Pushing forward from Misrata in the west, Brega in the east, and desert positions in the south, they met fierce resistance and suffered heavy casualties in their efforts to reach the city.

[34] A few hours later, the Misrata military council announced that their fighters had taken control of the city center and the exit road, and were cleaning out pockets of resistance, particularly along the beachfront, where remnants of the Khamis Brigade were believed to be holding out.

A correspondent in Ras Lanuf said many villages that anti-Gaddafi fighters had entered were found to be deserted, suggesting that their inhabitants had been persuaded to flee by pro-Gaddafi elements.

[51][52] A BBC News correspondent reported that anti-Gaddafi fighters had made a particularly swift advance from the east as well, pushing deep into Sirte, and judged the battle to be tipping in favour of the interim government's forces.

[58] On 27 September, an NTC senior military commander in Tripoli announced that their forces had managed to secure the port and were battling for control of the city center, where snipers were halting their progress.

[62] On 28 September the NTC offensive continued, with the western and eastern opposition forces attempting to link up south of the city by capturing the airport, which they had already claimed to have seized on several occasions.

NTC fighters were still pinned down, for a third day, at the roundabout, and not even the arrival of five tanks managed to break the stalemate, as they quickly came under accurate loyalist rocket fire, missing them by only a few yards.

[3] On the morning of 29 September NTC forces pushing from both west and east once again captured the city's airport,[64] but were still facing rocket fire from the other side of the runway.

[67] On 2 October, an NTC source claimed that they had taken 95 percent of the town of Qasr Abu Hadi, just opposite of the airport south of the city,[68] which was home to many pro-Gaddafi loyalists and also a small military base.

[70] Another opposition source, however, stated that they were concentrating on the town and still targeting it, having learned from a captured loyalist that Mutassim Gaddafi was possibly holed up in that area.

Red Cross officials who had pulled back from the hospital near the city center described a dire situation, with patients dying from the lack of medical supplies and power shortages.

[75] Al Jazeera disputed an advance on Qasr Abu Hadi altogether, stating opposition troops were holding positions three kilometers from the town.

[76] The BBC confirmed that a new assault on Sirte had started, but noted that the offensive seemed un-coordinated, and that opposition rocket and artillery fire directed at the city appeared random, potentially endangering civilians.

[77] On 5 October, NTC forces claimed to have made a push into the center of Sirte, while their commander announced that they had taken control of half of the city and were expecting it to fall within two days.

[91][93] However, heavy fighting at the conference hall, the city center, the university building, Gaddafi's palace, and the Mauritanian Quarter continued well into the night.

[95] Meanwhile, eastern front troops were fighting in the Giza (Mauritanian) district, and western units were advancing towards Green square in the heart of Sirte.

[96] The previous night, under the cover of darkness and a sandstorm, loyalists had regained some ground on the northeastern edge of the city, forcing NTC fighters to pull back.

[97] Later in the day NTC forces took control of the Sabamaiyah residential area (or Seven Hundred complex), three kilometers inside the city, which was home to many pro-Gaddafi officers and commanders in the Army.

An NTC tank, driven by a lone operator, suicidally charged across an open field toward the university area in an attempt to breach the reinforced walls around it, which were still standing after 36 hours of constant rocket barrages.

[120] On 11 October, an advance force of 30 opposition fighters captured the police headquarters near the city center, having found the building empty while scouting enemy positions.

[137] On 14 October NTC forces advanced, once again, from the police headquarters into the Al Dollar neighbourhood and district 2, attempting to re-take the territory they lost the day before.

[142] Reuters reported widespread looting by the NTC fighters, most of them from Misrata,[143] with truckloads of stolen goods being driven away and homes being vandalized, angering residents both supporting Gaddafi and those neutral in the uprising.

[144] On 18 October, after two days of shelling, NTC fighters launched another offensive from the east, with approximately 1,000 troops surging into the remaining two neighbourhoods under loyalist control, Al Dollar and district 2.

[148] On 19 October, field commander Essam Baghhar, succeeding the late Bin Dardef in leading the Zintan Brigade, said the transitional government's fighters had counterattacked and pushed the loyalists back into the Number Two neighbourhood, taking control of Al Dollar, overnight.

[150] Some NTC fighters on the front line speculated that Muammar Gaddafi himself may have been in Sirte, judging by the strong resistance the loyalist forces were putting up, even after being heavily bombarded with artillery, rockets and tanks.

[152] In the hours that followed, NTC officials claimed that Muammar Gaddafi had been in the convoy that had fled earlier, and had been captured by rebels after being shot in the legs whilst trying to escape Sirte and had been taken away in an ambulance, although the reports were, at least for the immediate time following the announcement, unconfirmed.

[157] Several days later, new camera phone videos that emerged suggested that Gaddafi was captured, taunted, beaten, sodomized with an unknown object and then shot in the head.

[159] On 22 October, NTC forces began mop up operations to finish off the last loyalist elements in Sirte, although there did not appear to be any actual clashes taking place, and the fighters were more occupied clearing up the dead bodies of both sides as well as unexploded ordnance.

[163] On 23 October, reflecting its previous statements that it would consider the war to be finished with the capture of Sirte,[164] the NTC declared Libya to be "liberated" and announced plans for a democratic state based on Islamic law.

[165] Within a week after the fall of the city, evidence emerged of mass killings of loyalist prisoners of war and other civilian supporters of Gaddafi's government.