Many residents of Sirte, Muammar Gaddafi's birth-place, blame Libya's new rulers and their Western allies for the death and destruction unleashed on their city by weeks of fighting. Most are reluctant to talk openly about their allegiances, for fear they will be branded as members of a pro-Gaddafi fifth column. Yet their anger is clear. “This country has been built around one man. If he is over, Libya will be over,” said a resident who gave his name as Al-Fatouri, standing outside his home on the outskirts of Sirte. “Gaddafi is like a picture frame. When part of the frame is hit, the whole picture will be destroyed, Libya will be destroyed,” he said. Sirte is the sternest test yet of the ability of the interim government, the National Transitional Council, to win over Gaddafi's tribe and prevent it from mounting an Iraq-style insurgency that would destabilise Libya and the region.
