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By Alexander Dziadosz
SIRTE, Libya, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Sniper fire flashed out from the defenders of Muammar Gaddafi's hometown Sirte as fighters loyal to the new government seized the airport and ripped down billboards of the fugitive former leader.
Hundreds of soldiers rode into the battle on tanks or pick-ups mounted with guns but by nightfall, pockets of Gaddafi loyalists were still resisting from within the city on Libya's central Mediterranean coast.
Sirte is one of Gaddafi's last, isolated bastions but whether he is there or not is not known.
"The group around Gaddafi, all of them believe that Sirte is powerful. But once it falls, that's it, it's over," said fighter Younes Tarjamon on a road littered with bullet and shell casings.
Earlier in the day, fighters loyal to Libya's new interim government, the National Transitional Council (NTC), exchanged rocket and gunfire with groups of loyalists concealed inside residential areas of the city, which lies 450 km (280 miles) east of Tripoli.
"Gaddafi's troops are between the houses, there are a lot of snipers on the roofs," fighter Mabrook Salem said.
"We attack them with rockets, it makes a lot of damage but it is the best way to control them," he said.
Many Gaddafi supporters had fled the city already.
Scores of armed trucks packed with pro-NTC fighters gathered outside a breeze-block mosque on the edge of Sirte while others sped towards the centre accompanied by four tanks.
Explosions, rapid gunfire and the whoosh of rockets echoed from the city centre and black clouds of smoke curled into the sky above. NATO planes roared overhead.
PRAYERS IN CAPTURED AIRPORT
Battle-hardened pro-NTC fighters, mostly from the port city of Misrata, said they captured Sirte airport with very little resistance and had started using it as a base.
"We've been praying inside, everything, it's all fine," fighter Abdulsalem said outside the airport.
Sirte sits halfway along the coastal desert highway between Benghazi, the seat of the revolution, and Tripoli where the seven-month war reached a climax in August.
Gaddafi lavished money on Sirte, once a sleepy fishing village, turning it into a modern city. Billboards along the highway in Arabic, English and French welcomed visiting African and Arab delegations, the remnants of Gaddafi's efforts to transform the city into a political hub.
"Africa for Africans," read one sign, displaying a green picture of the African continent. A charred, shell-hit truck sat nearby.
"Welcome Arab leaders from the land of all Arabs," another sign read in English along a highway still lined with pro-Gaddafi flags.
Pro-NTC fighters ripped down images from the billboards only to find layer upon layer of Gaddafi slogans, eventually spraying over them with the words "Free Libya!" as they celebrated the end of the strongman's 42 years in power.
"These posters belong to the past, they are gone, it is only Libya now. No more photos of Gaddafi everywhere," said Faisal, a fighter clad in army camouflage gear and sunglasses.
"This is a huge victory for us; this is his headquarters, his birthplace." (Writing by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Angus Macswan)
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