hardened Libyan combatants joined the fight to capture a desert town from well-armed loyalists of Muammar Gaddafi Sunday after the head of Libya's interim council warned that the ousted leader still posed a threat. Gaddafi troops firing rockets and mortars held up local fighters trying to push into the northern outskirts of Bani Walid, which lies 150 km southeast of Tripoli. Scores of uniformed soldiers and experienced fighters of the ruling Transitional National Council (NTC) reinforced their comrades who have met fierce resistance from Gaddafi forces since Friday, saying they would attack within hours. NTC chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil, a former Gaddafi justice minister who had run the council from the eastern city of Benghazi, arrived in Tripoli Saturday for the first time since bands of anti-Gaddafi rebels captured it on Aug. 23. “Brotherhood and warmth — that's what we will depend on to build our future. We are not at a time of retribution,” Abdel Jalil declared. “This is the time of unity and liberation.” The NTC has said it will complete its move to Tripoli this week, although previous timelines for this have slipped. Interim Oil and Finance Minister Ali Tarhouni said Saturday oil would be pumped at some fields within days and pre-war output levels would be restored within a year. But Abdel Jalil said Libya could not yet be declared “liberated” from the man who ruled it for 42 years. “Gaddafi still has money and gold,” he said. “These are the fundamental things that will allow him to find men.
