Libya's NTC Claims Control of Key City of Sabha

Libya's new rulers said on Wednesday that their fighters have overrun the key southern city of Sabha, one of the last strongholds of forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi.

"We are in complete control of the city of Sabha. Everybody, including (those who were) pro-Gadhafi, are now with the revolution," Abdelmajid Seif Ennasr, an official for the National Transitional Council in Sabha, told Agence France Presse.

He added that the NTC fighters were only encountering "resistance from some individuals here and there."

"Sabha is totally under the control of the revolutionaries," said Mohammed Wardugu, the Benghazi spokesman of the "Desert Shield Brigade" that is fighting in the region.

Sabha, the largest city in the Libyan Desert, is home to 100,000 people and an important military base, making it strategically vital.

On Tuesday, Wardugu said the NTC forces had taken control of the airport and a garrison in Sabha and forced 300 pro-Gadhafi mercenaries to flee before capturing 150 of his loyalists.