An armed group loyal to slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Monday launched an attack on a base belonging to former rebels in Bani Walid, a one-time bastion of the former leader, a local official told AFP.

"The compound of thuwars (anti-Gaddafi revolutionaries) is surrounded on all sides by loyalists of Gaddafi who are attacking it with all kinds of weapons," said M'barek Al-Fotmani, a local official who previously was a member of the ruling National Transitional Council in Bani Walid, located 170 kilometres (106 miles) southwest of Tripoli.