Diehard loyalists of Muammar Gadafy threw rockets, mortars and heavy gunfire at Libyan fighters who pushed into two besieged towns today in a bid to end months of civil war.
The smoke of battle hung over Gadafy's home town of Sirte, on the Mediterranean coast between Tripoli and Benghazi, and Bani Walid, a tribal stronghold in the desert, as the motley forces of the National Transitional Council (NTC) mounted their biggest advances after weeks of stalemate and skirmishing.
But the word coming back from the frontlines on the outskirts of both cities was that fierce defence was not being overcome quickly, nearly four weeks after the rebel coalition overran Tripoli.
Libya's new leaders are getting on with the business of government, trying to impose order on a host of irregular armed forces and restart the oil-based economy.
Their latest foreign visitor was Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan, who hailed the fate of Col Gadafy as an example to Turkey's Syrian neighbour. He also called on the people of Sirte to give up the fight and make peace, though in neither town did that seem imminent.
"It's a very strong resistance," Abusif Ghnyah, a spokesman for the NTC forces at Bani Walid, told reporters watching the battle from high ground. "The most difficult part is the central market, that is where they are firing from."
Anti-Gadafy fighters move forward under mortar, rocket and sniper fire, edging from house to house and sheltering behind walls from shrapnel and bullets.
A faux-ancient castle built for Col Gadafy on a hill in the centre of Bani Walid was also under attack, fighters said. Many of the town's 100,000 residents fled in recent days.
It was also unclear how many civilians remain in Sirte, a sprawling city of a similar size, which Col Gadafy created out of his native village. NTC fighters, who brought up scores of machinegun-mounted pickup trucks and a handful of tanks, spoke of scattered pockets of heavily armed opponents dug in there.
Contact has not been possible with Gadafy loyalists inside the two towns, as well as at Sabha, deep in Libya's southern desert where several senior Gadafy aides have been lately.
Details of developments around Sabha are scant, but a British military spokesman said that British jets had fired about two dozen Brimstone missiles to destroy a group of Libyan armoured vehicles near the desert town yesterday.
Mr Erdogan, visiting a day after the French and British leaders credited by the NTC with rallying support for them, displayed Turkey's Muslim credentials by joining NTC chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil for Friday prayers at the newly renamed Martyrs' Square, once a showcase for Col Gadafy.
Col Gadafy (69), is still at large and commanding loyalty from at least hundreds of armed men, concentrated from Sirte, through Bani Walid and Sabha, creating a corridor in the vast empty spaces of the desert through which members of Col Gadafy's family and senior aides have reached Algeria and Niger.
The new leadership, struggling to maintain unity and restore order as international powers line up to offer aid and seek contracts for oil and reconstruction contracts, says the deposed leader and his sons and aides pose a threat, at the very least of insurgent attacks, and wants to capture their last bastions.
At Bani Walid, truckloads of NTC fighters and columns of pickup trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns had advanced on the town. "We are going in. We finally have the orders," Mohammed Ahmed said, his rifle sticking out of his car window. "God is greatest. God willing, Bani Walid will be free today."
Throughout the morning, there was heavy fighting within Bani Walid, from which many of the 100,000 residents had fled earlier in the week. Black smoke rose overhead and mortars and Grad rockets landed around the government lines outside.
In the northern outskirts, streets were deserted with few civilians in sight. Houses were peppered with bullet holes.
The traditional stronghold of Libya's biggest tribal grouping, Bani Walid's complex mix of loyalties is a proving ground for the ability of the new leadership in Tripoli to hold together a nation whose historic divisions Col Gadafy exploited.
Al Jazeera television said NTC forces had taken Sirte's airport, which lies some 10km south of the city.
Col Gadafy’s spokesman said he had thousands of supporters. "We are telling you that as of tomorrow there will be atrocious attacks by Nato and their agents on the ground on the resisting towns of Sirte, Bani Walid and Sabha," Moussa Ibrahim told Syrian-based Arrai television last night..
The television said 16 people had been killed in Sirte, including women and children, as a result of Nato bombing, and that Gaddafi forces had destroyed a Nato warship and vehicles.
A Nato spokesman dismissed those claims and said its air forces struck military targets, including a tank and several missile systems, but was unaware of any civilian casualties.
"It is clear that Gadafy forces are once again trying to spread rumours, claiming unsubstantiated victories and attempting to terrorise the local population," said Col Roland Lavoie. "The allegation about destroying a Nato warship is ridiculous and quite illustrative of Gadafy's desperate attempts to fabricate positive news."