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“There are around 100 and 150 men armed with heavy weapons who are attacking. We have asked for the army to intervene, but the defence ministry and NTC have let us down,” he said.

“(The gunmen) took control and hoisted the green flag on some districts, some important districts in the centre of the city,” Warfelli added.

“We’re out of the frying pan into the fire. We’ve been warning about this for the past two months.”

Fotmani, said the assailants had circled the former rebels’ base.

“The compound of thuwar is surrounded on all sides by loyalists of Gaddafi who are attacking it with all kinds of weapons,” said Fotmani.

“The attackers are carrying green flags,” symbol of the Gaddafi regime, he said from inside the base.

Fotmani said the base belonged to the May 28 Brigade, a unit of former rebels attached to the defence ministry.

“The attackers shouted ’Allah, Moamer, Libya and that’s it!,” he said, referring to a slogan popularised by Gaddafi loyalists during his rule.

“Yesterday they had distributed leaflets saying “We will be back soon. We will take the rats out,’” Fotmani added.

“I call upon Libya to save Bani Walid thuwar urgently. Their ammunition is almost over.”

He also said ambulances were unable to evacuate those wounded because there were “snipers postioned on a school and a mosque in the vicinity” of the attack.

Bani Walid was one of the last pro-Gaddafi bastions to fall in the bloody uprising against the former dictator’s rule.

The capture of Bani Walid was followed days later by the fall of the longtime strongman’s hometown Sirte in a battle which also led to his killing and marked the “liberation” of Libya.

Agence France-Presse