Libyan forces say have captured parts of one of Qaddafi’s last strongholds

Libya’s interim government said on Monday its forces had seized the airport and fort in Sabha, one of the last strongholds of forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi which also controls the main route south out of Libya.

“Our forces are there in the airport and in the castle ... Our flags are flying there,” Ahmed Bani, a military spokesman for the National Transitional Council (NTC), told a news conference in Tripoli. It was not possible to obtain independent confirmation.

Sabha, 770 km (480 miles) south of Tripoli and overlooked by an old fort built by Libya’s former Italian colonial rulers, controls the main trail south to neighboring Niger, an escape route used by members of Qaddafi’s entourage.

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