NTC official: 5,000 SAM-7 anti-aircraft missiles missing

Anti-aircraft missiles missing In other developments, the NTC’s General Mohamed Adeyya said that almost 7,000 SAM-7 anti-aircraft missiles from Gaddafi\'s arsenal had  gone missing. Adeyya added during a conference held at a large weapons warehouse and attended by American experts in Benghazi that “Libya purchased around 20,000 SAM-7 anti-aircraft missiles from a Soviet or Bulgarian make. He said that “there are more than 14,000 missiles of this type which were either used or destroyed or became unusable, the majority of were stored in Zintan, southwest of Tripoli.” Adeyya added that “unfortunately, 5,000 of those missiles are missing and may be in the wrong hands of people abroad.” He explained that the international community fears this type of weapon, which is similar to the American missile but is called ‘Stinger’ as it can be used to destroy a small commercial aircraft. The General said that 500 of those were found in the same warehouse but a number of reels destroyed them as reporters watched them do it. Furthermore, rebels destroyed 170 SAM-7 missiles to ‘protect the world from this type of weapon.’ He concluded by saying that “those weapons go back to the 1970s and are considered different compared to weapons that were made nowadays, which does not give them reason to keep those weapons.”
East of Sirte on Sunday, NTC fighters returning from the front said they had captured a neighbourhood in the southwest of the city which was home to many Gaddafi supporters.\"Ninety-five percent of Buhadi is under our control,\" fighter Drisi Mayar said.
\"This was a stronghold of Gaddafi. A lot of his relatives and clan members lived there. There was a small military base. We took control yesterday. We had small clashes but it is under our control.\"
Hundreds of vehicles also streamed out of Sirte on the eastern front during a lull in fighting on Sunday.
One man leaving with his family who gave his name only as Muftah said: \"The situation is absolutely pathetic, especially in the hospitals. We have no
oxygen, no medicines. Wounded people die even before reaching the hospital.
 \"Many people have broken open the pharmacies in the city to bring medicines to the hospital but even that is exhausted now.\"
 Libya\'s Transitional National Council announced a two-day truce to give civilians a chance to escape the besieged city of Sirte, Sky News said citing a TNC leader. National Transitional Council (NTC) forcesclaimed on Saturday they completely encircled Sirte, the hometown of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and the largest settlement still outside the rebel control.
 \"The revolutionaries camping at the frontline of Sirte have given residents two-days to leave the city... this will allow for a large number of civilians to evacuate Sirte,\" TNC leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said
  As military casualties mounted, a rocket killed two children when their family joined the desperate exodus of thousands who have already fled a city suffering from a growing humanitarian crisis.
  The focus of the latest fighting was the Ouagadougou Conference Centre, a showpiece venue where Kadhafi hosted the launch of the African Union, near where a hospital was brought badly needed supplies by the Red Cross.
  A large force of some 100 National Transitional Council (NTC) vehicles, including anti-tank guns and multiple missile launchers, entered the city from the south at around midday (1000 GMT) and circled the compound.
  \"We are surrounding the Ouagadougou Centre,\" fighter Osama Blao told AFP as he returned from the front line.
 Several NTC fighters said the Red Crescent had asked them to stop firing because Red Cross officials were inspecting the nearby hospital.
 Some of the fighters pulled back after two hours of intense clashes, during which loyalist forces used snipers and mortar fire.
 In other news, Venezuela\'s Hugo Chavez said on Saturday he was praying for Libya’s deposed leader Muammar Qaddafi and sent a message of solidarity to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against “Yankee” aggression.
 Chavez – who has inherited Fidel Castro’s mantle as Washington’s main irritant in Latin America – views the wave of uprisings in the Arab world as Western-led destabilization and has been a strong ally of Qaddafi.
 “The Libyans are resisting the invasion and aggression. I ask God to protect the life of our brother Muammar Qaddafi. They’re hunting him down to kill him,” he said.
 The whereabouts of Qaddafi, who ruled the north African nation with an iron fist for more than four decades, are unknown.
 “No one knows where Qaddafi is, I think he went off to the desert ... to lead the resistance. What else can he do?” Chavez told television channel VTV
 The 57-year-old Venezuelan leader has defended Qaddafi since the start of the uprising against his regime, accusing NATO of using the conflict to gain control over Libya’s oil.
 Chavez has refused to recognize Libya’s new interim leadership, ridiculing its U.N. representative, Ibrahim Dabbashi, as a “puppet” and a “dummy.”