"A city under siege, a rising death toll and
hospitals filling with men wounded by gunfire were unmistakable signs
Sunday that war has returned to the Libyan town of Bani Walid,
imperiling the country’s fragile political transition.
At least 22 people have been killed in the last week and hundreds more
injured in fighting around the city, a one-time bastion of support for
Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi that has shrugged off the new government’s
authority.
The violence, rooted in old enmities and nudged by fresh outrages, has
pitted militias from a rival town against fighters in Bani Walid, a
hilltop city in western Libya where, according to government officials,
wanted men have fled.
Residents of the city say that the electric and gas supplies have been
cut off and that the militias encircling the town, including many from
the coastal city of Misurata, are shelling it indiscriminately. On
Saturday, the United Nations representative for Libya warned all sides
“to abide by humanitarian principles” and expressed concern at reports
of growing civilian casualties resulting from the shelling."
