks Libya's rebels - victorious in the west - have waited while their political leaders negotiate a surrender with elders in Sirte.

The country's new leaders know that Gaddafi's hometown could still become a bloodbath, and have already delayed the deadline once to allow more time for a peaceful takeover - much to the frustration of hundreds of fighters gathered at the edge of Umm Saeda ready to race the 60 or so miles left to Sirte.

"The distance is close. The road is good but we are wary," said Ghazi Yassir, 32. He spent time in Gaddafi's prisons before being released in Benghazi, when the uprising began in February.

He estimated that it would still take at least a week to advance past the well-defended Red Valley and into the city.

"We know there is a lot of resistance. You can see the evidence for yourself," he added, pointing at a blanket.

Beneath lay the corpse of a Gaddafi loyalist. Half his skull had been destroyed by a bullet.

So far the talks, brokered by the sympathetic Firjan tribe inside the city, have made little progress. Gaddafi loyalists, and many civilians from his Gaddafa tribe, say they fear retribution and will only allow the country's new rulers to enter without weapons. And they want amnesties for those accused of crimes committed under Gaddafi. Neither is acceptable to the National Transitional Council, which fears a trap.

Tanks and artillery pieces were moving towards the front line ready for Saturday's big push.

"It has been frustrating," admitted Col Abdulsalaam Rishy, a few miles back from the front where Howitzer artillery crews were waiting for the deadline. "We are here to launch the battle and are ready to fight them but we must wait."

Sirte's long connection with Gaddafi - he was born just outside the town and attended primary school in what was then a quiet fishing port - have made it one of the last regime strongholds.

Many in the city have benefited from Gaddafi's 42-year reign. Under his rule it became the capital in all but name. Government departments were moved to Sirte and it was close to here that Gaddafi would meet visiting leaders in his desert tent. But with the rest of the coastline now under rebel control, the city's wealth has left residents petrified they will face revenge at the hands of troops who have come from Benghazi.

Another weapon in the rebels' arsenal could be heard overhead on Friday outside Sirte: Nato war planes.

Six months ago they prevented the rebel stronghold of Benghazi being overrun. Now, they are destroying the tanks, armed pickups and rocket launchers that defend Sirte.

At the same time, they have been dropping thousands of leaflets urging Gaddafi fighters or his mercenaries to give up on a lost cause.

One, directed at the thousands of foreign troops recruited by the old regime, pictures a one dinar note with Gaddafi's image in flames.

"Non-Libyan fighters," it reads in Arabic. "This is the only money you will receive for continuing to endanger Libyan civilians!"