Anti-Gaddafi fighters yesterday overran the ousted strongman’s birthplace of Qasr Abu Hadi, medics said, marking a symbolic victory in their battle to eradicate the last vestiges of his 42-year rule.

The battlefield success came as Libya’s new rulers announced a minor shake-up of their executive, which is overseeing the country’s transition until an interim government is formed once Col Gaddafi’s remaining bastions of support are subdued.

The changes see the scrapping of the post of deputy head of the executive and the creation of a post of minister of martyrs and victims of the war, said Mustafa Abdel Jalil, who heads the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC).

The current executive chief, Mahmud Jibril, retains his position as de facto interim premier as well as that of foreign minister, Abdel Jalil told a news conference in the former rebel stronghold of Benghazi in the east.

Other key posts are retained, including finance and oil, information and defence, he added.

“We appeal to the Libyan people to be patient because the hour of liberation is near,” Abdel Jalil said.

The capture of Qasr Abu Hadi, where Muammar Gaddafi was reportedly born in a nomad tent in 1942 when it was still a tiny desert hamlet, is the latest in a string of loyalist communities to be mopped up by National Transitional Council troops as they close in on the toppled despot’s die-hard fighters inside Sirte.

Mr Sultan was unable to say whether there were casualties in the fight for Qasr Abu Hadi, but he said two NTC fighters were killed in front line fighting in another part of eastern Sirte yesterday, and six were wounded.

Qasr Abu Hadi prospered under the rule of its most famous son and the surrounding countryside is dotted with large villas in gated compounds.

Most were empty, their occupants fled. But some housed large numbers of families huddled together for safety amid evident fear of retribution from the victorious NTC forces.

Most residents refused to speak and those who did were clearly afraid.

“We are caught in the crossfire. Gaddafi’s men hide in our farms and rebels fire shells from the other side,” one man said, declining to give his name.

“Two days ago, five members of a family in a house next to mine were killed when a rocket struck it. We don’t know who fired that rocket,” said the man, dressed in a traditional dishdasha.